The Emerald Forest

Starring:Powers Boothe, Meg Foster, Yara Vaneau, William Rodriguez, Estee Chandler, Charley Boorman, Dira Paes, Eduardo Conde, Ariel Coelho, Peter Marinker, Mario Borges, Ãtila IÃ³rio, Gabriel Archanjo, Gracindo JÃºnior, Arthur Muhlenberg, Chico Terto, Ruy Polanah, Maria Helena Velasco, Tetchie Agbayani, Paulo Vinicius
Director: John Boorman
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

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

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.

Customer Reviews:

Much on life.......2007-03-28

Taken literally or metaphorically, this is a very beautiful, moving and inspirational film with so many lessons on life.

Awesome.......2007-02-21

Well made, true story film. Action, drama, heartstrings, suspense and more. Amazingly done!

Emerald Forest Illustration for La Ciudad de las Bestias.......2007-01-19

As a teacher of a University in High School course, I was amazed at the ability to use the Emerald Forest as illustration for the story La Ciudad de las Bestias, by Isabel Allende. The customs, living conditions and beliefs of indigenous people of the Amazon (the setting of her story), are helpful in understanding the culture alluded to in the novel. The only problem for use in certain venues might be that it is rated R. The natural magazine/channel display of lack of dress of the natives might make showing of the movie prohibitive in some circumstances.

A Masterpiece - A Story Well Told..........2006-11-02

For YEARS I looked for this movie after seeing it on the big screen. Couldn't find it. Then one year I came across an old rental being sold and bought it. Many years later, I found a bunch of old copies on eBay.

This movie was structured so well that I wanted it in my collection from day 1. I LOVE this movie - and how well the story is crafted. I've told all my friends about it for years.

If you like a well crafted story, a good story, get this one. They don't make them like this often.

Lush, mesmerizing action.......2006-10-27

After watching this film for the past twenty years, I'll admit that I still have not grown tired of it. John Boorman's direction, true-to-the-heart performances, and the vivid photography--capturing the deepest beauty of the Amazon--combine together to make this all-too-real adventure as mesmerizing as it is. Powers Boothe plays a development engineer located in South America, with wife and children in tow, whose 10 year old son, Tommy, is abducted by a tribe of Amazon warriors. Boothe ensues on a 10 year hunt for Tommy, who has now acclimated to a whole new way of life. Wonderful combination of action, adventure, and even elements of drama. Give this quiet, underrated picture a watch.

Average customer rating:

Much on life
Awesome
Emerald Forest Illustration for La Ciudad de las Bestias
A Masterpiece - A Story Well Told...
Lush, mesmerizing action

The Emerald Forest [Region 2]
Starring: Powers Boothe , Meg Foster , Yara Vaneau , William Rodriguez , and Estee Chandler
Director: John Boorman
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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