CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST

By BRIAN THOMAS     November 08, 2005

The front cover to Grindhouse Releasing's long awaited limited edition (only 11,111 copies pressed) of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST touts it as "The most controversial movie ever made." Is it? Well probably not. HOLOCAUST hasn't been seen by nearly enough people to qualify for that title something like DEEP THROAT, BIRTH OF A NATION or THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST are more likely. Until fairly recently, unless you wandered into an urban grindhouse exploitation theater in the early 1980s and caught it accidentally, in order to see the film you had to deliberately seek it out, and if you did, you were already aware of what you were getting into, especially in the United States. However, every other bit of hype surrounding this film, as well as this 2-disc deluxe DVD, is well deserved.

Writer Gianfredo Clerici (BLOODSTAINED BUTTERFLY) and director Ruggero Deodato (HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK) were inspired more by mondo documentaries than gothic horror traditions. Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi had already taken this form of film about as far as it could go in MONDO CANE and the tragic AFRICA ADDIO, and pioneered a new form of Italian neo-realism in GOODBYE UNCLE TOM, a film about slavery in America shot as if it was a documentary filmed in the 1800s. Deodato even hired MONDO CANE's composer Riz Ortolani to write the score. The creative team had already exploited scenes of savagery in the wild for their survival shocker JUNGLE HOLOCAUST, which was part of a wave of cannibal films that followed in the wake of Umberto Lenzi's MAN FROM DEEP RIVER. But CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST combined traditional adventure movie material, faux documentary footage and shocking violence in a way that had never been done before. The result is repulsive, thought provoking, and ultimately saddening.

The film opens with news reports about an expedition of young documentarians Alan Yates (Carl Gabriel Yorke) and Jack Anders (Perry Pirkanen) that never returned from as trip up the Amazon River to search for cannibalistic tribes. The first half of the film concerns a second expedition by New York anthropologist Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman, an American adult film star who became a legitimate leading man in Italy) to search for them. Along the way, Monroe is shocked and terrified by the apparent cruelty of life in the wild, witnessing torture, executions, and finally cannibalism among warring tribes. After some harrowing adventures, he is able to follow a few clues to determine the group's ultimate destination and manages to recover the 16mm film they shot, which recounts their utterly disturbing final days.

Back in New York, a television network plans to show the footage in a two part special, warming up the audience with profiles of the filmmakers. Here, Deodato inserts real African execution footage as a clip from Yates' prize winning first film "The Last Road to Hell" (a DVD supplement contains much more of this footage). Monroe argues that they shouldn't have made such an announcement without seeing the actual film, and that at least they should consult the loved ones of the deceased first. To make his point, he arranges a screening of the uncut footage for the executives in charge. The footage reveals the shocking abuses of the brash filmmakers, who bully the natives and brag about how much money they'll make from their film. They go on to kill several natives, burn a village, and rape and kill a woman, leaving her body impaled on a stake all of which they film for later re-editing to serve their own purposes. The last reel of film shows the horrifying retribution of cannibalistic natives.

While films that followed in its footsteps of have scored high in entertainment value, with THE LAST BROADCAST and highly successful THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT leading to scores of other docu-dramas and THIS IS SPINAL TAP breaking new ground in the field of docu-comedy, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is far from light entertainment. Deodato surely based part of his idea on charges against Jacopetti, Prosperi and their ilk had faked at least some of their footage, and even staged atrocities for their camera. However, as he contends in the commentrak he shares with Kerman, it was mainly the violence he saw taking place in the news from all over the world, but especially in Italy, that propelled him, whether he intended to or not, into making such a raw statement on film. The film demonstrates how supposedly primitive people commit what are viewed as acts of savagery as part of their belief system, rules of government or struggle to survive, while supposedly civilized men commit the same acts to satisfy their own greed or perversion. But Deodato uses cinema like a sledgehammer, assaulting his audience with onscreen gore and cruelty that is also so ingeniously staged to appear real that he and his crew are still questioned about its authenticity. He further blurs the line between reality and special effects by including footage of actual animal deaths alongside faked human disembowelment. These scenes are so controversial that Deodato was embroiled in legal arguments over them for years, though he defends their inclusion as documentation of actual hunting by indigenous peoples, while Kerman tries to point out where the line should be drawn by there's a difference between killing for the camera and filming what would occur in any case.

The folks at Grindhouse have thoughtfully included a menu option that excludes this footage from the film, as it often "spoils the show" for even the most diehard gorehound. Still, there's plenty of blood & guts left to turn your stomach, with none of it couched in the cozy spookhouse theatricality of a horror programmer. With so many graphic scenes of gruesome torture and bloody death, the competition is fierce, but the impaled woman is perhaps the most shocking sight, scaring off printers whenever stills of it are used editorially or in advertising. But what makes these scenes so chilling, and casts a pall over the entire film, is an atmosphere of uncleanliness and revulsion. Italian filmmakers have a knack for this type of grit, but what sets HOLOCAUST apart from other Italian cannibal movies like Lenzi's 1981 knock-off CANNIBAL FEROX (aka MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY) was its superior construction and thoughtful point of view. Unlike its hyper-exploitive brethren, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is a gut-punch from a thinking creature.

And let's not forget the score in this equation. As well put together as this film is, it gains a great deal from Ortolani's beautiful, heartfelt music.

This 25th anniversary 2-disc DVD release gives the film a royal treatment, bestowing a wealth of extras on it without losing perspective on the subject. True to their name, Grindhouse appreciates its films for their showmanship as well as their art, the type of folks that reminisce about their favorite '80s mom & pop video stores, where the tapes all smelled like they'd been used as ashtrays. So, while many extras examine the film in depth, and the feature is given a generous 50 chapters, they also include some fun stuff for the cult connoisseur. Disc one accompanies the first rate uncut feature transfer with the aforementioned commentrak, and also with an option to branch into video commentary from time to time. The audio tracks are the same on both, but we get to see the faces and gestures that way, as well as finding out the participants' beverage choices. Disc 2 provides a Making-Of documentary made in Italy, including interviews with a few more participants and behind-the-scenes footage that provides a great depth and breadth of insight into a production that's been shrouded in mystery for many of the film's fans. Looking at the "home movie" footage from the location, one can't help but see it paralleling the film in some ways.

The disc's goodies continue with more interviews, a Necrophagia music video shot by Jim Van Bebber, trailers for Grindhouse's upcoming DVDs, and more.

Supposedly, Deodato is working on a sequel of some sort to be released in 2006.


Copyright © 2005 Brian Thomas, author of the massive book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS.
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