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Based on the Novel by Peter Matthiessen
The setting of AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD is the Amazon rain forest. The principal characters are two American soldiers of fortune, four fundamentalist missionaries, and the primitive Niaruna Indians. The story develops as the main characters clash in a fanatical conflict over the fate of the Niaruna and how no one can emerge unchanged by their Amazon experience.
A one engine aircraft used for 'small wars and demolitions' lands in Mae de Deus (Mother of God), an ironically named outpost in one of the most remote backwater tributaries of the Amazon's rain forest. The two soldiers of fortune piloting the plane are Lewis Moon (TOM BERENGER), a half-Cheyenne Indian, and Wolf (TOM WAITS).
The town's local governing functionary, Commandante Guzman, refuses their request for gas and confiscates the pilot's passports and the plane's papers which will be returned for a small service - they have to bomb the Niaruna Indians, a primitive tribe whose land is coveted for economic reasons.
Wolf and Moon are consoled with liquor and willing prostitutes at Guzman's seedy Hotel Anaconda where they meet a fundamentalist missionary couple - the rigid Leslie Huben (JOHN LITHGOW) and his wife Andy Huben (DARYL HANNAH). Leslie's pointed disapproval of the Catholic "opposition" - Father Xantes (NELSON XAVIER).
Another American missionary couple arrive with their young son to join the Hubens in their evangelical efforts. Martin Quarrier (AIDAN QUINN) combines genuine religious feeling with sympathy for the plight of the Indians and a fascination for their language and culture. His wife Hazel (KATHY BATES) is as unyielding as Leslie Huben concerning her religion.
Despite Martin's fervent attempt to dissuade Moon from bombing the Niaruna, Moon and Wolf leave Mae de Deus the next morning. On the bombing run they fly low over the Niaruna village, a small brown dot in the vastness of the rain forest. Seeing a young tribesman shoot an arrow at the plane, Moon undergoes a dramatic transformation marked by a profound feeling of kinship and identification with the Indians. Despite Wolf's knife-wielding protest, Moon returns to Mae de Deus without bombing the village.
PRODUCTION NOTES
At a budget of $36 million AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD was shot entirely on location in the Amazon rain forest.
While all camera and sound gear was shipped to Belem, near the mouth of the Amazon, from the United States by air, the electrical equipment and generator trucks came by sea via Houston to Rio de Janeiro. From Rio a caravan with an armed escort of a dozen vehicles escorted the generator trucks to Belem. The journey was necessarily made during the dry season roads impassable otherwise and took seven days from Rio to Belem, 1,200 miles away. Weather, and the daily tropical downpours, were a difficult obstacle for cast, crew and equipment. Just south of the equator daily temperatures in Belem were close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity usually as high.
Hector Babenco, Jean-Claude Carriere and Saul Zaentz scouted locations a full year before filming was scheduled to begin visiting areas of Brazil seldom seen because of their remoteness and inaccessibility. There were 151 days of filming in Brazil, six days a week from June 18, 1990.
Traveling do Mae de Deus, the Mission and the Indian maloca locations required, at the least, transportatiion via car, boat and plane. The cast and crew lived on a riverboat for nearly ten weeks during the filming of the Mission scenes, the location farthest from Belem, and it was during this period that the airstrip at Mae de Deus became unfit for landings - the rain forest had reclaimed it.
The three major locations: the town of Mae de Deus (Mother of God), with an airstrip; the Mission; and the maloca Indian village, were built from scratch.
Two Indian malocas were built, the second in case its destruction, necessary for the film, went awry. Each location required a support system that resembled an army base to feed, house, clothe and provide medical attention for from 200 to 400 people a day. Water wells had to be dug and a professional "snake-wrangler' was employed to protect the cast and crew from deadly reptiles. Two doctors and several nurses were on call 24 hours a day. Rehearsal halls were constructed. Eleven boats, many cars and trucks, two airplanes and one helicopter were required for these operations.
Absolute authenticity was the keynote. Everything made for the film - the malocas, artifacts, costumes, houses - were all built by the Indians months before filming began and in strict accordance with their tribal traditions.
No stock shots or digital special effects were employed for the aerial footage which was filmed entirely from a helicopter or the two-seater actually seen in the film.
Ninety percent of the 200 extras cast for the various Amazon Indian tribes were members of eleven different tribes. They were recent emigres to the cities but still clung to their tribal ways though all spoke Portuguese. The other ten percent who came to the movie from other forest tribes spoke their own Indian dialect. Three months before shooting began they were rigorously rehearsed in dance, music and expression by two Brazilian acting and movement coaches, Maria Fatima de Toledo and Julia Pascale. Composer/musician Marlui Miranda created the Niaruna language and rehearsed cast and extras to achieve the authenticity that is the keystone of the film.
Credits
Filmed Entirely on location in Amazonia
The Cast
Lewis Moon - TOM BERENGER
Leslie Huben - JOHN LITHGOW
Andy Huben - DARYL HANNAH
Martin Quarrier - AIDAN QUINN
Wolf - TOM WAITS
Hazel Quarrier - KATHY BATES
Boronai - STENIO GARCIA
Father Xantes - NELSON XAVIER
Commandante Guzman - JOSE DUMONT
Billy Quarrier - NIILO KIVIRINTA
Aeore - S. YRIWANA KARAJA
Uyuyu - JOSE RENATO LANA
Kori - RUI POLANAH
Tukanu - CARLOS XAVANTE
Pindi - IONE MACHADO
Taweeda - EDWIRGES RIBEIRO
Mutu - MUTAHI PATAXO
Associate Producer - Saul Zaentz
First Assistant Director - Steve Andrews
Key Second Assistant Director - Philip Patterson
American Cast Costumes - Aggie Guerard Rodgers
United States Casting - Dianne Crittenden
Brazil Casting - Graça Motta / Jose Augusto de Souza
Assistant Casting United States - Joy Dickson
Assistant Casting Brazil - Rui Nobre Brito / Rene Silber/ Isabel Diegues / Antonio Padilha
Extras Casting - Jose Luis Bello / Marriba Knez
Assistant to the Producer - Nancy Eichler
First Camera Crew
Camera Operator - Alexandre Fonseca
Focus Puller - Marcos Avelar
Camera Loader - Kate Dennis
Camera Assistant - Katia Coelho
Steadicam Operator - Larry McConkey
Video Playback - Vicente Kubrusly
Second Unit Crew
Director - Roberto Gervitz
Director of Photography - Pedro Farkas
Camera Assistant - Maritza Caneca
Aerial Unit Crew
Director - David Jones
Assistant Director - Edgard Moura
Unit Manager - Manuele Franceschini
Assistant Unit Manager - Andrez Castilho
Production Assistant - Elizabeth Baralt
Wescam Technician - David Norris
Air/Ground Coordinators - Laura Smith, Brazil / Henry Urgoiti, Venezuela
Pilots - David Jones / Peter McKernan / Dirk Vahle
Flight Mechanics - Timothy McGraw / John Bentley Jr.
Aerial Unit Photography
Director of Photography - Stan McClain
Camera Assistant - Eric Jones
Parachutist Jumps Performed by - Marcos Pettena / Ronaldo Fagundes / Ricardo Pettena
Art Directors - Marlise Storchi / Antonio Vanzolini / Roberto Mainieri
Assistant Art Directors - Maria Helena Alvarenga / Eugenio Vieira / Felipe Tassara / Helena Pessoa
Assistant to Clovis Bueno - Vera Hamburger
Niaruna Language Creator - Marlui Miranda
Comissão para Criação do Parque Indigena Yanomami
Conselho Nacional do Cinema
Fundação Nacional do Indio
Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Abiente
Ministério das Relaçäes Exteriores
Museu da Image e Som, São Paulo
Dr. Altamiro Boscoli
The Completion Bond Company
Bank of America NT & SA, Century City Commercial Banking
Paperback Version of ÉAt Play in the Fields of the Lord» Available from Vintage Books
Soundtrack Recording Available on Fantasy Compact Discs and Tapes.
Motion Picture Association of America n§ 31490
c 1991 The Saul Zaentz Company. All Rights Reserved.
The story, all names, characters and incidents portrayed in this film are fictitious. No identification with or similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is intended or should be inferred.
Ownership of this motion picture and the music therein is protected by copyright and other applicable laws, and any unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition of this motion picture could result in criminal prosecution as well as civil liability.
All film editing, sound editing and Dolby Stereo mix completed at The Saul Zaentz Film Center, Berkeley, California.
Films and Awards
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