Word: amazonians
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Davi Kopenawa Yanomami cures ailing tribal brothers with incantations given to him by a fearsome anaconda spirit that slithers up from Amazonian waters. At least that's the way Davi describes it. Like other native medicine men in the Amazon rain forest, Davi relies on hallucinogenic powders to reach the spirit world, but this leader of the Yanomami Indians also wields a more modern means of communication: a two-way radio. When an otherworldly voice squawks through the speaker, Davi wraps up his shaman's crown of toucan feathers, dons uncomfortable city clothes and walks to a clearing...
...fortunate that Amazon relies so heavily on stunning cinematography, because as an attempt to tell a story, the film fails rather comically. It is not intended to be a documentary, and it doesn't try to do anything more than give a quick and superficial tour of the Amazonian rain forests. Even with all the colorful visual distractions sprinkled throughout the film, one can't help but notice the handling of this clumsy plot. The persistent "rain forests can cure anything" mantra is annoyingly condescending, but without it, one might as well be watching a per-flight nature video with...
...movie has to use its weak storyline to justify gorgeous panoramas of the icy Andes, Amazonian waterfalls and a view of South America from space that can only be called awesome. Other exotic images include pink dolphins, bigger-than-life insects and creatures that look so absurd they're almost cute. Naturally, the famous Amazonian piranhas and other such dangerous beasts show up and startle the audience, if not with their teeth then with their alien appearances. The mountains tower so high they threaten to break the sky-dome of the screen, the forest envelopes the viewer on all sides...
...Several Amazonian tribes get their fair share of screen time. Yes, they help the heroes find new specimens and herbs, but they are also there for the shock value: Who wouldn't be surprised, if not alarmed, at the sight of a man's lower lip pierced with something that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to a stick of bamboo? There is a feeble attempt to enrich the viewer's historical understanding of the discovery of and relations with various tribes, but pay no attention to it. Most people will probably ignore it anyway...
...Buffett at a beachside bar, listening to him spin tales, repeat himself now and then, discourse on life and share nifty bits of geography and history. ("In the late '30s, Henry Ford...constructed a picture-perfect replica of a Michigan town to house 10,000 rubber workers" in the Amazonian jungle. "It didn't catch on.") He has a gift for equatorial observation but doesn't like to rough it. He wants his adventures to come with a four-star hotel and perhaps a chilled bottle of Puligny-Montrachet at day's end. (Jane, the practical one, does...