Sadly Over-hyped

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Set in the early to mid-twentieth century in the Colombian Amazon, a shaman, who is the lone survivor of his tribe after it has been wiped out by the white man, guides two explorers on expeditions, forty years apart. Both white scientists seek a sacred plant with healing powers, both for different reasons.I first have to say that I saw this film with English subtitles that were, shall we say, a little uneven. I should have known I was in for an interesting ride when the English translation of the movie title came up as 'Hug a Snake'! So, I am pretty sure that several things must have been lost in such a translation. This is certainly a contemplative look at the effects of colonialism on the indigenous South American people of the Amazon. It does so it an admittedly very subtle manner, although we do see some of the effects that the rubber plantations and the spread of Catholicism had on the people of the area.If I'm being totally honest I did not fully connect with this film and I'm not sure it's all to do with the ropey English translation in the version I watched. I think it was more that its ideas of the spirit world and nature just didn't interest me very much. It is nevertheless quite obviously an impressive production on some ways though. The authentic use of indigenous dialect was something to be commended, while the black and white cinematography was good. Ultimately, the content wasn't really my cup of tea but I can still see some value in it.

The world is sick. Everyone knows it. As we have become more separated from and disrespectful to Nature, it has responded in ways that we are just beginning to feel. The perfect storm of organized religion aiding capitalistic industries to feed Western- style urbanization was all initially conceived and supervised by my ancestors, exploiting the labor of indigenous peoples who had lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years. I am a white American of Christian-European ancestry. The core of our white insanity was our total belief in a "God-granted" right to subdue the natural world for our own misguided purposes. Now, almost all peoples of the world have taken on this same insanity and the exploitation of natural resources has intensified exponentially. It's all wrong. It's all bad. It's all going to end horribly. Our only hope is for all of us -- or at least, most of us -- to turn away from mindless consumerism and return to simpler lifestyles where less is more and a healthy planet is seen as our only real asset. This extraordinary movie is a masterpiece that makes all of these points. In the future, if humans have to leave a decimated Earth for some gamble on interstellar colonization, I hope they get to watch this movie before they begin again.

This review may contain minor spoilersHow does one review a movie like Embrace of the Serpent? I don't know. I guess the journey is the reward. It is all about how you get there and how you feel when it is over. This film is so rich in meaning as well as symbolism and has so much great dialogue that this mysterious "THERE" can , and should , turn into more than the destination of the physical journey. What makes the story so intriguing is the fact that the shaman Karamatake is helping two white scientists who try to reach the same thing, just at a different time. This is such a great way to learn about his character and how imperialism and colonialism changed him and his world through the years. We can see how different he thinks and feels while still being suspicious of the white people and their goals, even though he is already a broken man in his older years. I don't want to spoil so i try not to analyze or interpret too much in this review , but i cant stress enough what a fantastic character Karamatake is. He is such a rich representation of these "forgotten people" and their values, their pride but also of their tragedy. A single man facing the inevitable progression of history.That being said, i also have to talk about the visual aspect of this movie. Ciro Guerra and David Gallego have created one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. The black-and-white Cinematography is providing the film with a strong sense of realism, even though the journey as a whole feels like a dreamlike exploration which reminded me of Apocalypse Now and The "Heart of Darkness". The difference is that EotS is dealing with the negative mixture of culture ( "the worst of two worlds"). I think black-and-white was the perfect choice for Embrace of the Serpent, because it conveys the absence of time ( which is briefly mentioned ) and the unimportance of surroundings. What the viewer and the characters should instead be focusing on is themselves: their mind and consciousness. There is one great scene near the end which serves as a partial conclusion to that. The opulent use of symbolism leaves room for our interpretation, but mentioning even one of them would be a massive spoiler. Over the course of their trip our characters visit some interesting places , carefully portrayed in order to manifest just how much has changed. The criticism Ciro Guerra expresses is very subtle at times and you might not even notice it the first time around which is why i recommend a second viewing, although i can understand why some might find it unpleasant. That leads me to my one and only strong point of criticism : The movie is a bit too long. The first half is very well paced , but Karamatakes and Evans stay at the mission seems a bit exaggerated to me. That should not prevent anyone from watching this film. Embrace of the Serpent is quite the experience. A wonderful, but tragic and unique look at the Amazonian tribes from the inside. A dreamlike, almost psychedelic journey where its not only about finding the Yakruna , but finding yourself. In a way Karamatake was way ahead of us.. So Allow us to remember how to dream , before we make our journey on this river, the serpent that swallows us all

You may be interested in an introduction to tropical botany in Amazonian Colombia. Or you may be interested in an anthropological take on Latin American primitive tribes. Or you may be interested in the adventurous travels scientists studying these topics had still to face less one century ago. Or you may be interested in the devastating effects western civilization had and still have on what remains of the ancient cultures of Colombia and their environment. Or you may simply be looking for some great photography and motion capture of the luxurious and colorful Amazonian forest.This is for me at least and if that's the case for you as well I warn you: you won't find much of anything I just listed. You can learn much more by spending 10 minutes on Wikipedia.Instead you will find a slow and boring 2 hours b/w fictional search for a healing plant a couple of botanists undertake in the early 20th century. Both are guided by the same proud shaman after a time span of 30 years.Mr Guerra admitted in an interview that the film is like it is because it is meant to reflect the shaman perception: so the fact that I don't like it depends on my inability to enjoy the point of view of a shaman (eclectically put together by some anthropologist friend of the director and vaguely based on few documents and some native stories). Do the nearly universally positive reviews reflect the fact that the few who had the chance to see this film were under the effect of some psychoactive plant?Sarcasm aside, I can appreciate the hard (and sometimes great) directing work that must have been put in place to realize this film. Nonetheless I think it's bad and the positive reviews are due to... plain ignorance or a blindfolded green-peacekeeper attitude. (Personally I have nothing against those attempting to "protect" and "preserve": I just find that most "believers" produce more damages than solutions with their activism with no long-term/wide-pov strategy). Even if the point of the b/w, the length, the slowness and the silence was to show the natives' POV (while we, city guys, would see colors, lots of things happening every second and lots of sounds/noises) is it a good choice from a filming perspective?If the legacy of his ancestors is so important why the director didn't use a different medium to "do something"? (speculating) He gave up on making a doc because he thought that a doc would have needed too much research and effort compared to how well it would have served the purpose of raising awareness on the issues. And he gave up on writing a book because he had no real understanding of the topics. He just felt some sentimental sense of impotence for a past slowly disappearing.Quoting the director: "we weren't interested in the superficial, scientific truth. We were interested in the deeper truths of the relationship between them (the natives, the shaman) and the plants (nature, the world)". And to achieve this apparently the director had natives collaborate in the writing process... genius and very deep...Everyone's 5yo daughter draws stuff or makes up stories. And while our affection makes each of these personally interesting and important, this doesn't mean they are "good" in any relevant sense. So you're warned: you should widen your listening experience to Mozart if all you've known is pop-music. But here we have no Mozart at all: just someone playing an instrument he barely knows and producing noises.As far as I remember Mel Gibson's Apocalypto was a pop action/adventure movie. Nonetheless as far as my desire to watch something regarding some the topics listed above is concerned, it's still much better than "El Abrazo", with an unexpected plus coming out of the entertainment factor.