Cannibal Holocaust
Directed by Ruggero Deodato
Starring: Robert Kerman and Gabriel Yorke.
The media, it is an uncompromising beast, fuelling our minds, nine times out of ten with heartless violence and/or obscene sex. A character in this film sums the media up best, she says: “The public wants sensationalism. The more you rape their senses, the happier they are.” It is unfortunate that this is very, very true. The film in question, Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust, Is a stark, and painfully realistic account of anthropologist Professor Harold Munroe’s expedition into Amazonia, nick-named “The Green Inferno”, to find a group of 4 documentary filmmakers who went missing in the jungle trying to document primitive life. While it becomes clear on his journey that the 4 brave documentarians did indeed die, he was able to obtain their film. Back in New York, the Pan-American Broadcasting Company is planning to display the exploits of their 4 brave American filmmakers on a television program, and have Professor Munroe as their host. Before accepting, Professor Munroe asks to preview the footage before it airs, so as to get a better understanding of their terrifying account. He views the footage, and discovers that they are not as brave or heroic as he was lead to believe. He witnesses rape, torture and murder, at the hands of the very people filming this footage. They are complete savages, and by the film’s conclusion, we learn the true meaning of “What goes around, comes around.” Cannibal Holocaust is one of those movies that automatically gains a lot of hype. But what sets it apart from most movies like that, it is absolutely deserving of said hype. It is graphic, disturbing, brutal, and by far the most morally reprehensible film ever made. Through the course of the film, it doesn’t really choose sides, as both ends display their own ruthlessness. But on another note, the ones who are viewed as the most ruthless are undoubtedly the white film crew, who unlike the cannibals, are committing their atrocities to further their ratings. The cannibals commit them as a part of their religion. The bottom line: We don’t have to go to the other side of the world to find monsters, they live within us. Whether it’s the evil Americans burning natives alive for a good shot that in turn will get them ratings, or the corporate beast who is demanding those ratings in the first place. We all have evil within us, it’s just that some people let the evil consume them, and they lose their souls. The increasingly realistic human gore and the absolutely real animal violence makes Cannibal Holocaust as loved as it is hated. It has been banned in over 50 countries, and rests heavily censored in others. Very few countries offer the film in its uncut format legally, making this film big in the bootleg DVD world. In summary, depending on your mindset, Cannibal Holocaust can be very different for very different people. Up-Tight cinema snobs will more than likely call it “Violence for violence’s sake.” while some film purists will see the great potential in the film, and look past the brutality and into the moral of the story. And after all of that, die-hard gorehounds will take great pride in the film’s special effects. While some films may gain notoriety, then become soon forgotten, Cannibal Holocaust is not going anywhere any time soon, and all who see it shall never forget it. Ever.
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Bruce Campbell has a P.H.D......in kicking your ass!!
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