Editor Reviews:

Amazon.com essential video:
Missionaries travel to the Brazilian rain forest and make a mess of everything. What else is new? Actually, plenty in this dark but beautifully realized adaptation of Peter Matthiessen's well-regarded novel, directed by Hector Babenco. Aidan Quinn, Daryl Hannah, Kathy Bates, and John Lithgow play the Americans who travel to the Brazilian interior in an effort to do some good. But their definitions of good vary wildly; Bates and Lithgow are old-fashioned puritans who want to convert the heathens to Christianity and remove all traces of their own culture. Quinn and Hannah are more spiritually minded, hoping to make a connection and a cultural exchange with the Indians they encounter. In the end, they're all delusional, trapped in their own preconceptions. Downbeat but magical in its way, with sterling performances all around and amazing scenery, to say the least. --Marshall Fine

Rating : - Where Is It?
Where is it? I echo previous reviewers asking why this classic has not been released on DVD. A burnt-out reviewer like Terrence Rafferty (The New Yorker) pans it, but real people who do not live on Manhattan's Upper West Side see virtue in the film. I'm among them and so, happily, is Roger Ebert. Among the many things I like about the film is its portrayal of the wise, patient Catholic priest, who has seen it all yet seems to have retained his faith in a very trying setting and has put his hope where it belongs--in the impenetrable workings of the Holy Spirit.

I also respect and admire the passionate relationship (there's no other word for it) between Moon and Wolfie. Both Berenger and Waits are terrific, but I'd argue Waits steals the show.

The movie aparently cost a bundle and lost money, so the director is ostracized by the moguls. Thank goodness for producers like Saul Zaentz.