Rating of
2.5/4
Hard to Stomach, Harder to Judge
Chris Kavan - wrote on 10/06/08
This is one of the classic underground cult films that for a long time could only be seen under certain (perhaps illegal) circumstances. Banned or heavily edited, Cannibal Holocaust is one of the movies that is whispered about in dark basements or chatrooms - one of those "I can't believe they would do this" kind of thing.
With high hopes of being shocked and awed by the spectacal of such depravity and immorallity, I found a copy just sitting at Best Buy. I felt like hiding it under my coat - like you would with an adult film - but I felt better when the guy who rang up my purchase exclaimed he had been looking for the same movie. What are the odds of that?
Anyway, the film itself can be considered offensive - especially due to the several graphic animal killings. The turtle mutilation scene is actually the hardest to watch just because it is a real live turtle that is being systematically butchered for no real purpose other than to show the butchering. Other animals, including a monkey, snake and pig are also killed: some serve to move the plot, others are just there to shock.
Animal savagry aside, Cannibal Holocaust shows plenty of twisted scenes involving humans. If any of the following makes your stomach turn, don't watch this: castration, impaling, decapitation, disembowelment, amputation, aborted fetuses, rape, mutilation, torture - you get the picture, though seeing it on the screen is way more disturbing. The final 20 or so minutes feels like the Blair Witch Project, if it took place in the Amazon and had a lot of full-frontal nudity and buckets of blood and guts. This is right up there with Audition as having the hardest ending to sit through.
I don't know if the director was being serious or tongue-in-cheek with his message that violence for violence sake is wrong. The documentarians are shown to be arrogant and uncaring - burning down a village to make their film "sensational" and then raping a tribe woman for their own pleasure - it's no wonder they get ripped limb from limb for their troubles. The whole point is that they are trying to stage violence where it's not present - and what better place to do it than between cannibalistic Amazon tribes?
It's easy to see that the director is at least truthful - watch any news program, local or national, and the top story (on most days) is probably going to be about a shooting, gang violence, a horrific accident, a police chase, suicide bombings, natural disaster, etc. As a country, I can't help feel that we feed off misery and suffering, and in that respect, Ruggero Deodato gets it right. I can't say I wholly approve how he goes about showing it (even the director himself is appologetic about the film), but unlike some grindhouse cult films, at least this has a message, even if it's buried under animal carcasses and stinking innards.
