Embrace of the Serpent Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Embrace of the Serpent Blu-ray Movie Review

The New World (and the Old One)

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 30, 2016

Embrace of the Serpent grew from the desire of writer/director Ciro Guerra to explore the history of the Amazon jungle region that covers half of his native Colombia. Guerra calls it "a green sea . . . that unfathomable land that we foolishly reduce to simple concepts: Coke, drugs, Indians, rivers, war." Part of the challenge of delving is the dearth of written records. The Amazon has been transformed by modernity, eliminating dozens of indigenous tribes that once occupied the surrounding rainforest, along with their knowledge and oral histories. Among the few surviving accounts are the journals of two 20th Century explorers, who recorded their search for the rare yakruna plant, which grows on rubber trees and is said to possess both healing and psychedelic properties. Drawing on these explorers' writings, Guerra has crafted a mystical and poetic work that provides glimpses of an alternate reality. The film's images linger in memory long after the credits roll.

Embrace of the Serpent was Colombia's official submission to the 2016 Academy Awards, where it was selected as one of the five finalists for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. (It lost to Son of Saul.)

Guerra's film unfolds in two distinct time periods. In 1909, an ailing German explorer named Theodor von Martius (Jan Bijvoet, Borgman) searches for the yakruna plant, which he believes will heal him. Theo is accompanied by Manduca (Yauenkü Migue), a native of the region whose back bears whipping scars from time spent as a slave on the region's rubber plantations. To help them find the yakruna, Theo and Manduca enlist the aid of Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), a healer and shaman known as a payé. Karamakate believes himself to be the last surviving member of the Cohiuano tribe, but Theo insists that there are others. If Theo is right, the surviving Cohiuano are likely to have yakruna.

In 1940, another German explorer, Evan Shultes (Brionne Davis), retraces the steps outlined in Theo's journals, which were sent back to Germany after his death. Evan finds the elderly Karamakate (now played by Antonio Bolivar), who believes himself to have been transformed by age and isolation into a "chullachaqui", a kind of empty shell that wanders the jungle like a doppelganger. Old Karamakate says that his memories are gone and that he doubts whether he even exists. Indeed, when he and Evan first meet, Old Karamakate is surprised that he can be seen at all. Evan, too, is searching for yakruna, but for a different reason than Theo. Rubber trees bearing yakruna plants yield a higher quality of sap, which Evan has been asked by his government to locate to aid the war effort. It gradually becomes clear, however, that Evan is engaged in a personal quest in addition to his government mission, and these objectives will ultimately conflict.

As Embrace of the Serpent shifts fluidly between its two time periods, Guerra creates a sobering portrait of a region once rich with a thriving culture but now decimated by colonization and profiteering. Some of the devastation is literal, as illustrated by the rubber plantation encountered by Theo and Manduca, where a horribly maimed slave tends the pots gathering sap from trees. (Manduca, who once performed the same job, reacts with grief and fury.) Other changes are subtler: Theo reluctantly surrenders his compass to the chief of a tribe he encounters, even though he knows that its use may cause the tribe to abandon and forget its existing system of reckoning direction by wind and stars, which requires no equipment. The mixed blessing of Christian missionary work is revealed during a visit to a school run by a Catholic priest, who protects native children from the rubber trade, but then disciplines them with a whip, just like the rubber barons. Years later, Karamakate returns to the same locale, where a mad Spaniard has declared himself the new messiah and has gathered fanatical followers around him, like some Latin American variation of Joseph Conrad's Kurtz.

Whether as a vigorous and mocking young man or a weary and resigned old one, Karamakate serves as a reproachful witness to the irreparable change wrought by outsiders upon his land and culture. Nine languages are spoken in Embrace of the Serpent, but differences in native tongue are the least of the gulfs that divide Karamakate's world from that of the white men who visit him. Karamakate does not experience the world as they do, and director Guerra expresses his separateness not only through the expressive faces of the two actors playing the dignified payé, but also through expressive black-and-white images of the river, the dense jungle and the stark mountain peaks to which Evan ultimately journeys. Guerra's decision to photograph the Amazon's spectacular scenery without the benefit of color was a bold one, but it pays off admirably, as the director transforms the landscape into an alien world of light and shadow haunted by its former inhabitants, who are disappearing even from memory.

Embrace of the Serpent Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Embrace of the Serpent's widescreen black-and-white images were shot on film by Colombian cinematographer David Gallego. Oscilloscope's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced from the digital intermediate, and its rendering of the film's crisply detailed vistas is a yet another example of the poetry of which B&W photography is capable. Bright whites, deep blacks and multiple shades of gray create a sense of depth and dimension, while maintaining the dream-like and otherworldly atmosphere that unites the story's two time periods. The finely resolved grain pattern contributes a sense of texture. Oscilloscope has mastered the film at an average bitrate of 27.00 Mbps, with a capable encode.

Embrace of the Serpent Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Embrace of the Serpent's 5.1 soundtrack has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, and it is a relatively modest affair, consistent with the film's quietly contemplative tone. Surround activity is limited to ambiance, but that is a loud presence in the Amazonian jungle, where insects and animals supply constant whining and buzzing. The film's dialogue (in nine languages) sounds natural, but I cannot opine on its clarity because, among other factors, it is frequently spoken by non-native speakers with an accent (e.g., both of the German explorers, who communicate mostly in Spanish). Specific sound effects, such as the snap of a whip and the cry of its victim, are effectively rendered. The ghostly score is credited to Nascuy Linares, with the intriguing addition of a classical work, Haydn's "The Creation", which is played on a gramophone in the story, but sounds much better on the soundtrack than an old recording.

Embrace of the Serpent Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Embrace of the Serpent (1080p; 1.78:1; 23:45): This comprehensive overview of the film's production includes interviews with the principle cast, as well as many crew members, including director Guerra and producer Cristina Gallego. In both image and spoken word, the documentary captures the challenges of working on location in the Amazon jungle and the environment's profound effect on all involved.



• Adventure, Culture, History, Magic: In-Depth Behind the Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1; 9:36): These four short featurettes are obviously promotional, but they contain interesting behind-the-scenes footage. The speakers in voiceover are not identified. In Spanish and occasionally in English and native languages, with English (and occasionally Spanish) subtitles. A "play all" function is included.
• Adventure
• Culture
• History
• Magic



• Lessons from the Amazon: New Interview with Actor Brionne Davis (1080p; 1.78:1; 15:03): Davis describes preparing for his role and the experience of filming Embrace. He is articulate and engaging, and the interview provides a useful introduction to the film, especially for a U.S. audience.



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2.35:1; 2:09).



• Oscilloscope Releases: Additional trailers.
• The Second Mother
• La Ciudad

Embrace of the Serpent Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Embrace of the Serpent opens with a quotation from the explorer on whom the character of Theo is based, and it aptly sums up the experience that the film aspires to create for its viewers:

[T]he display I witnessed in those enchanted hours was such, that I find it impossible to describe in a language that allows others to understand its beauty and splendor; all I know is that, like all those who have shed the thick veil that blinded them, when I came back to my senses, I had become another man.

Guerra has employed the resources of cinema to render Theo's sensation palpable in a way that the original explorer could never have imagined. Highly recommended.