Two couple-teams of Protestant missionaries -- the Hubens (Lithgow and Hannah) and the Quarriers (Quinn and Bates) --head for a mission deep in the Amazonian jungle whose Catholic founders were massacred by the local natives years before. Lewis Moon (Berenger), a half-white, half-Native American Indian pilot, is in the neighborhood with his Jewish buddy Wolf (Waits) on a free-lance mercenary job for power interests to scare the locals with a little bombing, but decides to "go native" in the jungle instead. Moon encounters young Andy Huben (Hannah) and the two become fascinated with each other, while Hazel Quarrier (Bates) gradually goes mad from the death of her son and the general hardships of the mission. Argentinian/Brazilian director Hector Babenco teamed with French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere to make this brave 1991 adaptation of Peter Matthiessen's stunning 1965 novel -- with gorgeous location shooting in the Brazilian Amazon. Though nearly everyone does earnest work, this 3-hour plus epic is only partially successful.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus