The Emerald Forest

Movie starts with Bill Markham, a US engineer working on a dam project in Brazil, in the Amazonian jungles. His seven-year-old son Tommy, is abducted in the rainforest by a tribe called "The Invisible People" and is lost for the next ten years. Movie focuses on the boy, how well he has adopted to a new situation and how he feels about his biological parents and the other culture in which he has been raised in. The young man has been adjusted to a new environment. At the age of seven, he was in an age of imprinting (by K. Lorenz) so he accepted new language and culture as the only one and forgot about the previous. He remembers very little about his past, therefore the integration process of two cultures is impossible. He has been fully assimilated to a tribe culture. Tommy grows up in isolation of that distinct culture. The Invisible People are called that way because of their skills at camouflage, they are a group that has reportedly never experienced contact with Caucasians. All these years he has no contact with his previous cultural background and he is a full member of the culture of that Amazonian tribe. He even goes through the ritual of initiation to become a man. His values are shaped by his lifestyle, his view on the world is Indian he believes in spirits and he calls the world where he came from the world of the dead. When his father begs him to return to his former family and live with them, he is certain that he wants to remain in his current state. He wants to raise his children there and he takes a wife from his new culture. He thinks differently from his biological father. When he refuses to return home, his father is devastated. Tomme (a new name of Tommy) is confused, why is Bill sad, even after a hunt, which is such an interesting activity for Tomme. He cannot understand the feelings of his biological father, who had hoped for all those years to find him and bring back. This movie dialog is illustrating, how thinking and emotions differ in these two cultures. Power distance (G. Hofstede) is high in this tribe, although a chief is not a dictator. Still, his words are the last and nobody dares to oppose him. An example from the film is when men of the tribe have to decide what to do, after they fail to return their women: A man: If we attack now, we die. Chief: But without our women we will be a people no more. And there is no more discussion about that problem. Chief is also a healer and the person of great honor. I guess that was a major factor in accepting the white boy into a tribe, because the chief was the one to adopt him as his son. In that tribe, parents are also teachers to their offspring, in a scene where Tomme hunts with chief, who is giving him all sorts of knowledge about the world around them. The movie opposes these two cultures. It is shown, how unique are Indian tribes and how foolishly do white people exploit the rainforest. Bill tries to bring his son back to civilization. He is taking tribal people as savages, even though he doesnt say it out

loud. He just cannot understand the traditional way of life. When Bill saves the tribe of his son, he tries to describe a reality that soon his sons world will be destroyed. Tomme is sure that he can stop the destruction with help of spirits. This illustrates how dramatically they differ. Bill accepts the choice of his son but he is unable to understand it. Movie also indicates to damage that is done when traditional cultures take the inventions from more developed cultures in use. When tribe called The Fierce People gets access to guns, they create a chaos by killing another tribe. This hints that there shouldnt be intensive intrusion into traditional ways by progressive western cultures. Finally, I want to emphasize the aim of filmmakers to show the role of environment when developing a person. In 1985, when the movie was made, it was a popular belief, that culture plays a major role in shaping a person (importance of Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead etc. work) and Five-Factor Theory (McCrae & Costa, 1996) wasnt yet created. Also, there is shown how assimilation works and how it can absorb a person fully into culture where he initially does not belong.