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Cannibal Holocaust (1979)

Dir: Ruggero Deodato

This infamous film from Deodato tells the story of an expedition into the Amazon headed by Professor Monroe (Robert Kerman) who with two guides, Chako and Miguel, and a captured Native (who is forced to lead them to his village) go in search of some missing TV filmmakers, Faye (Francesca Ciardi), Alan (Carl Gabriel Yorke) and Jack (Perry Pirkanen), who were making a Documentary on Cannibalism.

Their journey into the green inferno of the Amazon forces Monroe to witness the savagery of, not just the environment itself, but also it’s inhabitants.
The most shocking of which is a ritualistic punishment for adultery. The wronged man pulls a naked, screaming women out of his canoe and across the mud flats where he at first violates her with a large stone dildo before ramming a ball of mud studded with rock shards between her legs. He finally beats her to death with the dildo. It is a truly disturbing scene of sexual violence, with no detail spared, either in the violence or the nakedness of the women.
This is the first scene that signposts the uncompromising journey Monroe, and us, are about to be taken on.

Once at the village (of the Yacumo) they are met with hostility. There are signs of a fire at the village, and burnt bones lie in the ruins of a hut. Gaining the natives trust, Monroe learns that the trail of the missing crew leads to one of two warring cannibal tribes, ‘The Tree People’. The Yacumo nervously lead them to the cannibals camp where the Professor and his men are shown a bone sculpture made up of the remains of the missing crew and their film cans.

Monroe returns to America with the crews footage and the TV company plan on editing the film together to broadcast. The Professor researches the filmmakers. He is shown an earlier documentary they made, called “Last Road To Hell”, that shows war and executions in Africa. He is informed that it was all faked and even set up by Alan and his team.

And it seems this evil practice was still continuing, as the salvaged footage of their cannibal exploration shows how they exploited, violated and raped their way through the tree people to gather authentic footage........

 

Few films carry as much controversial baggage around with them as "Cannibal Holocaust". Other films, such as “Salo”, “Men Behind the Sun” and “Guinea Pig”, may ultimately be more disturbing, but their distribution, either to the U.S and Europe was small, or concentrated in the ‘Art House’ circuit. "Holocaust" was launched world wide to general audiences. The advent of video ensured that its extreme reputation would thrive. Its a reputation it lives up to.

Once again Deodato teams up with writer Gianfranco Clerici ("Jungle Holocaust" and "House on the Edge of the Park") to create another solid, brutal slice of extreme cinema. Don’t let the unexpectedly sedate, even romantic, opening credits theme (by Riz Ortolani, whose work here is exceptional) fool you, Deodato is about to serve up a dish suitable only for the strongest stomachs.

The scenes of brutality, be it the fake Human violence or the sickeningly real animal snuff, are dished up to the viewer with complete seriousness and are completely unapologetic in their graphic detail. The animal slaughter is, as with most Italian cannibal films, gratuitous and utterly reprehensible. True, the real deaths of the animals,when combined with the extreme special effects (by Aldo Gapparri) for the human deaths, give the film an almost palatable sense of savagery, but is any film worth the suffering these creatures go through? The infamous turtle scene is truly disgusting (although a quick kill) and, as the killing is done by Alan and his crew, the spurious excuse that is used by the likes of Deodato and Umberto Lenzi that "it’s only what the cannibals do anyway" can not be used here.

Away from the animal atrocities though, Deaodato with expert help from his editor Vincenzo Tomassi and cinematographer Sergio D’Offizi, has made an exciting and thankfully serious movie that stands head and shoulders above such trash cinema efforts like Lenzi’s “Cannibal Ferox” and D’Amatos “Trap Them and kill Them”. The documentary footage looks suitably authentic with its light flares, scratches, jump cuts and ever-moving camera. Nearly 20 years before the pseudo mondo footage of “Blair Witch”, Deodato shows us how it’s done.
This technique also helps the gore effects to no end. Instead of the static close ups of patently false looking latex appliances being carved up that "Ferox" went for, Deodato chooses to film his gore scenes from a slight distance with unstable camera set ups. Add to this the absence of garishly fake blood, (Gaparri choosing a darker, disturbingly realistic colour) and what you have are truly unnerving dismemberments and beheadings. It’s here that the score come into it’s own as the familiar electronic base sound of Italian exploitation cinema opens the gore scenes before the wonderful theme music comes in with the ominous base underpinning the graphic splatter.

The most famous gore scene is of course the native woman skewered on to a huge wooden pole that enters between her legs and exits from her mouth. It’s a bizarre and gruesome spectacle. Much was said at the time about this scene being real, but Deaodato has perfectly described how the effect was created and reports since have backed him up. The only example in this movie where you DON’T believe the hype.

As in “Jungle Holocaust”, "Cannibal Holocaust" never shies away from male and female nudity. Whether in the playful scenes of Monroe with the Yacumo women or the shockingly brutal rapes, D’Offizi’s camera is there to capture every detail.

That none of the characters (with the exception of Monroe) are in the slightest bit sympathetic makes you not care for their safety and as such allows no empathy with them for the viewer. But even this is an example of the duality of this film. Normally this would be a fatal error, but here it also works to overwhelm the viewer in the feeling that there is simply no saving grace in this savage, cruel world. A feeling that adds up to a powerfully nihilistic experience for the audience.

Perhaps the most telling sequence on the attitude of the film crew is, after we have just seen them set the Native village on fire and burn to death numerous people, Alan and Faye (with Alan almost in a sexual frenzy) fucking. Not only in front of the mourning Natives, but near the smouldering remains of their homes and Family. It is a chilling example of the almost pathological disdain that they have for the Natives.

Deodato has stated that "Holocaust" is a film attacking the attitude and ignored responsibilities of the media to the people they are reporting on. The footage pretending to be “Last Road to Hell” does indeed contain authentic mondo scenes of executions and mutilated bodies in Africa, but the implication in the movies that it is faked is an obvious attack by Deodato on Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, two real life documentary filmmakers (who made "Mondo Cane", the film that started the whole mondo craze, and the infamous "Africa Addio") who were accused of faking supposed real events like riots, executions and torture in their films to boost the few authentic snuff scenes they had. Worse they were also accused of actually setting up real deaths purely for the camera, though they always denied it and no case has been brought against them..

Monroe, who becomes the conscience of the film, states how the crew’s footage should be destroyed, that it’s an inhuman, murderous con that should never be seen. But it is here that Deodato trips up over himself. He condemns Alan and his team (just as he is condemning Jacopetti and Prosperi) for their actions, but has he not, as Director, set up animals to be slaughtered for supposed real life footage shot by his fictional film crew, does he not revel in the same (all be it faked) bloodshed and violence so important in selling his film to the public, that he so loudly condemns?

Cannibal Holocaust (just like “Jungle Holocaust”) is a film that’s difficult to recommend to an average viewer. The animal suffering is of course grotesque, and yet the film itself is a well made, multi-layered, exciting and ultimately satisfying wallow in the blood stained waters of extreme cinema. The gore is exceptional in its execution, the exploitation scenes plentiful, the direction, music, editing and camera work of the highest quality.

A movie that's a very, very guilty pleasure.