The Emerald Forest. Has anyone seen it? *Spoilers*

[Tuesday Afternoon]

It was on late last night. Based on a true story.

Tommy Markham, the young son of American engineer working on a dam project on the edge of the Brazilian Rain Forest, is abducted and adopted by a primitive tribe. The father, Bill Markham, spends the next ten years searching in vain for the kidnapped boy. Ultimately Markham is captured by a cannibal tribe and ironically rescued by "Tomme," who only has dim memories of his biological father. Although Bill wants desperately to have his son accompany him back to civilization, "Tomme's" loyalties now belong to "The Invisible People."

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. Nominated for 3 BAFTA Film Awards.

John Boorman was the Director.

"Certainly the best of Boorman. After seeing again Deliverance, which was thrilling when it was first released, and Excalibur, poetical, Wagnerian but a little bit out of date (regarding the shining 70's fake armors), Emerald Forest deepens philosophy and ethnology. Very profound and touching, very good acting, excellent photography, technically superb, there's nothing to really complain about. It hasn't aged at all and probably won't. I gave it a 10 because I do not see anything to improve. In our sad new era of ethnological destruction, where there's no place anymore for the Aborigene or any other tribal culture, this movie gives a little hope, a little reverie of seeing things turning in the right direction thanks to ancient magic. How vain but how beautiful!"

more at link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089087/

[Deep13]

2. I think it is a bit racist.

How come the white kid, who has no better idea of the larger world than anyone else in his group, is the one to lead them all to do whatever it was they did (saw it a long time ago)?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. hmmmm ---

perhaps because he had been "adopted" by the Chief of the Tribe?

[raccoon]

4. Based on a true story?

I saw it at the flicks ages ago.

I thought it was WAY unbelievable the way the young adult Tomme took drugs and/or put himself into a trance and remembered where his family lived and climbed up story after story to their apartment.

I wonder how strictly it adhered to the truth, if it was based on truth at all. I don't believe there are any legal restrictions on movie makers about that.


FARGO burned me with that. It says at the beginning that the movie is based on events that happened in MN, which is crap.


From WIKIPEDIA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo_(film)#Fact_vs._fiction

Fargo opens with the following text:

“ THIS IS A TRUE STORY. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred. ”

Although the film itself is completely fictional, the Coen brothers claim that many of the events that take place in the movie were actually based on true events from other cases that they threw together to make one story. Joel Coen said, "We weren't interested in that kind of fidelity. The basic events are the same as in the real case, but the characterizations are fully imagined." He later noted, "If an audience believes that something's based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept."

The Coens claim the actual murders took place, but not in Minnesota.<2> The main reason for the film's Minnesota setting was based on the fact that the Coens were born and raised in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis.<3>

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. according to wiki

The Emerald Forest is a 1985 English language film set in the Brazilian Rainforest. It was directed by John Boorman and written by Rospo Pallenberg. It is based on a true story.

more at link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emerald_Forest_(film)

and also:
Criticism
The film was promoted as "based on a true story", but was apparently embellished out of all semblance to reality. According to film critic Harlan Ellison in his book Harlan Ellison's Watching, attempts by the SCAN library reference/research company to get background information on the real story revealed that Rospo Pallenberg's original screenplay was based on several stories <1>, including an article in the Los Angeles Times<2>, about a Peruvian laborer whose child had been abducted by a local Indian tribe and located sixteen years later almost fully assimilated. Pallenberg's agent told SCAN that while Boorman claimed to have read the original Times article, he hadn't, but was simply working from Pallenberg's screenplay. According to SCAN, Boorman told NPR's All Things Considered that the son was still living with the tribe in 1985 and identified the tribe as "the Mayoruna", yet detailed anthropological studies of that tribe do not mention an adopted outsider.<1>

Ellison's notes on The Emerald Forest take Boorman and Embassy Studios to task for promoting the film as "based on a true story", which he felt was done merely to attract audience attention. He further disparaged the fact that the protagonists were changed to upper-class Americans on the grounds that an audience would be unable to identify with Peruvian actors.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. Kicking for the night crew...

Just in case.

[blogslut]

7. Loved it!

Very symbolic and the music score is amazing.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. thank goodness...

I was beginning to think I was nuts :)

Yes, the music helped to set the drama. I have to admit the ending kind of sold out a bit...but I thought they did a great job showing tribal rites and ceremonies and day to day living.

[In_The_Wind]

9. Sounds like a winner!

I'm sure I'll enjoy seeing it.

[Scout]

10. really good movie, i liked it a lot n/t