Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Bryan Kluger This 1985 action/adventure film is fairly heavy handed and tends to shy away from the ultra violent action movies of the 80s that starred the Stallones, the Schwarzeneggers, or the Lundgrens at the height of their career. Instead, this is more of an episodic film, based on a true story that is more melodramatic in nature with elaborate character development and a big glaring message about industry vs nature. Director John Boorman ('Deliverance', 'Hope and Glory', 'The Exorcist II') chose to film 'The Emerald Forest' on location in the Amazon rainforest, which gives us a beautiful glimpse at the native people, the wildlife, and its surroundings. This is one of Boorman's more direct stories he has put on film and the result is a satisfying look at what parents would do for their children.The first segment of 'The Emerald Forest' has us meeting a chief engineer named Bill (Powers Boothe), who is in the Amazon rainforest with his wife Jean (Meg Foster) and their two very young children. Bill is in charge of overseeing the construction of a giant dam that will restrict the flow of water to parts of the rainforest, which will flatten the land for future industrial and commercial buildings to be constructed. Boorman clearly shows which side he is on as he delicately shows us the beauty and wonder of the trees and animals, whereas the big bad city people are using their big tractors and fire to destroy the beautiful land.Bill and Jean's young son is stolen by an indigenous tribe located in the heart of the forest known as 'The Invisible People', which causes despair for the family. We cut to ten years later where Bill and Jean are still living in Brazil where the dam is almost fully built. They are still trying to repair their broken lives without their son through work and charity. Bill walks with a journalist through the forest and comes across his now grown boy (Charley Boorman) after ten years. and is a contributing member of this new tribe and about to go through some big rituals into full fledged manhood. Bill soon realizes that what was once his son, now belongs to this primitive tribe.The film switches gears and puts this reconnection on the back burner and focuses on another tribe, which is a much more violent people with more advanced weapons than the usual spears and rocks, known as the 'Fierce People', who are about to wage war on the peaceful 'Invisible People'. Meanwhile, the damn construction is nearing completion and the entire group of tribes have to keep moving further deep into the forest to avoid being killed or taken by authorities. And now Bill must make a big decision. Does he help his lost son and his tribe stand up and fight the bad guys and stop the dam, or does he move on, keeping his life's work in tact. It's a pretty powerful story.But Boorman doesn't focus very much on the reconnection or kidnapping of Bill's son, which in my opinion was a very vital and integral part of the story. Not much time is given to the initial kidnapping and quickly fast forwards ten years into the future. And when the reconnection happens between father and son, it should have been a bigger moment, but Boorman focuses on the nature vs industry aspect right away with the construction of the dam and the rival tribes. Then, the last climactic few scenes of the film is a straight up revenge flick where Bill and his son come to respect each other's decision to move on with their separate lives.Both Boothe and Foster turn in great performances as parents who are coping with the lost of one of their kids. Their anger and depression truly shows in their faces and body language throughout. 'The Emerald Forest' is a solid entry into the 80s action adventure category that stands on its own with its originality, despite the lack of hardcore action.

Catharina_Sweden I liked this movie a lot. It began as a story of a lost child and the father's never-ending search for him, and that is of course heart-rendering to all parents. But then it became so much more, not least a statement against the white man's ongoing destruction of the rain-forests - compared to the native Indians sustainable life-style in accord with nature.One got to learn a lot about the native Indians' life in the rain-forests, and this was very interesting... although I cannot help asking, if it was not just a LITTLE bit embellished..? I mean, not every tribe would have such a wise and empathic chief for instance, and I suppose not every father would have accepted a suitor from another race for his daughter, that easily... adopted or not.This movie evoked a lot of thoughts and questions. For instance I asked myself: could I have been happy if I had been abducted by such a tribe when I was a little girl? Would their tribal life, including very early marriages, many child-births and tasks strictly divided between men and women, and sometimes spiced up with magic, have been worse than the life that we modern western women have? When we try to juggle family and career? Provided that life with the tribe would really have been as idyllic as in the movie, I cannot answer that question with a definite "yes" or "no"...

Leofwine_draca THE EMERALD FOREST sees John Boorman returning to the dark heart of the world's wildernesses in this story about native tribes living in the Amazon. Powers Boothe plays an engineer whose son is kidnapped by one such tribe, leading him on a ten-year search for answers.The film works on a double level. First, it stands as a completely adequate action-adventure, with all manner of violent shoot-outs, especially a climactic showdown that brings back memories of hard-hitting '70s greats like ROLLING THUNDER. There's suspense a-plenty, along with strong turns from both Boothe and the director's son.The film's storyline also allows Boorman to explore themes that are clearly close to his heart, namely the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest by greedy developers and loggers, who turn out to be the real villains of the piece. Yes, it sounds like it could be preachy but it never is, thanks to Boorman's skill at handling the material with subtlety and grace.THE EMERALD FOREST is virtually unknown today - I caught it tucked away in a late-night showing - but it doesn't deserve to be; DELIVERANCE is the better known effort but this comes close at frequent intervals.

Chase Fitzgerald The movie the Emerald Forest was a fictional story that was based on a true story. Boorman based his movie of a article that appeared in the Los Angeles Time in the early 1980's which talked about a father whose son was abducted by native tribes and rediscovered ten years later. This may be a true story although there are critics out there who claim that the man made up the story because he wanted attention. The Emerald Forest was a very good film. The Emerald Forest was the first film to bring up the issue of the destruction of the Amazon. The locations are picturesque and Boorman is able to capture the cultural authenticity of the native tribes of the Amazon. What really surprised me was that Boorman did not use actors but went deep into the jungles of Brazil to find real natives to give his a film an authentic feel. This was especially true regarding the Invisible People who Boorman portrayed as a mysterious and elusive tribe which is demonstrated when they are camouflaged in the jungle and manage to stroke Tommy's face with a feather undetected by his family who are only a few feet a away from the Invisible People. That being said although Boorman did capture the authenticity of the native tribes and address the issue of deforestation the storyline was a little dull and cliché. This movie contains all the clichés that other movies have where a white man meets the natives. The first major cliché we can see in the movie is when the white men come they bring with them guns and alcohol and of course they exploit the natives. Another cliché is that as the white men come and development and progress disturbs the native's way of living as well as destroy the rainforest. The final cliché which we see in a lot of movies where natives play a predominant role is that the native lifestyle is portrayed as a sanctuary that sin has never entered. I still believe the film was good and I understand for the most part that is really what happens but Boorman could have made the film a bit more interesting and different and still portray his message. The preservation of the rainforest can easily be identified as the overriding and most obvious theme portrayed in this movie. The concern for maintaining the rainforest is demonstrated through the presumed wisdom we are called to see in the American Indian elders, however; Bill Markham is blind to this wisdom until the end of the movie. A few statistics are also thrown around in the movie concerning the role the Amazon plays in the world and how the white man is destroying it all by bringing industry to the area. The statistics are thrown around in a subtle way for Markham to realize the implications and damage he has caused by building the damn, showing them as being far greater and vaster than he had expected. It was powerful to hear the reporter say that 40 percent of the world's oxygen supply is generated by the rain forests and watch Markham dismiss him because of his ignorance to the real issue. Also, the movie goes on to assert that 5,000 acres of Amazonian rainforest is disappearing every day. This is actually generous. Once Markham realizes the vastness of the problem, the tables had already been turned on him. He too is kidnapped and is rescued by his son "Tomme". This scene was powerful because it shows that the boy had actually become loyal to his kidnappers and what they stand for, not the white man plight for development and industrialization. Through all of Bill's begging and pleading, he wouldn't return back to civilization with his biological father. What does it reveal to his Bill? He finally understands the destruction of life he had contributed to over the past 10 years and tries to undo his wrong by letting a violent thunderstorm destroy the dam they built.