The Emerald Forest by John Boorman - Movie Review Example

The Emerald Forest The emerald Forest is a reality based movie written by Rospo Pallenberg and directed by John Boorman in the Brazilian rainforest.The main plot of the story compares the traditional societies with the modern western society and discusses the affects modern developments have had on the tribal people living in forests (“The Emerald Forest”). The story starts when Bill Markham, an engineer moves with his family to Brazil for the construction of a large dam which requires cutting of forests that is the habitat of tribes like The Invisible people and the Fierce people (“The Emerald Forest”). Son of Markhem, Tommy gets abducted by the invisible people and is not found until after ten years when he has become a part of that tribe and considers the forest as his world (“The Emerald Forest”). The invisible people are very close to the environment and consider it as their friend and when they saw Tommy, they decided that he does not belong to the westerners or termite people as they are destroyers of the world whereas the child is innocent and so should belong to their tribe. Tommy is adopted by the chief of the tribe, Wanadi who loves him and treats him as his son (“The Emerald Forest”). When Markhem finds his son after ten years and asks him to come back to his own house, Tommy refuses and claims that now this tribe and forest is his world which is much more beautiful than the world outside (“The Emerald Forest”). Markhem turns to the chief as well for help to convince Tommy to return back as he is the authority of the invisible people but the chief says, “If I tell a man to do what he does not want to do, I may no longer be the chief.” Meaning that even being the authority there he has no right to force people to do something they don’t want to do (“The Emerald Forest”). This implied that the authority structure of the traditional society did not compel people to follow the authority; rather it is a right of every human to do things according to their will and wish (“The Emerald Forest”). However in the modern western society, people are supposed to take orders and follow, first their parents, then teachers, then employers, governments, policemen etc. people are living in repression taking orders for their everyday lives (“Proyect”). Apart from the difference in the authority structures of these two societies, their entire life styles and cultures are different. Western modern society is developed and advanced in terms of technology and uses machine guns and weapons to fight, aero planes to travel and other machines to cut off forests and clear the land for construction, whereas the invisible people do not have much use of technology as they use arrows and spears to fight and travel by walking long distances (“Proyect”). As wanadi says, “When I was a boy, the edges of the world was very far away, but it comes closer each year.” It means that western world is growing in technology and now travelling across the entire world to reach far off places have become easy and fast. However, as technology is enhancing it is destroying the natural environment more (“The Emerald Forest”). Air pollution from the aero planes, cars etc have increased resulting in various diseases affecting our respiratory systems when we inhale the oxygen present in the air. Also the modern guns and weapons have resulted in the increasing demolition of mankind who are killed in massacres. The machines used to clear off forests have destroyed the beauty of the world and the indigenous livelihood (“The Emerald Forest”). The natural resources are being depleted with the adoption of new technology. This is the reason that the people of the western world were called to be Termite as they cut down big trees and destroy the real world which is in forests (“The Emerald Forest”). The invisible people are loving, caring, innocent people who calls the forest as their world, who keeps to themselves, away from western society and just want their place for survival which is the forest (“Proyect”). Spirituality is revealed in their culture as they do not measure their progress like the westerners do. The invisible people live in their own world which surpasses the laws and rules in wilderness (“Proyect”). They respect and love nature and appreciates its beauty, unlike the shallow people of western societies who are destroying the nature and its resources for their own needs and progress. This is depicted in the following scene, Werner: Can you smell it? The oxygen? 40% of the world's oxygen is produced here in the Amazon. Bill Markham: Come on, Uwe, oxygen doesn't smell. It's... the rot, the decay. Werner: Also the blossoms. Both the traditional culture (i.e. of the invisible people) and the culture of the western American societies have their own good and bad points but in my view, the culture of the invisible people is far better than that of the westerners. The reason is that the invisible people were good hearted, loving humans who were satisfied with their lives and were happily living with their people in their world. Their culture satisfies all their humanly needs like physiological needs of food, water, sex etc, the safety needs by providing them shelter, resources to survive, health, their emotional needs by providing family, love, and by giving a sense of community in which people can depend upon each other in time of their need, their esteem needs i.e. their culture teaches them how to respect others and confidence and finally the highest level of human need that is self actualization by providing them problem solving capabilities and morality. The traditional culture promotes spirituality and the feeling of community which makes them selfless people who unlike the westerners do not tear apart the nature and others feelings for their own needs or motives. This view is further supported by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Emile Durkheim who also views modern society as a misery in which people are unhappy and never fully satisfied. Even though they all have same conclusion, they have different reasons for their views. According to Karl Marx, this misery results from capitalism which divides society into two major groups Bourgeoisie and Proletariat, that is the haves and have not’s. The Bourgeoisie is the property owners and Proletariat are the property less owners and the difference between them creates classes in the society like low class, middle class and upper class. The low class is constantly struggling to get in the upper class and so they are not happy while the wealthy upper class is struggling to maintain their powers and authority which keeps them unhappy. Freud’s theory suggests that the process of socialization results in the development of an individual’s cultural super-ego which is the reflection of the values and morals of society, which the society has in turn developed from the values and morals of the culture. The problem with this cultural super ego is that it’s too demanding and sets goals which are impossible for the society to achieve. This makes people unhappy as their goals are not achieved and puts them in a continuous struggle throughout their lives to achieve these unachievable goals. The super ego results from the impressions of some legends or great personalities whether inside family or outside. Emily Durkheim further concludes Freud’s idea that humans stay unhappy because of their inability to set limits to their unlimited needs. Ultimately Durkheim tends to agree with Marx that humans are unhappy because of capitalism as their entire lives get wasted in commercial worlds and they do not get time to pursuit other institutions like religion or military etc. I would prefer to live in the traditional culture or the culture of the invisible people as they are loving, caring people who are happy and contented in their lives and face no competitions the way we do in our struggle for achieving worldly goals. Unlike them we are never contented with what we have, this takes us away from not only our religion which teaches us to be contented and patient but also gives us stresses and tensions and makes us mean and selfish. The sense of community no longer exists as in our fight and struggle to win this competition and from others we aim to leave others behind. Our culture must learn the love of mankind and of the nature from the invisible people who always stay together with each other and understand the beauty of the nature and its resources and appreciates it. There is no competition or unhappiness which makes them healthier and brings them closer to the religion. Works Cited The Emerald Forest. Dir. John Boorman. Writ. Pallenberg. 1985. Film. Proyect, Louis. Emerald Forest. N.p.. Web. 16 Jun 2013. . Read More