Deep in the heart of southern Mexico, where the tarantulas grow as big as Buicks and the trees all look like Jurassic Park leftovers, a savage cry rips through the rain forest. Is it a Mayan mountain lion? An angryYucatecan kinkajou? Try director John Frankenheimer. ''Jeeee-sus Christ!'' On a steaming day last April, the famously hotheaded filmmaker (The Manchurian Candidate) was merrily storming around the jungle, cranking out HBO's eco-thriller The Burning Season. ''What the hell is wrong with you people? I said action, goddamn it!'' Not long ago, Frankenheimer's once-awesome career seemed stuck in where- are-they-now-ville, and The Burning Season seemed destined never to get made. But both are getting second chances on Sept. 17 from 8 to 10 p.m., when HBO premieres the ultimate tree-hugging tearjerker-a sort of Gandhi Goes to the Rain Forest. Based on the life of Brazilian environmentalist and trade unionist Chico Mendes, Season is the latest entry in what's become an HBO tradition: the politically correct movie of the year (see '93's AIDS epic And the Band Played On and '92's abortion drama A Private Matter). Even its Hispanics-heavy casting is PC: Raul Julia (looking like he's overdosed on Slim-Fast since his chubbier turn in the Addams Family films) stars as Mendes, whose crusade against buzz sawing ranchers led to his 1988 murder; Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver) plays a fellow unionist; and Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman) is the anthropologist who helped Chico fight the good fight. The Mendes story had been a hot property for five years, with such green- friendly celebs as Robert Redford and Ted Turner bidding to turn it into a feature. Then, in 1989 Mendes' widow sold her rights to the Brazilian JN Filmes, for some $1 million. Three months later, JN resold the rights for $1.8 million to Warner Bros., which reportedly sank another $7 million into development-including erecting a town- square set in Costa Rica-before bailing out. ''There had already been rain-forest movies (Medicine Man, The Mosquito Coast) that weren't terribly successful,'' says Season executive producer David Puttnam. ''Besides, studios don't generally spend $20 million on a political film, especially one about an unreconstructed Marxist like Mendes.'' Enter HBO, which has a history of resurrecting doomed projects (Barbarians at the Gate). Owned by Time Warner, HBO stepped onto the turf of corporate sibling Warner Bros. to pick up Season and then shrank the budget to $9 million (mostly by paying lower actors' fees and moving the production to Mexico). ''It's the sort of movie that studios aren't making anymore,'' says Frankenheimer, taking a break from yelling on the set. ''HBO saved it.'' HBO also gave the director's career its much-needed Heimlich maneuver. Frankenheimer, now 64, was the maverick genius behind such '60s landmarks as Birdman of Alcatraz and Seven Days in May. But in the '70s and '80s, a bout with alcoholism (he quit drinking in 1981), coupled with an open frustration with mainstream moviemaking, put his career in deep freeze. It wasn't until after he directed this year's critically acclaimed HBO prison drama, Against the Wall, that his reputation began to thaw. ''I got more attention for Against the Wall than I've gotten since (1977's) Black Sunday,'' Frankenheimer says. ''It's like I've been given my career back. This is the best material I've had in years.'' As for that legendary short fuse of his, well, the actors seem to be taking it in stride. ''I have other things to concentrate on,'' says Julia-such as the five-inch scorpion he found in his hotel room one night, or his emergency helicopter ride to a hospital after downing a plate of Mexican oysters (he denies the rumors of more serious stomach trouble). ''John is very passionate about his work and that's just his way of expressing it. It doesn't bother me at all.'' The actor glances over to Frankenheimer, who couldn't look happier as he chews out a crew member. ''Of course, I say that because he hasn't yelled at me yet. If he did, I'd probably start crying.''
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