Uncle Scoopy's Fun House

As I promised last week, this contribution will be more idyllic. See, recently the film "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" (1991) aired in a full screen version on one of our 2 Flemish public TV channels. This is, as you probably all know, a nice opportunity to take a closer look at Daryl Hannah. There is only one downside though, I had to record it from analog cable and even when no-one is watching the TV it never reaches digital quality. Those channels are available digitally but you need a settop box which costs around 170 euros. I find that bit overpriced for just 2 TV stations and 6 radio channels. But I digress. Still the clips didn't come out too shabby, even if I say so myself.

As for the movie, it deals with four American evangelical missionaries, one of whom is Daryl Hannah, who come to the Amazon to try to convert a native tribe to Christianity after the Catholics already tried in vain. Compared to these evangelicals, the local Catholic priest seems like a moderate. Then there's also an American Indian (Tom Berenger!) who teams up with the local Indians. And that's about the whole story. Oh sure, there's also the local bad guy who manipulates our four naive do-gooders to get his hands on the gold on the natives' land. Apparently it suits his purposes for the natives to be converted to Christianity, so that they would leave their grounds. No explanation is given as to why these people would leave their land once converted ! Ultimately this logical gap doesn't matter, since the bad guy loses his patience with the whole missionary process and decides to drive the natives out in a more direct manner - by throwing explosives on their village from a helicopter. One wonders why he didn't just do that in the first place. It's much quicker and he can get away with it.

After about two hours in this movie and for no apparent reason, Daryl Hannah's faith starts to falter for a moment when she goes skinny-dipping in the river and Tom Berenger catches up on her. At first she's scared, but then she kisses him, and in the end runs off home, staying faithful to her husband. No big surprises there either. Kathy Bates goes berserk in the buff for about 30 seconds after her little boy dies, so her nude scene is fairly gratuitous too.

Not that I mind in Daryl's case.

The message this film seems to deliver is that westerners should stay out of the Amazon and leave the native people alone instead of bringing them diseases and a god they don't need . So far, so good. But the end contradicts that. As long as the westerners were there, the local tyrant was kept at a distance. He only interfered when the missionaries informed him that they failed. So what should we do in the future? Interfere or not?

At 180 minutes this movie is way overlong and keeps vacillating between being a documentary and a drama, without ever making up its mind. All the characters are one-dimensional, and there is really no-one you can root for. Only Billy, Kathy Bates little boy in this flick, is sympathetic and he dies about half way through the film. The dialogue lacks any depth and consists mostly of clichés. Some scenes go on forever, and while the photography is good, it is nothing spectacular. Despite these flaws the actors held themselves together and delivered solid performances. I would rate this film as C-, possibly D, on our rating system.

So, fellow Fun House readers, enjoy these caps and clips of Daryl Hannah wearing nothing at all, not even her red-cross eye-patch (for those who don't know what I mean, please watch Kill Bill Vol. 1). And for those who like their women meatier, there's a clip of Kathy Bates's nude scene as well.

Nudity report: Daryl Hannah and Kathy Bates show everything, as do Tom Berenger and Bates's little boy when he plays with the native children who also run around naked. The adult natives from all ages and sizes aren't wearing much either, but they never show lower frontal nudity.

That's all for now, hope to be back soon.

Yours faithfully,

ICMS

SCOOP's NOTE: This is a great treat!!! The quality is fine, and ICMS captured the full-frame version of the scenes, which exposes lots more of Daryl's blonde pubes than a widescreen theatrical version.. Check out collages #4 and #8 for a quick overview.

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