The Burning Season Movie Review 1994

In one of his last performances, Julia inspires as Chico Mendes, a socialist union leader who fought to protect the homes and land of Brazilian peasants in the western Amazon rain forest. With Mendes' help the peasants form a union and struggle to prevent the building of a road that will provide easy access to forest land for speculators and cattlemen. Naturally, they are violently opposed by corruption-ridden capitalist powers in the government. Julia provides a haunting portrayal of the heroic figure who was assassinated in 1990. Based in part on the book by Andrew Revkin. Filmed on location in Mexico.

Distribution

Warner Home Video, Inc., 5775 Linder Canyon Rd., Westlake Village, CA 91362, URL: http://whv.warnerbros.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS
Running time 123 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

True Stories, Biopics: Politics, Politics, Justice Prevails...?, South America, Labor & Unions, Trees & Forests, Assassination

Screenplay

William Mastrosimone, Michael Tolkin, Ron Hutchinson

Cast

Raul Julia, Edward James Olmos, Sonia Braga, Luis Guzman, Nigel Havers, Kamala Dawson, Tomas Milian, Esai Morales, Tony Plana, Carmen Argenziano

Director

John Frankenheimer

Music

Gary Chang

Producer

Thomas M. Hammel, John Frankenheimer, David Puttnam, HBO Pictures