The Emerald Forest (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Emerald Forest | |
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| Directed by | John Boorman |
| Produced by | John Boorman Michael Dryhurst Edgar Gross |
| Written by | Rospo Pallenberg |
| Starring | Charley Boorman Powers Boothe Dira Paes Meg Foster |
| Music by | Brian Gascoigne Junior Homrich |
| Cinematography | Philippe Rousselot |
| Release date(s) | 1985 |
| Running time | 110 min |
| Language | English, Portuguese |
| IMDb profile | |
The Emerald Forest is a English language film set in the Brazilian Rainforest. It was directed by John Boorman and written by Rospo Pallenberg.
Based on a true story.
[edit] Synopsis
Powers Boothe plays Bill Markham, a dam engineer who has moved to Brazil with his family to complete the construction of a large hydro-electric dam. The construction of the dam requires large areas of forest to be cleared, even more to be flooded and its completion will bring more people to the areas who will clear the jungle for agriculture and living space.
Markham takes his family to the edge of the forest for a picnic one day, to show them the jungle. It is then that an Indian from one of the indigenous tribes known as the Invisible People notices his son, Tommy, aged seven, has bright green eyes the colour of the forest. The tribesman decides that it is unfair to leave the child with these strange people, who, in his opinion, are destroying the world with their constructions, and abducts the child. Bill Markham pursues them, but his son is gone.
The film then jumps ahead some ten years, and the dam is nearing completion. Tommy, (or Tommé as the tribe call him), now played by Charley Boorman, has become part of the tribe that he lives with, adopting their language, culture and way of life. His father later finds him but discovers that he is not the son he once had. When Tommé's tribe is later threatened by another tribe, and the near completion of the dam, Bill decides to help his son so that the way of life he has adopted is not destroyed.
[edit] Style
The film is clearly motivated by the destruction of the rainforest, but apart from the impact on the environment and the local wildlife, it examines the fact that a way of living which was natural to human beings for many thousands of years is also being destroyed. Scenes exploring the culture and spiritual beliefs of the tribespeople give the viewer an idea of how South American people lived in the times before widespread colonisation.
