Catharina_Sweden I liked this movie a lot. It began as a story of a lost child and the father's never-ending search for him, and that is of course heart-rendering to all parents. But then it became so much more, not least a statement against the white man's ongoing destruction of the rain-forests - compared to the native Indians sustainable life-style in accord with nature.One got to learn a lot about the native Indians' life in the rain-forests, and this was very interesting... although I cannot help asking, if it was not just a LITTLE bit embellished..? I mean, not every tribe would have such a wise and empathic chief for instance, and I suppose not every father would have accepted a suitor from another race for his daughter, that easily... adopted or not.This movie evoked a lot of thoughts and questions. For instance I asked myself: could I have been happy if I had been abducted by such a tribe when I was a little girl? Would their tribal life, including very early marriages, many child-births and tasks strictly divided between men and women, and sometimes spiced up with magic, have been worse than the life that we modern western women have? When we try to juggle family and career? Provided that life with the tribe would really have been as idyllic as in the movie, I cannot answer that question with a definite "yes" or "no"...

wferri6 A definite source for The Emerald Forest is the book, Wizard of the Upper Amazon, by F. Bruce Lamb. The story is a second hand account of Manuel Cordova's kidnapping when he was a teenager working for rubber cutters in the Amazon in the early 1900s. He was taken by a group of Indians to a very remote, primitive Indian village. These Indians were of a fierce independent disposition, and had fled into the interior because they refused to exist in the subservient situation imposed on them by the rubber barons of that time. Cordova was incorporated into their tribe and describes a life strikingly similar to the one depicted in The Emerald Forest. The similarities include the adversarial tribe, the reason The Invisible People moved further into the Jungle, and the tribal ceremony with the hallucinogenic.

TxMike 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.

merklekranz "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. The rain forest location photography is stunning, and the story actually believable for awhile. Beyond the half way point however, things deteriorate quickly. A film that started out as possibly based on fact, suddenly shifts gears into the realm of fantasy. Tall buildings are scaled with ease, visions locate people, and Powers Boothe goes into "Rambo" mode. Then, to top things off, comes an ecological message that is supposed to be taken seriously, even after the nonsense that precedes it. - MERK