Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Tropical Rainforest" is a 38-minute documentary movie from 1992, so this one has its 25th anniversary this year. For director Shedd and writer Campbell-Jones, this is, despite its brief running time, perhaps their most known work. Shedd was already an Oscar winner when he made this one. The narrator here is the recently deceased African-British actor Geoffrey Holder, whose most famous performance is of course as a Bond villain. But we shall talk about that one on another occasion. This documentary here deserves all our attention now and rightfully so because it was really competently executed. The subject is already listed in the title and I think they focused on all the right things here. Early on, we get an insight into the really amazing fauna before the film moves on to the environment message and eventually also takes a look into the flora there, which of course shall not be neglected either only because it is not sweet or furry or anything. Saving the rain forest was as crucial back then as it should be today and there is a reason why this is never debated on unlike climate change for example. It's proved that if we keep tearing down all these trees, we will pay for it in the long run. The argument that this film maybe does not offer more than 75% of other nature documentaries is not valid because this was made before 95% of other documentaries. You can call it a trailblazer. Holder was a bit stumbling with his narration early on, but it wasn't bad or anything. One of my favorite short films from its year and very much worth seeing. One of my favorite IMAX films too. A really good watch you don't want to miss out on.
