At Play in the Fields of the Lord

Oh boy. Here we are. After watching the scene out of context a few weeks ago, we've found ourselves in the indelible position of having to watch this 189-minute epic to cover on the podcast: AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD, Héctor Babenco's  adventure/drama/trauma film from 1991. Don't mistake Ryan's excitement to cover this film purely on the basis of Tom Berenger's visage. We can't stress enough how messed up it is. And to others, there's some other stuff in this film that's about as (if not more) messed up. The evident cultural appropriation is 'baffling' but this is also a tale of modernity encroaching on native civilization and the damage that eventually causes, led squarely by a group of naive, judgmental white Christian missionaries. As you might expect, it doesn't exactly go as everyone hoped. "What were they thinking?", you might be expressing, which would be very appropriate. Trust us, this film is a ride.