Watch The Emerald Forest For Free

To me, this movie is perfection.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A lot of fun.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

"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. Rituals of the native tribes really looks convincing. The most i like about this movie is some dreamlike atmosphere, very mystical and spiritual, you also have elements of adventure, drama and even cheesy 80s action but that is not bad thing, also goes well with the movie. The message of the movie is so nice and clear, maybe that uncontacted tribes are living more moral lives than us, and that their souls are clear from all dirty things of modern capitalist life. 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. I really recommend this movie, if you are fan of movie with the message, atmosphere, and even action and adventure this is for you, it is really sad to see that small interest in this one and low grade of 6.9 it deserves 8.

The plot is about a father who is trying to find his son from the jungle where a group of Indians captured the boy when he was just a child. The movie depicts very unconvincingly the life of this isolated Indian tribe with which the boy grows up. In the same time the western world is destroying the nearby jungles - cutting off trees and building a big dam.The story is quite uninteresting and the acting is mediocre at best, horrible at worst. The viewer doesn't relate with the characters at all. There is also a pro-environmental point of view in the movie, but it is left under all kinds of corny non-sense.There are million ways this movie could have been better: the relationship of the son and the father could have been depicted more and better, or the movie could have concentrated more clearly on the environmental issues. 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. If I was Native American, I'd be insulted.The only reason that I watched this movie was because it got good reviews in the local newspaper (this is something I am very disappointed in) and it seems to have gotten quite a good average rating in IMDb.com also (which is unbelievable). It's not the worst movie in the history of cinema, but even with just a little better script, directing and acting it would have been much more enjoyable flick.

Remember the 80s? For some of us, that's now along time ago. I recall "green" issues becoming a hot topic, at least among the Intelligensia. With only 47 reviews, there's little evidence to suggest this film appeals to wider audiences. A sad indictment that green issues are still overlooked.One of the better cinema releases made during that decade (when politics took a sharp turn right) was this technically masterful production. So, I'm surprised Emerald Forest only limps in with a 6.8 rating. I doubt films this well-made would get past the accountants in 2011.Boorman's wonderful films include Excalibur and Deliverance. Here, deep in the Amazonian Jungle, he's at the top of his game. 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). But it's a mainstream movie, so we cannot expect too much. At least Boorman attempted to research Amazonian Tribal Life, so this film does not suffer too much from ignorant stereotyping.A feature of many Boorman Films is the focus on touching relationships. Here, we have two different kinds of "father-son" interaction, Tomme's real determined father and Tomme's wise, tribal one. There's also the Romeo & Juliet style interaction between Tomme and Kachiri (handled sensitively by Boorman). Other more complex relationships are also explored, such as interactions between different tribes, or the exploitative practices of some "western" visitors, whose treatment of the natives is less than fair.The film's a rich tapestry. I still find it breathtaking viewing.

DVD rental from Netflix, the video is very nice, the sound is only Prologic for this older movie.It is best to say this movie was "inspired by" real events, but certainly does not closely represent what actually happened when an US Engineer in charge of building a dam in the Amazon lost his young son who was about 7 at the time. 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. His tribe calls him "Tomme" which is derived from his birth name. Tomme has reached the age where he must go through the ritual to become a man, then take a young girl as his wife. His chosen one is pretty Dira Paes as Kachiri, a resident of the neighboring friendly tribe. Dira was just an ordinary girl who grew up in the Amazon, and according to her IMDb information was about 15 during filming in this, her first movie. I see she has gone on to a nice acting career, and photos show she grew into a very attractive woman. She has a great smile and reminds me of Jennifer Lopez.The drama starts when owners of a brothel bargain with some hostile natives, known as the "fierce people". For a machine gun and ammunition, if they will bring in some new young ladies. They end up raiding the village, killing some, and kidnapping a dozen or so young ladies, including Kachiri, and forcing them into prostitution. Tomme searches for and finds his original dad again, to get his help to defeat the fierce people and get their women back. Another interest is conservation of the rain forest, and in the end Tomme prays for frogs, because when the frogs sing it rains. 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. There is of course a lot of natural nudity, but it seems authentic rather than erotic. Much like what is in "The Bounty" with Mel Gibson.