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The title posits a continuation of John Boorman's Wizard of Oz strain (Zardoz, Exorcist II: The Heretic), and there's the Excalibur vision of sacred stones by a waterfall. The river cannot be contained, the American engineer (Powers Boothe) who builds a dam in the Amazon learns this, his son is kidnapped and raised by an indigenous tribe. A decade passes and the towheaded lad (Charley Boorman) is one of the Invisible People, the father is a memory suddenly returned. "When a dream becomes flesh, trouble is not far behind." Along the lines of Roeg (and in contrast to Herzog), an eco-mystical fable about adolescence. The boy covered in fire ants emerges as a man, he flinches at having to club his beloved (Dira Paes) until she chastises him for messing up the courtship. (As he embarks on a journey against the fearsome Fierce People, his bride issues a sassy warning: "They will cook you and eat you, even the grandfathers without teeth.") Nature, its glow and cruelty, a culmination of Boorman's elemental and magical themes. The cannibalistic chief recognizes a counterpart in the searching paterfamilias, both have "the heart of a hungry jaguar" but only one can wield "the spear that makes lightning." Shimmering verdure is the primeval realm, beyond it lies favela labyrinth and concrete tower, the falcon provides a sweeping view. Little Big Man is unmistakably acknowledged, though the virile construction also absorbs The Naked Prey and Tarzan and the Jungle Boy. Termite People, those civilized ones are called, their environmental depredations ("They are taking the skin off the world") are answered by an amphibious deluge and a bit of helpful sabotage, the family is metaphysically reunited at last. Gibson's Apocalypto is its malevolent twin. Cinematography by Philippe Rousselot. With Meg Foster, Ruy Polanah, Eduardo Conde, Ariel Coelho, Mario Borges, Peter Marinker, Átila Iório, and Gracindo Júnior.
--- Fernando F. Croce |