Cannibal Holocaust

[lordofdance]

I figured I'd make a proper thread about this movie. It surely deserves one.

I was nervous about seeing Cannibal Holocaust due to the hype and controversy surrounding it. There've been other movies that are supposed to be relentlessly nasty and brutal that weren't as bad as I thought they'd be, so I didn't know what to expect. After sitting through it about five times, I think I can rate the content with decent accuracy:

Grossness ****1/2 out of *****
Cruelty ****1/2 out of *****
Nudity **** out of *****
Overall Disturbing Content **** out of *****
Quality of Film *** out of *****

Cannibal Holocaust is a nasty movie experience, there is no doubt, but overall it hasn't really left me that troubled. The animal cruelty hit me the hardest because it was real, but the rest of the movie is pretty easy to get through. I have been desensitized by many other films, however. If I would have seen this at a younger age, I more than likely would have been horrified.

[criterionmaster]

I actually watched the film 1 1/2 times. I watched 45 minutes of it and wasn't loving it, then my friend came over (blackmoses) and wanted to watch it so we started over and I started liking it more. I really do think it gets off to a slow start, but when it gets going it really does.

I was surprised how well shot the film was as well. The location shooting was very beautiful. The first scene where I was really like "ugh" to was the adultery punishing scene, that was very painful to me. But I got through it. Then the turtle scene, oh god I hated that. Fucking hated that. But some how liked it at the same time. I like when films disgust me, it's hard to explain.

Performances were passable at times, other times bad. But I didn't care at all while watching the film. Since it all felt so real (even though some was) I was just caught up in the film. And the fact they had to go to court to prove the film wasn't real just proves that. (At least that is a rumor I have heard, is it true?)

Then the whole ending to the film was just madness, so much happening. I just loved the end after watching the footage…[spoilers]where they are all silent after seeing it and the guy calls and goes "have this footage burned immediately." I laughed at that. But also the line, "I wonder who the real cannibals are." Maybe a cheesy way to make their point just that more obvious, about exploiting the natives and all that, but I liked it.[/spoiler]

It was one of the most painful films to watch, but also one of my favorite exploitation films. I will probably end up buying it on DVD. Is the two-disc any good? Any comments on what I had to say?

[lordofdance]

The musical score is the best part of the movie. I liked it at the end when the shit hits the fan and all of a sudden that weirdly beautiful music strats playing even though it's not appropriate for what is taking place.

I hate the pathetic attempt at commentary at the end. The movie could have seriously done without it.

The Grindhouse special edition has some interesting interviews with the cast. If you really want to learn about Cannibal Holocaust, it's worth picking up. There's some entertaining trailers for other exploitation movies, too.

Cannibal Ferox is the next film you should probably watch, because it is often discussed with Cannibal Holocaust. I keep thinking about picking it up, but I haven't decided yet. I hear that it's much cruder than Cannibal Holocaust, but extremely nauseating. Maybe I'll get it this week and check it out.

[criterionmaster]

Yeah, I love that track too. I believe it is Riz Ortolani - Cannibal Holocaust (theme). I used it in the trailer for Monument for the Dead I just made. It is such a good song. I actually downloaded the soundtrack here.

Well the "message" was hinted at throughout the whole film that I didn't really need the end line, but for some reason I liked it. Like okay, obviously the people are exploiting the cannibals and they are the real "bad people." So we don't really need it, but like I said I for some reason liked it.

I will probably go buy it at Borders sometime.

Yeah, I have heard about Cannibal Ferox, I actually thought about buying it before, but I will just rent it first. It looks good.