At Play in the Fields of the Lord is shot through with rich, complex irony (two characters, for instance, discuss having Indian blood, but while one is talking about having it in one’s veins, the other is talking about having it on one’s hands). Its main characters, except one whose hypocrisy borders on cognitive dissonance, are torn between perception and reality – struggling in vain to have their thoughts and deeds, their words and actions, meet halfway. Four of them form two couples that are in and of themselves counterintuitive; after all, Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah would make more sense than John Lithgow and Hannah, or Quinn and Kathy Bates. The only pairing that seems to belong together is that of Tom Berenger and Tom Waits. Perhaps the most conflicted of them all is Berenger’s Lewis Moon – a “half-breed Cheyenne” mercenary hired to drop bombs on a native tribe’s village deep in the Brazilian Amazon River basin; he thinks better of it, though, after evangelical missionary Martin Quarrier (Quinn) calls his attention to the similarities between the Plains Indians and the Niarunas (“the Sioux word for ‘Great Spirit’ is ‘Wakantanka,’” and the Niaruna word is ‘Wakankon’ – now, the Niarunas are fictional, but I think the point is valid nonetheless. Having said this, Quinn’s idealistic preacher will later be sorely disappointed when he finds out about the similitude between his own Jesus and the Niarunas’ ‘Kisu’). Moon then goes to live with the Niarunas, but whereas he may have dispensed with the white man, the white woman, specifically Hannah, retains her allure, and a brief exchange of fluids later, Moon introduces the flu into the village; thus, in a perverse twist, he manages to unwittingly find a more subtle and effective means of destroying the Niarunas. The film, co-written and directed by Héctor Babenco, is filled with this sort of poetic paradoxes through which the characters learn the hard way that the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions. PS. Lithgow is excellent as a holier-than-thou prick who views his ministry as a competition with the local catholic priest, and Bates is perfect as a prude who despises the natives almost as much as she loathes herself (few can descend into madness as well as she does), but Quinn (also pretty good elsewhere) is the star of my new all-time favorite movie moment (at least until further notice). It’s a scene with Martin and his child Billy (Niilo Kivirinta, nine years old at the time, in his only credit). Billy’s line is “Why were they doing that?”. I only picked this up the second time I watched the movie, but you can actually hear Quinn saying “Why…”, after which the kid immediately catches on and follows through. Now, not only does Quinn give Kivirinta his cue, but does it almost as if on cue himself (he doesn’t look at the child; instead, he looks over his shoulder, as if gazing outside the shot, in the process accidentally, or as I see it, serendipitously, turning toward the camera, so that we can also see his mouth moving); there is no pause, no benefit of the doubt. Who knows how many takes they did before they finally settled on this fourth wall-breaking solution. The result is a little meta-textual moment wherein the relationship between the characters is solidified through the actors’ interaction – it’s not just the caring father and his beloved son; it goes beyond that, revealing the adult performer looking out for the inexperienced one. I always suspected Quinn to be a hell of a nice guy in real life, and this incident confirms my suspicions; he and Babenco – who already had Pixote and Kiss of the Spider Woman under his belt – risked looking sloppy in order to get through the scene, which they deemed important enough to warrant this slip, and strong enough to survive it.
South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison.
Movie Star Rating : 7.3 Read More
An officer and a woman meet and fall in love during a boat journey but they aren't sure what to do about these feelings.
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
Set in the year 2060, it follows a love story as Tokyo's third Olympics draws near. Takeru Oosawa, who works for the AI Robot Technology Research Lab, is chosen as a member of the national secret project using humanoid robots. With the help of childhood friend and co-worker Youichirou Amano and his sister Saki, Takeru tries his best to reach his objectives. However, the situation changes when Saki's office receives a warning note for terrorism.
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
A decades-spanning tale of love and resilience and of one woman's journey to independence. Celie faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
When things are not going well for John Taylor, he reads his journal and reflects on his missionary life and his companion Elder Alma Johnson. They try to teach people about the gospel and want to give lessons, but the people are not interested. They do teach a lady named Melissa, but does not think she can be baptized. The other missionaries try to make life bearable by having fun and living together. Finally, Melissa learns the lessons of the gospel and knows the church is true and gets baptized.
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River.
Movie Star Rating : 6.5 Read More
A widower is in trouble with money, and has seven daughters to marry. A creditor, a timid suitor, is unable to make up his mind.
Movie Star Rating : 5 Read More
An English widow goes to Italy, falls in love with a dentist's son and marries him, against her straitlaced family's wishes.
Movie Star Rating : 6.5 Read More
Carly heads to a small town to lead a church choir at Christmastime, facing her first holiday season without her mother. While there, she connects with a man back in town after serving in the Army.
Movie Star Rating : 7.7 Read More
A small town teenager in the 1960s believes her dreams of becoming a famous singer will come true when her rock star idol gets stranded in town. But a leak in a nearby chemical plant that is believed to be causing mass mutations threatens to turn her dream into a nightmare.
Movie Star Rating : 6.1 Read More
6 Hours Away 2024 - Movies (Apr 24th)
Food Inc. 2 2023 - Movies (Apr 24th)
Mean Girls 2024 - Movies (Apr 24th)
Civil War 2024 - Movies (Apr 24th)
Hanky Panky 2023 - Movies (Apr 24th)
The Beekeeper 2024 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Munch 2023 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Drive-Away Dolls 2024 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Challengers 2024 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
MR-9 Do or Die 2023 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two 2024 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Accidental Texan 2023 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Exhuma 2024 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Arthur the King 2024 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Monkey Man 2024 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
The Cost 2023 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Dangerous Waters 2023 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Downtown Owl 2023 - Movies (Apr 23rd)
Token Taverns 2023 - Movies (Apr 22nd)
Time Addicts 2023 - Movies (Apr 22nd)
Tigers on the Rise 2024 - Movies (Apr 22nd)
Blood Free - (Apr 24th)
FBI- Most Wanted - (Apr 23rd)
X-Men 97 - (Apr 24th)
Star Wars- The Bad Batch - (Apr 24th)
Grand Cayman- Secrets in Paradise - (Apr 24th)
FBI - (Apr 24th)
The Valley - (Apr 24th)
Vanderpump Rules - (Apr 24th)
Moonshiners- Master Distiller - (Apr 24th)
Under the Bridge - (Apr 24th)
The Big Door Prize - (Apr 24th)
Little People, Big World - (Apr 24th)
Mud Madness - (Apr 24th)
For the Love of Dogs - (Apr 24th)
Accused - (Apr 24th)
Saving Lives at Sea - (Apr 24th)
Michael Palin in Nigeria - (Apr 24th)
Hannity - (Apr 24th)
Gutfeld! - (Apr 24th)
Lopez vs Lopez - (Apr 24th)