I saw this movie when it was first released. I thought that it was an absurd load of hokum then and it certainly hasn't improved with age. The underlying theme is pretty standard tree-hugger stuff; evil, rapacious white men destroying the Garden of Eden and dispossessing the innocent, noble savages along the way. The film claims to be based on a true story, but I'd take that with very large pinch of salt. If indeed it was based on true events then the producer/director has been a bit careless with the some of the facts. The Amazon basin is an enormously hostile environment, just about every critter, bug and bacterium that likes to eat people lives there. Amongst the native Indian tribes, that still live there, the infant mortality rate is something like about 80% and adults who live much past 40 years are rarities. Needless to say that's not the way the place is portrayed in the film. Certainly not cinema verite.
Review of The Emerald Forest
