Movie: Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Directed by Ruggero Deodato
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL
Plot:
A team of filmmakers travel to the Amazon rainforest to shoot a documentary about the preliterate tribes that live there. Things don't go well. Hilarity ensues.
Background and Reaction:
I have no idea why Scott chose Cannibal Holocaust, but I will forever hate him for it. OK, Just kidding... but CH is possibly the most disturbing movie I've ever seen. It's ugly. Unrelentingly so. Keith said it's a "beautiful ugly film," and I kind of know what he means, but the fact is this was ugly.
That said, it's an important film in that it pioneered the "found footage" genre. It also appeared so realistic that the director, Ruggerio Deodato, ended up in court over the deaths of the stars. It didn't help him that he had contracted the stars to stay out of the public eye for a year in order to encourage the idea that the footage was real. In the end, he was cleared of the charges of making a snuff film when he was able to get the stars to appear -- live -- in court. Apparently, though Deodato still got in trouble over the numerous graphic killings of animals.
Another thing that makes this film worthwhile is that there is actually a serious message about modern society and the question of who are the real savages. Now, I'm not into romanticizing preliterate cultures and denigrating modernity, but its still interesting to see the point made -- and made well -- in a film. The fact is that the modern documentarians who appear in the movie are devoid of scruples, and simply do need to be killed.
As one would hope for from a found footage type of film, everything is graphic -- the murders, the rapes, the burning of villages. It simply seemed real -- more so than any big budget Hollywood production. And that's what made it such a well-done movie,a dn so disturbing as well.
After Scott told us what he would be showing I did some research, so I kind of had an inkling of what was to come. I knew that this would be disturbing. I also got the distinct impression that the story behind the movie is more interesting than the movie itself. I was kind of right and wrong about that. The story behind the film is fascinating, but the movie itself, though not entertaining in the conventional sense, was much more interesting to watch than I had expected. I'm actually really glad I saw this, though I hope never to see it again.
I was initially torn about how to rate this. In some ways, I felt it deserved a 10, because it succeeded brilliantly in what it set out to do. But it is so far outside the normal movie experience, and so deeply troubling that I really didn't want to give it that kind of accolade. I think it was Keith who talked me into giving it the 10. It did what it tried to do. And if Keith, having seen it several times, and having seen many many horror films, still has to look away during some sequences, then it deserves its 10.
Ratings:
Ethan: 8
Me: 10
Fausto: 7
Sean: Can't put a number on it, but it was better than expected
Dave: 9.8 to 9.9
Joe: 9.3
Keith: 10
Bechdel:
Cannibal Holocaust fails the Bechdel test.
No comments:
Post a Comment