THE EMERALD FOREST
UK, 1985, 104 minutes, Colour.
Powers Boothe, Charlie Boorman, Meg Foster.
Directed by John Boorman.
The Emerald Forest is directed by John Boorman (Point Blank, Deliverance - which this film in some ways resembles, Zardoz, Excalibur). It is based on a true story and was filmed in Amazon locations. The colour photography is striking.
Powers Booth (who acted as Jim Jones in films about the Jonestown massacre) is an engineer whose son disappears with the Amazon Indians. He discovers him ten years later when the boy has been assimilated into the tribe and its way of life. The dilemma is about his return or his staying with the tribe. The boy is portrayed by the director's son, Charley Boorman.
The film has echoes of the Tarzan story, of Greystoke. It is a blend of realism and myth-making - with explicit conservation message at the end. Critics were divided about the film - some feeling that it was too self-conscious in its message and too matinee-style in its presentation of the adventures, others feeling that the film created an atmosphere and provided a symbol for reflection on human response towards nature and so-called primitive peoples.
1. The impact of the film? Based on a true story? Realistic,
symbolic? A message adventure?
2. The atmosphere of Brazil and the Amazon: the cities, the rivers, forests, the areas cleared, the building of huge dams? The primitive area: flora and fauna? The Indians of the area and their lifestyle? Beauty, landscapes, savagery? An old world and a new? The musical score: local music and styles, exotic, the contrast with modern American style? The choreography for the rituals? Action sequences and stunts? Special effects? A visual and physical experience?
3. The purpose of the film: to tell the story, to dramatise the people, the experience? To contrast the new and the old world? A myth about the Centre of the World, the Edge of the World? The encroaching of modernity and technology? The focus on names for the peoples: The Termite People, The Fierce People, The Bat People, The Invisible People? The contrast between progress and allegedly primitive lifestyles? The exploitation of nature? The focus on the primitive tribes - and the comment on what more civilised people have forgotten? The conservation of values, of forests, of people?
4. The success of the film as a human and emotional story? Of a family, their sorrow, their search? Tommy and his new life, absorbed into the tribe. becoming one of the Invisible People and sharing their values, behaviour, vision? A story of suffering, reconciliation, help?
5. The success of the film as an adventure: the boy and his becoming part of the life of the tribe, his initiation. quests, battles, exploits, his journey and ultimate achievement?
6. The title and its focus, the shadings of green, the beauty of the forest and the jungle, the invisible people and their use of the green stones and pigments, a people invisible in the forest, one with the forest?
7. The opening and the presentation of the Markham family? In the new city, the skyscraper and their apartment. Tommy and his wandering, the carnival and his curiosity. his eagerness, the contrast with Heather and her quiet? The car journey to the dam site? Bill and Jean as parents, husband and wife, their love for their children, the trip, the contract to build the dam, Bill and his engineering skills, the prospect of the next ten years and the children growing up in Brazil? Tommy and his eagerness, exploration, disappearing and being found, disappearing finally - and the chief's later comment 'He smiled, he had to be saved'? The anxiety of the Markhams, searching for Tommy, his disappearance?
8. The passing of ten years: Jean and her work for the orphans (the crowds of orphans, the Indians transferred to the city, the possibility of finding Tommy)? Hopes? Bill and the completing of the dam, his research about the Indian tribes, the artefacts that he had collected? Contacts with journalists? The leads and information? The preparations for another expedition?
9. The expedition, the rigours of the journey, the boats, the camp? Isolation? The encounter with the Fierce People? The journalist taking photos, his being attacked, his death? The attack on Bill, his using the machine gun, their giving him time to escape, his being pursued, his using the gun, his being rescued by Tommy?
10. Tommy and his place in the tribe, his consideration of the chief and his wife as his mother and father, his expertise in the lore and skills? The expedition, the hunting and killing of the monkey, his rejoicing and return, his place in the camp, playing with the girls? Transition from boy to man? The statement that the boy was dead? The initiation rite, his being tied, the ants, the trance and the drugs, his discovering that his animal was the eagle, the dream flights, the finding of the locations for the stones. his quest for the stones. his expedition. success? The encounter with the Fierce People? Rescuing his father? Recognising him as the Daddee of his dreams? Bringing him home, the welcome, the healing? Tommy’s marriage - and the literal clubbing of his fiancee? The ritual and Daddee being present? His life, his future? The decision to stay with the tribe, the farewell to his father?
11. Bill and the experience of being rescued. the details of the healing. the rituals. the drugs for his animal - the leopard? Its aggressiveness and his waking from dream? His regrets. seeing his boy grown up, the discussions with the chief as to what had happened, his beginning to understand, his new perspective on his own work? His accepting that Tommy should stay, his return, the reconciliation with Jean?
12. The portrait of the Fierce People, the reaction to the guns, going to the outpost, bartering for the guns, capturing the girls, the squalid modernity, the raid on the Invisible People and the grief, the taking of the girls as slaves, their being trapped, bewildered, used for sex? The Fierce People warriors outside the encampment? The discovery by the Invisible People of what had happened, the piety in burying and burning the dead, the decision to rescue the girls, the attack, the death on the electric wires, their bewilderment?
13. Tommy and his decision to go on the journey, moving from the Edge of the World, to the river, taking the boat, the waterfront, the city, the trance and his memories of his home, climbing the wall, the encounter with Jean, the mission to rescue the girls, the squalid atmosphere, the girls and the men. the attack and the rescue, the gunfight and the siege?
14. Tommy's return, the future, the discussions with his wife, pairing the warriors and the young girls for the continuation of the tribe? The encroaching Edge of the World? That it was to disappear? His telling his father about the frogs, going into a trance to draw the rain? The dam, the storm, Bill and his decision to evacuate, his decision to use the explosives, their not being necessary as the rain burst through the dam? The failure of technology? The triumph of the human spirit and supernatural powers?
15. The final message about conservation? How persuasive? The point made by the audience sharing the story?
