Description: From the director of Hope & Glory comes a "wildly ambitious parable [that] transports us to a singularly imaginative realm" (Boxoffice). The Emerald Forest is "an exotic and erotic daymare replete with one lushly enrapturing scene after another" (Daily News)! For ten years, engineer Bill Markham (Powers Boothe) has searched tirelessly for his son Tommy who disappeared from the edge of the Brazilian rainforest. Miraculously, he finds the boy living among the reclusive Amazon tribe who adopted him. And that's when Bill's adventure truly begins. For his son (Charley Boorman) is now a grown tribesman who moves skillfully through this beautiful-but-dangerous terrain, fearful only of those who would exploit it. And as Bill attempts to "rescue" him from the savagery of the untamed jungle, Tommy challenges Bill's idea of true civilization and his notions about who needs rescuing.
Amazon.com: John Boorman's 1985 South American epic never quite gets all of its gears working simultaneously, but it remains an often startling work with an extraordinary performance by the director's own son, Charley Boorman. Powers Boothe plays an American engineer working on a dam project in Brazil. When his young son is seemingly absorbed one day into the dense perils and beauty of the Amazon rain forest, Boothe's character goes on a protracted, 10-year search for him. In the interim, Boorman puts his full storytelling powers to work by characteristically exploring the arcane rhythms and dangers of an indigenous world hidden from ordinary view. Specifically, Boorman leads us into the life of a forest tribe who have assimilated the missing child and who will ultimately send him back with the opposite of his father's pro-development sensibility. The movie is gorgeous to behold, and it's great fun watching Boorman find ever-novel ways of making the same film again and again. But the environmental message and the emotion of the core relationship get in each other's way a bit, preventing the film from uniting on every front. Still, this is a must for Boorman fans. --Tom Keogh
Useful in the search of indigenous identity I've shown this film over and over to indigenous groups in Panama, as it conveys extremely well how the spiritual world of american indians is unknown to western-eurocentric cultures, and taught as "savage" or "un-civilized" to indians who end up convinced that their culture has no value. In a world where indians behold some of the keys to the planet's las chance of survival, this film is a good way to restore indigenous culture's place of honor.
One of My All-Time Favorites! I have loved this movie since it came out. I have yet to order the DVD, but will soon. I have trouble with anyone not seeing the value in this film. Yes, you have to suspend disbelief in order to "get" it. But it is a spectacularly beautiful movie with great acting and many messages for the human soul, including that we are so much more than our technology. I have never tired of watching it in all these years, and doubt that I will in the future. If you have a heart, love nature and believe in the human spirit, you will love this film!
Really, really bad I am astonished at the good reviews this movie received. Not only was this movie unrealistic, but the acting was terrible and the script was awful. I would put it on my list of worst movies ever. I have enjoyed other movies with Powers Boothe, but this was a real stinker.
ELLOS AUN SABEN LO QUE NOSOTROS YA OLVIDAMOS... Un mundo en donde se valora la naturaleza, se respeta la fauna, se cuida la flora, donde el hombre sabe que es parte de un equilibrio natural, su mayor tesoro al cual venera, ama y protege a toda costa...eso es lo que nos enseña la "Gente Invisible", indigenas que viven en la selva misma de Brasil; por otro lado, nosotros, los "Hombres Termita", supuestamente civilizados, dedicandonos a destruir SU MUNDO...NUESTRO MUNDO, tan empecinados en la tecnologia que no nos importa destruir el medio ambiente y aun a costa de exterminar a estas personas que han aprendido a adaptarse tan armoniosamente a su medio natural; tribus indigenas donde se valora a la familia, la pareja, la hermandad, el hogar, las tradiciones y a los ancianos... aun a los que nos dejaron, cosas que en la sociedad de hoy ya ni se toma conciencia debido al estilo de vida agitado de las "civilizaciones"; uno mira esta pelicula y se pregunta: ¿QUIEN ES VERDADERAMENTE EL SALVAJE Y QUIEN ES EL CIVILIZADO?¿Que es mejor, la riqueza y libertad de la selva ("El Centro del Mundo" como ellos le llaman) o La carcel de edificios de concreto (el "Mundo Muerto" como le llaman ellos) a lo que llamamos "progreso"?
UNA PELICULA CON UNA GRAN CONCIENCIA ECOLOGICA Y MENSAJE DE AMOR A NUESTRA TIERRA.
Much on life Taken literally or metaphorically, this is a very beautiful, moving and inspirational film with so many lessons on life.
Anything Goes Trivia
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