The Emerald Forest

Plot synopsis:
Bill Markham is an engineer who has moved to Brazil with his family to complete the construction of a large hydro-electric dam. The construction requires large areas of forest to be cleared, even more to be flooded. Its completion will bring more people to the areas who will clear the jungle for agriculture and living space.When the film opens, Markham has taken his family to the edge of the forest for a picnic to show them the jungle and the progress of the dam's construction. The site is abuzz with workers and machines cutting and clearing, but is situated right on the edge of a vast expanse of dense and unexplored Amazon terrain. His young son, Tommy, aged seven, wanders from the cleared area to just inside the treeline where he amuses himself by feeding his picnic snacks to the large jungle ants. It is then that an Indian from one of the indigenous tribes known as the Invisible People notices him, and is struck by the boy's blonde hair and bright green eyes, which are the colour of the forest. Tommy sees the tribesman, who smiles warmly at him and speaks softly in his language. Young Tommy then runs out of the treeline to inform Markham that the jungle is full of "smiling people" but his father laughs him off skeptically, telling him he'll be right there to check it out. When Tommy returns to the treeline just ahead of Markham, the tribesman decides that it is unfair to leave the child with these strange people, who, in his opinion, are destroying the world. He abducts the child. As Markham realises his son has just been taken, a warning shot from an unseen archer lands in a tree near his head. Regardless of the arrow, Markham pursues them, calling upon all the nearby construction workers to help. Frantically hacking his way through the undergrowth, Markham comes to a ridge in a clearing that reveals before him an endless valley of dense jungle. His son is gone.The story jumps ahead some ten years. The dam is nearing completion. Tommy, or Tommé as he is now called, has become part of the tribe that he lives with, adopting their language, culture and way of life. The tribesman who took him is revealed to be the chief of the Invisible People, and has taken Tommé for his own son. Tommé is depicted going through rituals of manhood and courtship, becoming involved with a beautiful member of the tribe named Kachiri. After their marriage ceremony, he undergoes a vision quest, where his spirit animal shows him what he must do to help his tribe: retrieve the sacred stones from a remote spot deep in the jungle, at the foot of a waterfall. The sacred stones are essentially a mossy-green clay, out of which the Invisible People make their signature body paint that allows them to blend in so seamlessly with the jungle. The chief of the tribe informs Tommé that the quest will be dangerous, as the Fierce People have moved into the area. The Fierce People are a hostile tribe of cannibal warriors, who ironically had been displaced from their own lands years earlier by the beginning of the dam's construction. They are now coming into uncomfortably close proximity to the Invisible People.Meanwhile, in the years after their son's abduction the Markham family has not given up hope of finding Tommy. Bill's wife Jean is now a social worker, heavily involved with orphans and displaced children. Bill himself has become well versed in tribal Amazonian culture in his search for the elusive people who took his son, to the extent that he has become nearly fluent in a few local Indian dialects. One day Bill hosts a particularly obnoxious journalist who is doing an exploitative piece of the subject of Markham's search among Indian peoples, and the two of them set off for a mission on the river. The only clue Markham has to seek out answers is the arrow that was originally shot at him when his son was abducted. Because of the particular fletching used in the arrow, local Indians on the river are able to identify the tribe that Markham has been seeking, and inform him that he quite unsurprisingly hasn't found them up until this point because they are known as the Invisible People. However, Markham and his journalist companion, whose cynicism and sarcasm concerning indigenous peoples is beginning to wear on him, set off for a likely place along the river where they intend to camp and set off fireworks and bottle rockets to attract the attention of any uncontacted but curious tribes in the region. Unfortunately, the tribe they do stumble upon happens to be the Fierce People, who quickly take them into captivity. Markham, who is armed with a CAR-15 carbine, is able to defend himself adequately and just long enough to have an exchange with the leader of the Fierce People. The chief informs Markham that he admires his tenacity, comparing him to a jaguar, and that after a night's head-start into the jungle he will be hunted at daybreak. The journalist is not so lucky, and is gutted on the spot by the tribe's women. Markham then flees the jeering Fierce People into the jungle, firing bursts from his carbine into the darkness behind him.Shortly after dawn, Markham, in hot pursuit and low on ammunition, stumbles into the foot of a waterfall and sees a young Indian underneath the falls gathering stones. Right before he shoots, the young Indian steps forward toward Markham and is revealed to be Tommé, and the two instantly recognise each other. The moment is shattered when the Fierce People burst from the jungle above and behind them in full force, during which Markham takes an arrow in the shoulder. Tommé and his father fight off the Fierce warriors and manage to escape downriver, but Markham loses his carbine in the process.Back home with the Invisible People, Markham spends time recovering from his injuries and fighting off a fever. He comes to understand his son's transformation and the tribe's way of life, forging a begrudging respect for the chief who took him as a child. Markham himself undergoes a vision quest, discovers his spirit animal, and wakes up back in civilisation having been dropped off by the Invisible People at the edge of the dam's construction zone while he was unconscious.During these events, it is revealed that the chief of the Fierce People has been busy trying to figure out how to work the carbine Markham left behind, which he immediately understands is a formidable weapon. The chief is seen working himself up into a rage whilst stuffing bones and rocks into the firing chamber of the carbine in an increasingly desperate and futile attempt to make it shoot. Later, at a seedy brothel and cantina on the edge of the construction zone, the Fierce People wander from the jungle with the M4 in hand to essentially ask someone from civilisation how to work the thing. Seeing an opportunity, the unscrupulous owners of the brothel manage to communicate to the Fierce People that if they are brought some women (motioning to the adjacent jungle) that they would then give the Fierce warriors all the guns and bullets they wanted.When coming back to their village from taking Markham back home, Tommé and his friends in the tribe discover to their horror that the village has been violently raided, many have been killed and all their young women are missing. It is then discovered that the Fierce People have sold them all to the brothel for rifles and liquor. Tommé and his best friend from the tribe then embark upon a harrowing quest into the city, where he will find his old home according to his childhood memory, and ask his father for help. During the journey, the two tribesmen meet and are helped along by two other young men who are revealed to have been former members of the Bat People tribe, but who now live in the city. Tommé manages to navigate from memory to his parents' multistory condo, which he climbs like a tree. Tommé is seen by his mother during this encounter for the first time in a decade. Markham agrees to help Tommé and his tribe by rescuing all the women from the brothel.Coordinating his attack with the Invisible People to take place at night, while all the members of the Fierce People are wildly drunk outside the building, Markham initiates a shootout in the brothel whilst all the women are sprung from captivity. However, during the attack, several members of the Invisible People are killed, including the chief, Tommé's adopted tribal father. In the aftermath of this event, Tommé becomes chief of the tribe. Markham warns Tommé that the dam, imminently nearing completion, will bring more people, reduce more jungle, and likely end their way of life, but Tommé is obstinate, insisting that the rains will wash the dam away when the frogs sing loudly enough.Soon afterward, during a particularly bad storm, Markham places demolition explosives at key points along the dam, blowing it up during the peak of the rains. With the dam washed away, Tommé and the tribe can live in relative peace for a little while longer.The film ends with Tommé and Kachiri sitting at the swimming hole near their village in the jungle, watching the members of their tribe splash and play. The tribe even includes a few new members in the two young men from the Bat People who had helped Tommé earlier. Tommé and Kachiri laugh together and leisurely speculate on which members of the tribe would make good couples.

Tags: paranormal

Review:
While watching his father direct the construction of a huge dam, Tomme is quickly and silently taken away by a native Brazilian Indian tribe called the Invisibles.
When they see the young boy, they figure he would be better off with them, rather than with the "termite people", the name they give to the white men who seem to devour all the trees.Tomme's father spends the next 10 years trying to find him.This is definitely a thought-provoking movie, but one that is not too heavy handed.
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.
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..
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 .
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 .
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 .
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.
I devoured Rachel Carson, and savored movies like Dances With Wolves and Medicine Man. I even joined Green Peace at the age of 32 and suspect that I am probably the only Republican in history that can make that claim.I would vote that Emerald Forest is the best of all popular eco-message dramas.
We have beautiful cinematography, gritty and memorable acting, a thundering plot that keeps us entertained throughout the movie.Okay, there's the typical "Noble Savage" motif and a rather convenient conflict between two tribes (the Fierce People seemed over-simplistic).
The story grabs you almost from the very start as a young boy, son of Americans, is whisked away from his parents by Amazon rain forest natives.
During that search, and afterward, we are witness to numerous action scenes, really nice jungle photography and just a fascinating story.The cinematography, involving story, no profanity and just plain good adventure all make this movie an entertaining one.
When he brings his son Tommy to the site forest, the boy is abducted by the tribe of the Invisible People and brought to rain forest.
But when Tommy's mate Kachiri (Dira Paes) and the women of his tribe are kidnapped by a gang of white slaves to work in a brothel in the forest, Tommy searches Bill in the big city to help his tribe to rescue the female Indians.
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.
"The Emerald Forest" is a beautiful, somewhat touching tale of a child's abduction by aboriginals, and a diligent ten year search for the missing son by his father.
My favorite quote from this film is the native chief explaining the limitations on his powers to the father of the long-lost boy: "Any chief who doesn't tell his followers what they want to hear doesn't stay chief very long."  Do see this beautiful and poignant movie..
The father now realizes what civilization is doing to the Amazon  forest and finally destroys the dam that threatened  the life of the natives.
I would like to believe that is how it's really done by one or another people in the Amazon, but just don't know.All in all, I did enjoy the movie quite a lot, but mostly for the visual beauty.
This could have been an intelligent and moving film about a man who finds his missing son after 10 years adopted by a native tribe in the amazon.
It seemed to me that the story about the destruction of the rain forest played second fiddle to a drama about the warring factions of the indigenous peoples, although the film does make a connection between the two.
"The Emerald Forest" is definitely the best movie i have watched from John Boorman so far, beautifully shot-ed, with great story and atmosphere.
Photography in this movie is just wonderful, you really have a feeling that your are there in amazonian rain-forests with native uncontacted tribes.
Son of John Boorman, Charley, who is nowdays more known as TV presenter and world traveler done great job portraying boy Tommy or Tomme the main protagonist of this movie, he is so convincing, other cast is also nice especially people who portrayed local native indians, i am not sure that they are really people from tribes or ordinary actors but they have done great job.
It is so sad to see we are destroying amazon and its native peoples, this movie is filmed in 1985 and in that time situation was bad, i can presume just how looks Amazon nowdays, with this degradation Amazon will be no more in 100 years, and for the tribes they will be all destroyed or assimilated in different cultures.
His 7-year-old son is taken by a primitive tribe of Indians and for the next ten years  and whilst carrying on his work as well  he searches through the forest for a trace.
During the last and most disappointing chapter of the film, father and estranged son even join forces to assure the survival of the tribe and the conservation of the rain forest.
One thing I cannot possibly deny  and don't even want to, for that matter  is that "The Emerald Forest" is a ravishingly beautiful movie to look at.
I only hope to find the peace & connectivity with earth and humanity that Tomme did in his tribal assimilation - I'm 34 and it's taken me this long to get to the point where I'm leaving society to go to the jungle and NOT change their way of living - not bring immunizations, clean water, language, or religion and western principles - i'm going to lose western civilization - much like my final nirvana.
You would be hard pressed to find any better looking native girls going around topless and mostly bottomless anywhere( and they actually *hate* wearing western style clothes!-great scene there)This movie is mostly a "Tarzan" adventure about a boy lost in the Amazon(no plug intended) rain forest that was brought up by natives instead of apes.
Usually such proselytizing would make for a pretty boring movie, but Boorman keeps the action lively with cannibals, naked native women, forced prostitution, gunfights, knifefights, spearfights and the like.National Geographic was never like this!.
I thought that the movie was dramatic with heart touching scenes.I would like to see a sequel to this movie.The ending does leave one to wonder what will happen to the Invisible People.Also a story line could be built on the idea that Tomme is now the Chief.A future sequel could show us how the tribe has thrived under the leadership of Tomme.This sequel could also show us Tomme and Kachiri and their family.I would like to see Tomme teaching his children about the traditions that were passed down to him from his adopted father Wanadi..
On the one hand it's a good looking and also clearly professionally made movie with lots of talent involved but it just makes some wrong choices in its storytelling.The movie obviously starts of as a dramatic 'based on true' events movie but soon as the movie starts to progresses it starts taking some obvious 'Hollywood' turns, with its emotions and action and the story becomes more unlikely and clichéd.
(My English isn't excellent , I'm learning it at school)When I saw this movie I understand that, those tribes who live in this forest , were there for thousands years before all others people who live near this forest like the Brazilians and other.
Wow. For all the good/bad messages it sends to me about my environment, "The Edge World" this movie could have done a better job.First off in many scenes, if you listen closely you can hear the actors speaking English (when they are supposed to be talking in some kind of Indian language).
I mean, I'm no expert on Quechua dialects but I very much doubt the indigenous way of saying "I killed a monkey" is "Ah kinned a vunky".It's typical of 80s enthusiasm that those responsible for The Emerald Forest probably thought they were making something profound and hard-hitting, but with hindsight we can look back upon it as every bit as awkward, vaguely offensive and even unintentionally funny as many movies from the generation before it..
As an idealistic kid I saw no flaw in this movie and cheered at the improbable climax where the rains destroy the dam and the captured Indian women throw away their cheap clothes and return to the forest.
John Boorman's The Emerald Forest is the kind of exotic, intoxicating, wildly adventurous, unbelievable and unforgettable film that comes along once in a decade, if that.
Tommy, now a young man and played by the director's son Charley Boorman, has been adopted and raised by the kindly tribe, known as 'The Invisible People' for they way they remain unseen as they move about their home in the forests.
All the mystical stuff is indeed actually down to earth, factual and to be embraced.And this is one particular thing which brings beautiful harmony to The Enchanted Forest - it is not just down to earth because of it's setting, because of good actors and acting or because of a good story - but because it has not been afraid to remain true to another part of life, inherent in the films settings and culture.
Adventurous, beautiful scenery, good acting, good characters, based on true story, unusual spiritual elements, emotional and action plus a good eco message leaving you wishing the whole world would watch it.Enjoy!.
A 10 year old boy named Tommy was taken away from his family at the edge of the forest where his father was working and raised by an Amazon tribe.
Ten years would past before father and son are eventually re-united and the young innocent child is now a fully grown man and an experienced tribesman of the Amazon forest.What I enjoyed about the film was how the young child named Tommy was transformed in to tribesman and hunter Tomm"e" (after a ten year elapsed time is noted) grew in to a man and accepted his new life by the Amazon tribe who abducted him.
When Tomme's father continues to build a bridge over the next several years so that heavy industrial equipment can cross the river and strip away the rain forest trees, the story takes on a different message.
It is now a fight between the Amazon tribesman who are witnessing their land being stripped away by the white man and his heavy machinery to build this monster bridge, and a father's perseverance to find his lost son Tommy and bring him home to his mother.Excellent performances are noted as the actors playing the adult Tomme (Charley Boorman), Tomme's father Bill Markham (Powers Boothe), Jean Markham (Meg Foster) and Tomes' love interest tribeswoman Kachiri (Dira Paes).
John Boorman is an accomplished film maker both as a producer and director whose body of work also includes other highly acclaimed films such as Deliverance (1972) and the Tailor of Panama (2001).The Emerald Forest is an action/adventure story based on some real events which I mentioned earlier.
If you can accept the film as nothing more than an opportunity to escape reality for two hours and vision yourself trying to survive in the dense Amazon forest than I believe you will enjoy director John Boorman's visionary 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.
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.
But all that we remember after seeing this two-hour-long movie is some imaginary Indian tribe (in which all the women seem to be young and beautiful girls) taking hallucinogens and speaking their mumbo jumbo language.
He learns 10 years later that the blonde boy was actually taken by the tribe who call themselves the "invisible people" because with their green-based markings make themselves almost invisible in the Amazon forest.Powers Boothe is the Engineer, Bill Markham.
He never gives up and over the 10-year construction of the dam finally locates his son, who has grown up as a member of the tribe, embracing their ways and his new father and mother.The Tommy of 17 is played by the director's son, Charley Boorman.
An unexpected flood tears down the almost complete dam and that area of the native forest is safe for a while.Good movie, and probably fairly authentic since the director lived with a native tribe for a while to get a feel for their ways.
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.
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.
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.
Tommy is one the most powerful characters in the movie as he successfully serves as a bridge that connects the outside world with the Invisible People.
Ten years later, after an expedition in which he is captured by cannibals, the father is finally reunited with the son, who has been raised by the savages and knows no other way of life.This is a pretty unique picture, even if the roots of the story obviously come from Tarzan, because it manages to be three things at once; an exciting jungle action flick, an intimate family drama and a sobering environmental message movie.
Tommy is taken from his family by an Amazon tribe called "The Invisible Ones" and father Bill spends ten years searching for him.
The dilemma of the piece comes with a decision left up to Tommy, leave his tribe which are essentially his real family after ten years of living with them or joining his father in the modern civilization across the river.The film is more a focus on how modernization, progress if you will, has began to wipe out the trees and land of Amazon tribes as they slowly die out.
He will spend time with The Invisible Ones tribe and find the error of his ways seeing that what he and others(White Man)are doing to people who have lived here for centuries destroying cultures.
Again, through that we see how progress can also destroy a civilization..The Fierce Ones can wipe out who they deem a threat and/or nuisance with advanced weaponry.When The Invisible Ones lose a great deal of their men to those machine gun attacks, Tomme(his name amongst his tribe)will search for his father across the river for help to get back their women who have been traded to a prostitution house.Stunning cinematography(by Philippe Rousselot)and score are highlights of this amazingly shot film set in the Amazon.
The completely comic-book-like sub-plot with the kidnap of women for forced prostitution is right out of a run-of-the-mill action/adventure movie, and not one which is supposed to be so damn "spiritual", and with a "message".I thought it was too much of a coincidence that the "Fierce tribe" learned to use the machine-gun(s) just as Boothe came into the picture (while looking for the son in the rival tribe).
I liked this movie; however, I don't think that many people should be put out of a place to live because there are a few "natives".