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Show 'Emerald Forest is a gem by ROBIN MOENCH Record copy editor V The Emerald Forest One day, near the Edge of the World where the Dead Place begins, Wanadi, chief of the Invisible People, meets a Termite Child. If this $ounds like the opening line of a fairy tale, it is. "The Emerald Forest" is brimming with myth, memory and mysticism. And it brings down the house. The Dead Place is the scar on the earth where Bill Markham (Powers Boothe) is about to begin construction construc-tion on a dam that will take 10 years to finish. The Edge of the World is the boundary of the known universe to a tribe of Indians called the Invisible People. W e are deep in the Rain Forest of the Amazon. j Wanadi (Dira Paes) kidnaps the engineer's son, Tommy (Charley Boorman). He does it, he explains, to save the smiling boy from the k A Classic Recommended Good double feature material Time-killer For masochists only emptiness of civilization. As the boy vanishes into the forest, the camera rises to show its extent and indicate the small odds of ever recovering him. But, as the dam nears completion and after many searches, the father suddenly meets his son during a harum-scarum run for life from the Invisible People's rival clan, the Fierce People. And the son saves his father's life. And this is where the heart of the tale begins to beat. The father represents the mercilessly merci-lessly progressive white world that is eating up the habitat of the Indians like a huge insect. And his son, who has happily embraced life in the forest, is part of the fragile species that is being wiped out. In one scene, a plate glass window separates the son from his mother (Meg Foster) and his father. He's visible but beyond reach. It's this dilemma that propels the movie. Boothe is fine as the parent whose agony over the loss of his child (even after he's found) is replaced by admiration for the man his boy has become and compassion for the plight of his people. And Boorman (whose real father directed the movie) is the kind of hero we'd all like to think we could be principled, quick thinking and wise. When he assumes leadership of the tribe after Wanadi's death, we are comfortable with the tightness of the order of things. Not all the movie takes place in the relative simplicity of tall trees and clear cascades. And as the story breaks out into the familiar world of traffic and skyscrapers we're shocked shock-ed at the violence and soulessness of our civilization. In this hostile outer world, Tommy's shy hunters must take on the Fierce People who have been corrupted by whites and so kill their brothers and further decimate their own numbers. This fairy tale has the traditional happy ending. But we know that even though the Indian clan has survived the skirmish, its war against the incursions of the modem world will continue until the Invisible People disappear from the planet. The plot may be a bit contrived to make a point (although the story is based on fact), but the manipulation doesn't get in the way of a compelling story lovingly told. Now Showing At the Holiday Village Cinemas: The Emerald Forest Explorers (not yet rated) Pale Rider Silverado (not yet rated) |
