The Emerald Forest

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Plot: 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, Ch...( read more  )arley 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

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• 
  breger23
• 
  popovicbbb
• 
  deflep2000
• 
  josephchaina
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  mpghoul1973
• 
  pramd
• 
  sandrinebf1
• 
  TriguenyaG

• 
  donnarenee2006
  

  MCT:

  July 6, 2008

  Another of John Boorman. His son Charlie Boorman is amazing as the lost son of an architect that is stolen by a hidden Amazon trible. Great movie and great story with amazing graphics and intrigue.

• 
  deflep2000
  

  MCT:

  May 3, 2008

  Starring then 19 year old Charley Boorman. Tells of a story of a boy missing for 10 years in the Amazon forest and raised by the invisible people (tribe)and the fate of the tribe and their home. I really enjoyed this movie.

• 
  hardcourters
  

  MCT:

  December 18, 2007

  Magical and enchanting for the first half hour or so......then you are up the creek without a paddle.

• 
  JasonDennis91786
  

  MCT:

  November 17, 2007

  i put this in the category of tacky porn. emphasis on tacky, not on porn. powers boothe is exactly as good as you expect powers boothe to be in this movie. which is of course awful. outside of a few sweeping forest shots, this film offers nil in the way of a new look at ecology. naked hispanic chicks does not a powerful movie make.

• 
  JBatch
  

  MCT:

  October 4, 2007

  Didnt expect this to jump out and grab me like it did! One of the best movies ive seen in a long time!!

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  oliver9184
  

  MCT:

  September 6, 2007

  One of Boorman's more watchable films: a sort of modern-day Tarzan story with a strong conservational agenda. Good locations and action.

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  joyouskiss
  

  MCT:

  July 26, 2007

  I liked this, I remember seeing it long ago. Forest people and white people who came and cut down the forest, one of the white worker lost his son who went a bit too far from his family into the forest and was snatched away and raised as forest people. The biological father never gave up his search for his son and eventually found him, all grown up with a love of his own. a nice story.

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  TrevorJ72
  

  MCT:

  July 25, 2007

  Don't care what the critics say, this movie was sweeping and powerful. A bit twisted, but a very good viewing.

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  geminipunk
  

  MCT:

  May 28, 2007

  This is a sci-fi movie, so it might not exactly appeal to a lot of people, but seriously, give it a chance. It is a very real, likely story. Not only that, it's based on a real story.

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  broadwaymo
  

  MCT:

  April 22, 2007

  I was blown away by the beauty of the Amazon as depicted in this movie. Excellent performance from Powers Booth as a father looking for his son, Tommy, who was abducted by the people of the jungle at an early age.

• 
  FlatlanderHank
  

  MCT:

  February 19, 2007

  Based on a true story, this is STILL a powerfully-moving film! This is probably the most realistic portrayal of native-life I've ever seen: It isn't overly romanticized, which makes its message even more powerful. It's an incredibly well-done film. Don't miss it. Be warned that it is violent, but that violence is intentional, acting as a grand metophor. What an amazing story!

• 
  elinbergman
  

  MCT:

  January 19, 2007

  This film touched me very much as a kid. I'm still a big environmentalist and the topic is even more urgent today. We have to save our rain forests!

• 
  garyX
  

  MCT:

  January 7, 2007

  Powerful, beautifully shot eco-thriller from John Boorman examining the cultural impact of the commercial exploitation of the rainforests, as seen through the eyes of a boy adopted by an indigenous tribe. Great performances and intelligent eco-message that rarely feels preachy. Good stuff.

• 
  mpghoul1973
  

  MCT:

  December 7, 2006

  Iam a sucker for jungle films and Powers Boothe. Add a master like Boorman and you get this exellent film.

• 
  flynnparadox
  

  MCT:

  September 13, 2006

  It ain't Deliverance, but it'll do. A beautifully shot, frightening movie from master filmmaker Boorman.

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• 
  freedomjames5

  Why does the writer of the plot summary here infuse his personal criticism of the film into the description? I see this a lot on Flixster, and it's unnecessary to do this. There needs to be a more "open source" process to this while maintaining objective descriptions of a movie's plot. Anyway, this movie is great, and unless you're a director or professional filmmaker, then I recommend not laboring to see the movie in a critical light. It's a daring, original film, especially for its time, but also in this time when very few movies exist with real environmental messages. Much of Hollywood is so afraid of sounding preachy and pretentious that they produce unoriginal culture-driven disaster films without a clue as to how it really ties in to environmental issues. This movie does just the opposite of such shallow films that have come out. So check it out.

  posted 372 days ago

• 
  Ariel Coelho
• 
  Charley Boorman
• 
  Charlie Boorman
• 
  Dira Paes
• 
  Dira Pass
• 
  Eduardo Conde
• 
  Estee Chandler
• 
  Mario Borges
• 
  Meg Foster
• 
  Peter Marinker
• 
  Powers Boothe
• 
  William Rodriguez
• 
  Yara Vaneau

• Rated: (R)
• Directed by: John Boorman
• Genres: Action & Adventure, Art House & International, Drama
• Released: July 3, 1985
• DVD Released: February 6, 2001

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