Der Smaragdwald

Touching, well-paced, sad, uplifting, absorbing. Good acting, good writing. Lots of meaning, lots of symbolism, but never in your face, never tiring. Mystical stuff that's presented well and believably. A movie at once so ambitious and so real and so well-done...there just aren't very many in its league. Action, love, adventure, drama, striking images, succinct dialog. Amazing.

Ecological thriller that has in highlighting the destruction of the South American rain woods ; being based upon a real story and filmmaker John Boorman cast his own son , Charley Boorman , in the starring character . Bill Markham(Powers Boothe) moves his family to Brazil where has a job as an engineer in construction a dam project . After the son (Charley Boorman) of engineer is abducted by an aboriginal tribe on the edge of the rain forest, the engineer and his wife (Meg Foster) spend the next 10 years searching for him . Ultimately Markham is captured by a cannibal and bloodthirsty tribe and ironically rescued by "Tomme," who only has dim memories of his biological dad . The teenager spends the next years living under jungle law and integrating an alternative lifestyle . Finally , the father discovering a happily adjusted boy who may not want to go back to so-called civilization . Although Bill wants desperately to have his son accompany him back to civilization, "Tomme's" loyalties now belong to "The Invisible People." The rain forest of the Amazon are disappearing at the rate of 5000 acres day . Four million Indians once lives there , 120.000 remain.

An ecological adventure with mystical touches that was ahead of its time in denounce about forest destruction . This exciting film contains thrills , emotion , adventure and action scenes of infighting between violent rival tribes that generate a lot of entertainment . Inspired by an uncredited story about a Peruvian whose son disappeared under similar circumstances . According to director John Boorman's book 'Money Into Light', his initial choice for the part of Tomme was C. Thomas Howell. When he was unavailable, John decided to use his own son Charley for the part. He plays a boy grabbed by tribesmen whose community is facing disappearance because of the building of a massive dam designed and built by his daddy . Glamorous and lush cinematography by Philippe Rousselot who photographs wonderfully the Amazon jungle , obviously filmed under difficult conditions on location .

This engrossing and enjoyable film with interesting screenplay by Rosco Pallenberg was well directed by John Boorman . He's a good professional filmmaking from the 6os , though sparsely scattered and giving various classics . John started as an assistant direction and his friendship with Lee Marvin allowed him to work in Hollywood as ¨Point Blank¨ (1967) and ¨Hell in the Pacific¨ (1968) from where he returned to the UK and directed ¨Leo¨ (1970) , a rare Sci-Fi titled ¨Zardoz¨ (1974) or the ¨failure Exorcist II¨ (1977). His films are without exception among the most exciting visually in the modern cinema . He became famous for Excalibur (1981), the best of them , ¨Emerald forest¨ (1985) with a ecologist denounce included and his autobiographic story ¨Hope and Glory¨ (1987) and which brought him another Academy Award Nomination after ¨Deliverance¨ . Rating ¨Emerald forest¨: Better than average . Wholesome watching .

The Emerald Forest is an excellent jungle adventure which is based on a true story.

A young boy is kidnapped by a tribe in the Amazon known as the Invisible People. His dad (Powers Boothe) then spends 10 years searching for him and eventually succeeds, but only by chance. He decides to stay with the tribe rather than go back to his original family.

Boothe's son when grown up is played by the director's son, Charley Boorman and does a great job playing the part. This movie gives you an idea on what it would be like living in the Amazon. Excellent scenery makes the movie better still. It was shot on location in the Amazon.

I have seen this movie a couple of times and enjoyed very much. Watch it if you get the chance.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

Certainly the best of Boorman. After seeing again Deliverance, which was thrilling when it was first released, and Excalibur, poetical, Wagnerian but a little bit out of date (regarding the shining 70's fake armors), Emerald Forest deepens philosophy and ethnology. Very profound and touching, very good acting, excellent photography, technically superb, there's nothing to really complain about. It hasn't aged at all and probably won't. I gave it a 10 because I do not see anything to improve. In our sad new era of ethnological destruction, where there's no place anymore for the Aborigene or any other tribal culture, this movie gives a little hope, a little reverie of seeing things turning in the right direction thanks to ancient magic. How vain but how beautiful!

I like to watch in pairs, and this was paired with Herzog's "Green Ants Dream."

The central character here is a teen, played by the director's son, who is kidnapped by Amazonian Indians at six and raised in nature. There are threats, adventures, encounters with "civilization." They provide the focus of the energy in this thing. Its all about that energy which we take from the juice of adolescence, perceive as the energy of an action movie and conflate (as we are intended to) with the natural richness of the rainforest.

Its a simple trick, but by gosh it works. Why is not a mystery: the teen drive is transformed into something pure here, done so by the actresses who play the teen Indian girls, lovely, and effectively nude. In order to underscore the point, the plot has them (importantly, as a group) kidnapped into civilization as a the complement of the original kidnapping. But the purpose here is prostitution.

When someone knows what they are doing and delivers the goods, its always a remarkable thing. The narrative engineering conveys the lack of engineering, and makes us desire the purity of encountering things without artifice.

Conveying this notion is then mixed with a completely unrelated message about the destruction of the rainforest and its central importance to the global ecology. Its rather dishonest, this, but because its such a noble cause we let it slip. But its a shame. In their defense, the acknowledge that just being native doesn't endow goodness: there is an "evil" tribe. Part of the tragedy is not shown: natives everywhere in the world aggressively damage the environment as much as their capabilities allow.

The perfect delicacy of this puts "Apocalypto" to shame.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.