Emerald Forest [DVD]

Very good like it very much.

This is the factually based story of a civil engineer helping to build a dam in Brazil who loses his son in the rainforest for ten years. The boy Tommy grows up taught to hunt by his splendid adoptive father, the chief of 'the invisible people'. He attains manhood by ordeal, identifies with an eagle through psychoactive snuff and trance state and marries a strikingly pretty girl he meets whilst fishing. Then his natural father, fleeing 'the fierce people', during his latest near fatal attempt to find Tommy, mislays his automatic rifle. Their murderous chief abducts and exchanges Tommy's bride and the other girls of his tribe with a brothel keeper for further supplies of ammunition. Tommy rescues the engineer whom the invisible people know as Dadee. Tommy's adoptive and natural fathers represent man before and after The Fall. After a satisfyingly bloody rescue mission, the girls discard with disgust the scanty clothing forced on them by the brothel. "Who told you that you were naked". Tommy's wife is, like Barbara Good, 'an ace chider'. In the wedding dance she tells Tommy: 'Do it properly!' The ceremonies are tremendous and a cacophony of frogs bring a flood to destroy the dam before the engineer can sabotage it. The Butterfly Effect? John Boorman's recollections about making the film are revealing, funny and informative.

John Boorman's visually sumptuous Amazon set adventure The Emerald Forest arrives on a region A locked Blu ray from Kino Lorber. As much an emotional charged story of a father searching for his lost son in the wilds of the Brazilian rainforest as it is an exotic 80s action film, The Emerald Forest also possesses a well meaning spiritual side as well as a environmental message relevant to the time it was produced. As a footnote it is worth noting that despite being region locked to the American standard of A, I easily persuaded my UK Panasonic BD80 to skip the region code and play the movie. Whilst the disc is loading up to the wrong region screen press 'functions' on your remote. The wrong region screen will pop up momentarily then divert back to the Panasonic home screen. From here press '1' and whilst 1 is blinking in the corner press the 'ok' and hey presto the film will load up. As far as I know this little number punching trick only works on Panasonic decks and only with certain discs from selected labels.Picture:Kino Lorber have presented John Boorman's film in an AVC MPEG 4 encoded 1080p transfer in the correct Panavision aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The first thing that struck me about this new HD master is how wonderfully filmic the image is with a natural layer of film grain and rich saturated colours. Detail is especially good from close ups of faces, hair and textures on clothing and tribal decorations through to construction equipment, wooden shanty towns and various shots of jungle wildlife. Black levels are decent enough especially in the night segments around the Invisible People's village which also possess revealing shadow detail but a handful of scenes in the jungle shade can look more grey than inky black. As mentioned before colours are rich, bold and robust with the greens of the jungle plant life really popping here. Depth is apparent in a number of shots from a sweeping camera pan over the construction site of the dam through to a crowded orphanage and for the most part the image has a solid and extremely dimensional feel to it. Nothing in the way of manipulation appears to taken place but there is occasional flashes of minor print damage and the opening Embassy logo looks a little worse for wear but these small faults in what is a fantastic transfer and a massive upgrade over SD DVD.Sound:As good as the visuals are I was rather diappointed with the lossless DTS HD Master 2.0 track offered up here. On paper this should be ideal with an uncompressed version of the original Dolby Stereo mix which was also on the DVD release albeit in lossy Dolby Digital. I noticed something was afoot in the first minute or so as the the gorgeous ethereal music score sounded a tad flat and very centre focused. As the movie pregressed I also noted that not one stereo separation could be heard whether it be foley effects or environmental activity with everything emanating from the centre. Plugging a pair of headphones into my receiver confirmed what I had thought. This was Indeed mono despite this being a stereo production. I went back to my DVD which was indeed stereo meaning that for whatever reason Kino have messed up and given The Emerald Forest a monaural rendering for its HD debut. As infuriating as it is the mono here actually sounds fuller than the stereo on the DVD. Yes this is front heavy as you would expect from mono but the track is often better balanced and more focused. Apart from a handful of louder passages such as around construction vehicles or heavy waterfalls where dialogue can be lost in the mix the spoken word is almost always clear and precise. Foley effects from the cracks of machine guns through to rain and thunder sound reasonably robust and the burst dam sequence in the films finalé even exports a little depth and some surprising low end. Of course stereo would have been preferable as not only would it have opened up the score and environmental effects in the dense jungle as well as creating more excitement in the action orientated passages but is also how this was originally intended to be heard. The track also shows a couple of anomalies in the form of a strange cracking sound thats starts just before the half hour mark and lasts for minutes. Disappointing.Extras:Kino Lorber have only provided one extra and it is the original theatrical trailer. This could be considered a missed opportunity as the DVD edition was also bareboned and any supplements would have been welcomed by fans. Also consider this is hardly a budget release either so you have really got to love the movie to warrent the price.Conclusion:I can still remember the first rime I saw The Emerald Forest way back in the 80s on VHS and it has stayed with me ever since. The film is well acted and exquisitely shot on location in the Amazon and despite a complete change of pace for the final act where the story turns into an action packed gun toting rescue mission The Emerald Forest remains compelling viewing with a respectful interpretation of tribal customs that never once resorts to the racial stereotypes it could so have done. This American import from Kino rewards fans with a beautiful picture transfer that is like night and day compared to past editions but the lossless sound is a real letdown as are the lack of extras. If you have fond memories of this then I cannot recommend this Blu ray enough just on the picture quality alone just don't expect to feel immersed in the sounds of the jungle or learn anything new about the production.

Delighted to finally have a copy after searching for so many years.

I bought this copy BECAUSE it states Subtitles on the box and this was a gift for my father who is hard of hearing . He was excited to finally find a copy he could watch and then sadly disappointed after trying multiple times to get the subtitles as advertised

Good value

The film tells the story of an American engineer working on a dam project in the Brazilian rain forest, who has his son abducted by the local tribe, known as the 'Invisible people'. Based on a true story, it charts his 10yr ultimately successful search to find him, only to discover he is a fully fledged member of the tribe. Part adventure story, part ecology lesson on the changes to the Brazilian rain forest, and its effects on the native tribes who lived there, the use of indigenous indians, to play the part of the villagers, using their own dialect, makes the film seem 'real', Made nearly 30 yrs ago the film is as watchable now as it was then.

John Boorman made a classic with "Deliverance' probably due to a great script by the writer James Dickey who also played the sheriff. This film has a good based on real life story, well-mounted production value with location filming in the Amazons. The actors(including the director and film crew) went through hardship during the location filming. Powers Booth and the director's son Charley both gave engaging performances. The problems reveal towards the second half of the film which involving the drug and human traffickers and the overtly melodramatic rescue of the son and the native women.As a film, a disappointment.The picture and sound quality of this DVD is very good!Substantial portion of the dialogue is in the native language with English subtitles.The rest of the film has no English subtitles which causes a bit confusion for the viewer.

Great movie, one of a kind, nothing like it...

I watched this movie as a young kid, and it always stick with me, for good reason. An underappreciated, haunting gem from the 80s. Nice picture quality and audio as well for an older movie.Highly recommended if you like movies off the beaten path, pun intended!

‘Emerald Forest’ is a romantic exciting movie which I have loved for many years.

The beauty and power of the rainforest juxtaposed to the beauty and power of "civilization," on of my favorite themes. Who is the true savage? Powers Boothe plays a construction engineer building a dam in the rainforest that is increasingly changing the structure of the most valuable real estate on earth. Not only is it effecting the plants and animals, creating desert where there was once rich vegetation, but it is affecting the indigenous tribes in horrendous ways. Charley Boorman plays the beautiful young son who is kidnapped by the leader of the "Invisible People." His father and mother (played by the beautiful Meg Foster) spent the next ten years searching for the boy as he is being raised in tribal customs.Meanwhile, as the living space for the tribes grows increasingly smaller, the "Invisible People," who are basically good hearted, land loving indigenous people who keep to themselves and only want to survive, are increasingly threatened by the "Fierce People," a carnivorous, cannibalistic tribe who are desperately seeking space for themselves.We watch Tomme grow up, learn from his new "father" who loves him dearly and was perhaps initially attracted to the tyke's golden blond hair and his own need for a son. We watch Tomme go through a ritual rite of passage that sends him on a dangerous quest for the special green rock that allows what are now his people to become "Invisible." It is in this quest that Tomme and his father cross paths again, and a lesson is learned about the cost of the damage civilization has brought to what is truly a beautiful and rich country better off left alone.For a long time I couldn't find this movie anywhere. Not even at amazon.com. I cherish the copy I did finally find. I am thrilled to see that it is now available on DVD, but would like to see a DVD created with educational "special features" about the rain forest and the fight to preserve it. That's really what this movie is all about. See it now, before it gets away again.

I first saw this film when I was a teenager and it absolutely captivated me. I’ve thought about it many times and I suppose I identified with the boy in the movie because I was blonde and blue-eyed when I was young. An amazing story that highlights events that actually happened. John Borman directed it and his son Charlie starred in the film. Definitely an adventure and a throwback to the really interesting films from the 1980s. I definitely had to have this because it was such an inspiration to me growing up. This film and a couple of others were instrumental and inspiring me to study indigenous cultures in high school and college. That’s what started me on that road. So my change it knowledge has been lost it is such a shame. I will say that the cinematography is beautiful and the message in the film is something that seems to be more easily forgotten now… Take care of the planet and it will take care of you.