The bipolar career of John Boorman is divided between the sublime (Deliverance, Hope & Glory) and the wacky (Exorcist 2, Zardoz). I recently screened The Emerald Forest and found myself entranced by it, in particular the performance of Boorman’s own son, Charley Boorman, in the lead.

Powers Boothe stars as an engineer working on the construction of a dam near the end of an undeveloped jungle. His son, then six, is snatched up by an Amazon tribe and kidnapped. Boothe and his wife (Meg Foster) are devastated. After a decade of searching, Boothe finally finds his son, who is completely assimilated into the tribe’s culture and has just gone through his puberty ritual. Just as he finds his son, however, ruthless white developers move into the jungle, killing large numbers of natives. Boothe then tries to help the tribe.
Boorman manages to make this scenario very believable, surprising considering how out-there it all seems. (It’s hard to tell how much has been fictionalized, but the film is tagged as being based on a true story.) Young Charley doesn’t seem to have continued acting after this, but he is really outstanding as the teenager brought up as an Amazon tribesman.

The Score is out on DVD and video. It is mainly worth renting as a Montreal travelogue and for Marlon Brando’s utterly surreal appearance. :

—Matthew Hays