Review of The Emerald Forest (1985) by Zane T — 25 Feb 2009

Part 'Apocalypto', part 'The Man Who Would be King', part 'Deliverance'. This is an excellent John Boorman film based on a true story that featrues Powers Boothe ('Sudden Death', 'Extreme Prejudice', 'Tombstone') as an American engineer working on building a dam in Brazil near the Amazon.

His son is kidnapped by some natives and dissapears and grows up with their values. Boothe does not give up the search and a decade passes by, until he ventures deep into the Amazon and meets him again while fleeing a rival tribe who are cannibals and prefer violence.

He spends some time with his son and his tribe and begins have a deeper understanding of his own inner struggles and his son's happiness. The themes underlying the raging conflict between western modernisation and old traditional peaceful value systems are well explored.

The film's pro-environment eco-friendly themes were very well ahead of its time. It was also entertaining to see a subplot involving a local brothel and pimp who rewards some of the members of the cannibal tribe with modern automatic weapons in exchange for women from the peaceful tribe as new recruits for his declining business.

Anyway, the movie is well shot with amazing cinematography. And despite more than half of the film being an ancient dialect and some Portugeese, we never get the feel of being bored and are constantly engaged.