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Where The River Runs Black (1986)
Released By: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment   Rating: PG   In Theaters: N/A
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Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Genre: Family
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Christopher Cain
Language: English
Official Website: N/A
Theatrical Release: N/A
Home Video Release: N/A
Cast: Ajay Naidu, Alessandro Rabelo, Charles Durning, Conchata Ferrell, Marcelo Rabelo, Peter Horton
Published ID: 56
UPC: N/A
Plot: This drama concerns the clash of two worlds in the person of a young boy. The small boy (Alessandro Rabelo) is the offspring of a missionary who died before the he was born, and a Native American who is later killed by white prospectors. Father O'Reilly (Charles Durning) comes to hear about the legend of the orphan born to a holy man and a sorceress and guesses the truth about his parentage. He manages to bring the young boy to a Catholic orphanage where the lad is confronted with civilized behavior and is quite shocked by it. Meanwhile, Father O'Reilly is having second thoughts as the boy indirectly teaches him something about the values of his primitive culture. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
IDDateTimeTitleReviewHelpfulVotesTotalVotes
son of the fallen priest and the native girl
Added 7/15/2009

The reason I can't give this a better review is that I think the story
is at least partly a fabrication on the part of a priest.
Orphans are treated badly in many cultures:
the Jungle Book and Kim talk about orphans in India ; one of them a wild boy such as in this story. The true wild boys that I have read about
are almost never "treatable": they are feral and not teachable by the age
of this boy. Raised by dolphins is just a pretty way to make a legend
that will sell books and movies.
Not that I didn't like and enjoy the movie:
just that it didn't convince me.
The murder of his mother after being raped is probably the most believable part of the story.

0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Mix religion and mysticism
Added 10/15/2005

"Where the River Runs Black" (1986 - 97 minutes), directed by Christopher Cain, is a beautiful adaptation for the cinema of the awarded novel "Lazaro", of David Kendall. The film mix religion and mysticism when tells the history of a boy created in the Amazonian forest that is taken to be educated in an orphanage. The tram starts when an American missionary, the idealistic priest Mahoney (the actor Peter Horton) - that works in the region where the waters of the River Amazon becomes black -, knows a mysterious and sensual woman. A child is born of this relation and Mahoney dies. The boy, Lazarus, is played by a 10 years old Brazilian boy, Alessandro Rabelo who carried out the film side by side to the experienced actor Charles Durning (priest O'Reilly). Educated in the forest, Lazarus develops a strange relation with the "botos" (dolphins of the Amazon River). Of the wonderful landscapes of the Amazonian forest to the dirty and hard urban scenes, the story of magical realism maintain its attraction due to the delirious photograph of Juan-Ruiz Anchia. Entirely filmed in Brazil, the film had the participation of some Brazilian technicians and actors as Marcos Flaksman, Chico Diaz and Ariel Coelho
7 out of 7 people found this helpful.
Magical family film
Added 8/4/2005

I first saw this film on VHS, had never heard of it before then. It is a truly magical family film, with excellent performances by the young Alessandro, and his younger brother Marcelo in the flashbacks, as Lazaro. The beauty of Lazaro's innocent life is rudely interupted by the intrusion of Church complicit societal rules of order. This orderliness, including child-prison scenes that remind one of the classic film PIXOTE, although not quite so brutal, are only escaped by a return to the myths of childhood and the mystery of nature. See it with your own youngsters, and talk about it after. Hopefully, Sony/Columbia will release it soon on DVD, it is visually stunning!
5 out of 5 people found this helpful.
excellent family movie !
Added 5/18/2002

tale about inocence , fantasy, and fate.
the fate of a child who had the opportunity to come back to his origins, his birth place, to play with a dolphin.
the fate of a catholic priest who die for a sin .
the legend of a beautiful woman who lived where the river runs black...
I recomend this movie to anybody who likes to enjoy a good trailer together in family.

0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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