film 3 and a half out of 4 stars. In his review, Ebert makes the case that producer Saul Zaentz has a history of producing "unfilmable" source material. He wrote, "Watching it, we are looking at a morality play about a world in which sincere people create unwitting mischief so that evil people can have their way. The movie essentially argues that all peoples have a right to worship their own gods without interference, but it goes further to observe that if your god lives in the land and the trees, then if we destroy your land, we kill your god. These messages are buried in the very fabric of the film, in the way it was shot, in its use of locations, and we are not told them, we absorb them." Vincent Canby of The New York Times had mixed feelings about the film but did like the acting and the screenplay, and wrote, "At Play in the Fields of the Lord doesn't play smoothly, but it often plays well ... Mr. Lithgow and Miss Hannah, who grows more secure as an actress with every film, are fine in complex roles that are exceptionally well written ... Though the film features a spectacular penultimate sequence, it seems not to know how to end. It sort of drifts away, perhaps trying to soften its own well-earned pessimism." Critic Jeffrey Westhoff writing for Northwest Herald expressed dislike for the film, stating, "Some books should remain books." Awards Wins Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards: 1991 LAFCA Award; Best Music, Zbigniew Preisner Nominations Golden Globe: Golden Globe; Best Original Score — Motion Picture, Zbigniew Preisner; 1991 References External links Interview Lauro Escorel interview (cinematographer), August 26, 1991, at the Internet Archive (1:22m) 1991 films 1990s adventure drama films American adventure drama films 1990s English-language films Films about Christianity Films about hunter-gatherers Films based on American novels Films directed by Héctor Babenco Films scored by Zbigniew Preisner Films shot in Belém Indigenous cinema in Latin America Universal Pictures films Films set in Venezuela Films produced by Saul Zaentz Films with screenplays by Jean-Claude Carrière 1991 drama films 1990s American films