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Film: Cannibal Holocaust
Year: 1980
Director: Ruggero Deodato
Writer: Gianfranco Clerici
Starring: Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi and Perry Pirkanen
Review:
This film is one that I learned about in college. My roommate discovered it on a list of challenging films. He asked if I had seen or heard about it. At that time, I don’t think I did. He did let me borrow the copy he had and it changed what I knew about film. I’ve seen this a couple of other times now. The most recent was the 4K at the Gateway Film Center as a Journey through the Aughts watch.
Synopsis: an anthropologist ventures into the Amazon rainforest on a rescue mission, where he recovers footage shot by a film crew documenting their disastrous encounters with local cannibal tribes.
Opening with overhead shots of South America set to a laid-back song, the film introduces a news report about a missing documentary crew in the Amazon. The lost team consists of director Alan Yates (Carl Gabriel Yorke), assistant director Faye Daniels (Francesca Ciardi), and camera operators Jack Anders (Perry Pirkanan) and Mark Tomaso (Luca Barbareschi). A rescue expedition, led by Professor Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman), is sent to locate them and retrieve their recovered footage.
We then follow a group of military men as they come upon natives that are eating human remains. They shoot at them and capture one. This prisoner will be used to get in with a tribe. Harold is teamed with Chaco (Salvatore Basile) and Miguel Lujan (Ricardo Fuentes). They venture into the rain forest.
The film then shows how difficult it is to traverse this dangerous area. They use their prisoner to get in with his tribe, as well as the help of Miguel. Harold realizes that a couple of them are wearing things that belonged to the missing group. They befriend the tribe and see their way of life. It is brutal though when a woman is punished for adultery with a rock until she is killed.
This group continues to venture even farther in; they finally make contact with the cannibal tribe that no living man has seen. They are able to befriend them and be involved in their rituals. They end up finding the remains of the missing documentary crew. They are not able to take them down, but with a voice recorder, they do convince the tribe to allow Harold to bring back the reels of film.
Along with the television executives, Paolo Paoloni and Lionello Pio di Savoia, they start to go through the footage. The idea is to show this on television to get massive ratings. Ahead of Harold watching, he is soon raw footage to a prior documentary that the team did, establishing that they used to stage footage to sensualize it.
As they go through it, Harold starts to see why the tribes they encountered were hostile toward them in the beginning and why the documentary crew disappeared. It then becomes a moral dilemma. Can the footage be shown? And who were the real villains here?
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I’ll start is by saying that after multiple watches, this film isn’t as bad as I frame it in my head as I’m preparing to watch. That’s not to say that it isn’t still graphic. There are multiple scenes of simulated rape that made me feel uncomfortable. I still don’t like seeing the animals get killed on camera, but it did make me feel better knowing that the villagers they used in the film actually ate them. That makes it easier to handle despite how vile it makes me feel.
Beyond the initial shock, the film serves as a compelling allegory about human nature, blurring the line between the civilized and uncivilized to question who the true monster is. While Harold’s team entering the green inferno suggests native hostility, understanding the actions of Alan’s crew provides vital context, exposing an imperialist superiority that exploits the natives.
Another central theme is media exploitation. Television executives eagerly preview the footage, dismissing the fact that Alan previously staged content for ratings rather than maintaining journalistic integrity. Their willingness to broadcast the material only falters at the final, dark reel. This ties into audience voyeurism and complicity, as Faye, Mark, and Jack initially spectate before ultimately participating in the normalized atrocities.
Moving on to the acting, an effective amateurishness makes the film work better. Kerman, Basile, and Fuentes are good as the main group. Credit to Yorke, Ciardi, Pirkanen, and Barbareschi, whose documentary crew felt so real the film faced court battles over its authenticity. The natives were genuine, though no actual cannibal tribes exist in South America. Paoloni, di Savoia, and the rest of the cast adequately round out the performances.
Regarding filmmaking aspects, its early found footage elements complement the amateur acting. The cinematography and framing are commendable, though a surviving film reel still inside a camera is a noticeable logical flaw. Certain moments also raise questions about why characters kept filming instead of fleeing. The brutal, realistic effects remain cringeworthy despite visible seams, and while the animal violence is difficult to watch, it effectively desensitizes the viewer to the upcoming atrocities. Finally, the excellent music adds significant character, serving as a soundtrack I regularly listen to while writing.
In conclusion, despite its disturbing nature and graphic content, this remains a powerful, thought-provoking film that uses found-footage techniques to bring realism to the critiques of media exploitation and the blurred lines between civilization and barbarism, ultimately earning its place as a challenging but memorable piece of cinema.
My Rating: 10 out of 10