Cannibal Holocaust Review
Why Ruggero Deodato’s 1980 shocker is as relevant as ever
Somewhere deep within the seedy underbelly of a genre that has become worryingly congested with derivative concepts and glossy remakes of aging classics, Ruggero Deodato’s 1980 shocker Cannibal Holocaust continues to polarise audiences the world over. Indeed, there are those who wholeheartedly love the film for its wild oscillations between truth and fiction, for the visceral honesty that permeates its more graphic scenes, and for its refusal to stay within the moral boundaries of good taste, while others hate it for precisely the same reasons. However, only the more emotionally redundant among us can walk away from Cannibal Holocaust with an ambivalent shrug of the shoulders, for it is a film that positively screams for an emotional response.
Cannibal Holocaust Plot
As a premise it’s at once simple and effective; four celebrated documentary film-makers journey into a wildly unchartered South American jungle. Their plan? To record the barbaric practices of its warring indigenous tribes. When they fail to return, New York based anthropology Professor Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman) sets a search party on their trail where, alongside reels of undeveloped film stock, the grisly skeletal remains of its owners are uncovered.
Back in New York a local television station is eager to broadcast the recovered film, but after viewing the unedited footage and seeing for himself the film-makers merciless attempts to contrive reality, Monroe becomes increasingly concerned by the incomprehensible barbarism he has witnessed…on both sides of the camera.
Social-Commentary
Crucially it’s the final third of Cannibal Holocaust that sears itself upon the collective psyche, further reinforcing its billing as The One That Goes all the Way, but what’s important here are the deeper thematic nuances that lurk beneath the heady carnage faced by Monroe as he pores over the salvaged film. Indeed, there’s a clever social commentary at work here, with Deodato drawing unfavourable comparisons between the film-makers murderous antics and the eventual, inevitable, and arguably justifiable retaliation of the native tribesmen. Essentially, it’s a criticism of the gluttonous mores of contemporary Western society in the face of a people whose rituals and belief systems have remained intact since the dawn of man.
Animal Cruelty
Taken at face value it would appear to be a morally repugnant celebration of rape, murder, human impalement and relentless animal cruelty, a talking point amongst critics who might question its moral lack. Essentially, Deodato’s refusal to adhere to the homogenous norms of narrative convention is what continues to make Cannibal Holocaust such a traumatic experience for the average viewer; the animal cruelty we witness on screen, the savage decapitation of a large turtle, the shooting of a pig, the slaughter of a musk-rat, all of it is real, a constant, jarring reminder for its audience that the line between truth and fiction is an easily traversable boundary. Indeed, the grainy Verite aesthetic of the recovered film, the use of real locations and the somewhat jittery, stilted improvisation of its actors further corroborate this.
For further information on the film check out: www.cannibalholocaust.net or www.braineater.com.
Cast List and Credits
- Robert Kerman (Professor Harold Monroe)
- Francesca Ciardi (Faye Daniels)
- Perry Pirkanen (Jack Anders)
- Luca Barbareschi (Mark Tomaso)
- Salvatore Basile (Chaco Losojos)
- Carl Gabriel Yorke (Alan Yates)
- Ricardo Fuentes (Felipe Ocanya)
- Directed by Ruggero Deodato
- Original Story and Screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici
- Produced by Franco Di Nunzio and Franco Palaggi
- Original Music by Riz Ortolani
Theatrical Poster for Cannibal Holocaust
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