Details
Movie Description
Director John Boorman explores the tension between primitive and developed societies in this film starring Powers Boothe as engineer Bill Markham. While working on a dam on the Amazon in Brazil, Bill's son, Tommy (William Rodriquez), disappears while wandering in the forest, presumably kidnapped by Indians. A decade elapses, and the father continues to comb the jungle in search of the missing child, while shepherding the dam to completion. During one such search, Bill is wounded after a showdown with the Fierce People, an Indian tribe led by Jacareh (Claudio Moreno), and is rescued by a blond Indian teenager he recognizes as his son (Charley Boorman). But his joy is dimmed by the engineer's growing awareness that his son is now acculturated to a life as part of his tribe, the Invisible People, and as the husband of his wife, Kachiri (Dira Pass). For him, everything beyond the jungle is now "ghost land." During the absence of the tribe's men, the Fierce People stage a raid on their village, kidnapping their young women, including Kachiri, to sell as go-go dancers and prostitutes for the dam workers. A worthy and intriguing attempt to dramatize the depredations of a supposedly civilized race on the Amazon rainforest, the film is well acted by all, including Boorman's son, Charley, and is graced by Philippe Rousselot's magnificent photography of the Amazon jungle.
Synopsis
In director John Boorman's THE EMERALD FOREST, an American engineer searches for his son, who has been kidnapped by Indians in an Amazonian rain forest. When, at long last, he finds his boy, he discovers that his son has become part of another world--a world which causes him to question his own.
Film Notes
Shot on location in Belem, Para, Brazil.
The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival (out of competition) in May 1985.
Charley Boorman also appears in many of his father's other films, such as DELIVERANCE, EXCALIBUR, HOPE AND GLORY, and BEYOND RANGOON.
Industry Reviews
"...It is the mythic quality that Boorman has invested in THE EMERALD FOREST that makes it so stirring..."
Los Angeles Times - Sheila Benson (07/14/1985)
"...An uncommonly sensual adventure....It was one of the first important credits for the always dependable cinematographer Philippe Rousselot..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (02/16/2001)
"A strange and beautiful adventure in which the director's own DELIVERANCE meets a mystical, green version of THE SEARCHERS."
Uncut - Danny Leigh (04/01/2005)
"Boorman's sweeping drama works on many different levels..."
Sight and Sound - Geoffrey Macnab (05/01/2005)
4 stars out of 5 -- "[Dealing with] issues around the effects of globalisation and industry an the fragile interaction between man and the natural world....[An] adventure with stunning cinematography..."
Empire - Empire Staff (07/01/2008)
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