The grand canonical Monte Carlo technique is used to calculate the solvation force and interfacial tension in a simple Lennard-Jones fluid confined between two solid walls. Emphasis is placed on large wall-to-wall separations, where the oscillations of density and solvation force due to layering effects have decayed. Despite the short range of the fluid-fluid and fluid-wall interaction potentials used, the solvation force shows an unsuspectedly long-ranged behavior, remaining quite perceptible up to a separation of 100 molecular diameters. It is also found that the sign of the solvation force at large separations is not uniquely determined by the sign of the interfacial tension: The walls that are "philic" with respect to the constrained fluid may well exhibit both repulsive and attractive solvation forces. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.