Ultime grida dalla savana
Encyclopedia
Ultime grida dalla savana (1975) (Final Cry of the Savanna), also known as La Grande caccia and by its English title Savage Man Savage Beast, is a Mondo
documentary directed by Antonio Climati and Mario Morra. Filmed all around the world, its central theme
focuses on hunting and the interaction between man and animal. More specifically, the film documents various forms of hunting that can be found in the world and how humans and animals can both become the hunter or prey. Like many Mondo films, the filmmakers claim to document real, bizarre and violent behavior and customs, although some scenes were actually staged. It is narrated by Italian novelist Alberto Moravia
.
This was the first film of Climati's and Morra's Savage Trilogy, which also includes Savana violenta
(This Violent World) and Dolce e selvaggio
(Sweet and Savage). The best known film of the trilogy, Ultime grida dalla savana became influential in exploitation cinema
by use of cinematographic techniques that were repeated in numerous subsequent Mondo films. Two scenes in particular, a lion attack on a tourist in Namibia
and the murder of an indigenous man
by a group of mercenaries in South America, have gained notoriety as purportedly genuine footage of human death. The film also sparked a rivalry between the team of Climati and Morra and the brothers Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni. These two teams became the forerunners of the second generation of Mondo cinema.
. The opening scene introduces a Patagonia
n hunter who hunts stags to survive. The opening credits play over as he chases after a stag, which he ultimately shoots, kills, and beheads. Afterwards, one of the numerous scenes of anti-hunting gatherings is shown, this one in Cape Cod
. The attention quickly shifts to wildlife hunting, where a monkey is killed by a leopard, and then a squirrel monkey
by an anaconda
. The theme changes again to the social hunt
of wild game in Australia and Africa. Aborigines
hunt kangaroos and other large marsupials with spears and giant bats with boomerangs. Indigenous tribes of Africa hunt large game, including antelope
, buffalo
, and elephants
, in the savanna
. Religious ceremonies are also shown, where the African hunters proceed to suck fresh blood from the entrails of an antelope, and the Australian aborigines symbolically bury their prey in dust to placate the spirits of the animals. Lastly, two brothers are arrested after partaking in a form of ritual post-mortem cannibalism
of three of their relatives in order to acquire the hunting skills of the dead.
Other hunting traditions then follow, again rooted in religion. The warriors of the Kuru tribe in Africa commit a sacred act in which they copulate with the ground in belief that it will make the Earth fertile and produce animals for the hunt, and a stag hunt in France, rooted in ancient pagan beliefs of the Gauls
, is blessed by a mass
before the hunt takes place, during which the hunters and dogs chase and ultimately kill a fleeing stag. In a fox hunt, the Wild Fox Association sabotages the hunting efforts by serving wine laced with a laxative to the hunters and distracting the dogs with an Afghan bitch
in heat
. Their efforts are then connected to species conservation
, and to exemplify that hunters are truly concerned in wildlife conservation, Argentine
hunters capture an Andean condor
to sell to a zoo. A collage of other conservation efforts is shown, including the tagging of white rhinoceros
es, grizzly bears and elephants, which are shot with morphine
darts. Argentinian deer and elephant seals are physically subdued and marked. Tourists on Africans safaris
then come to view the conservation efforts, which the narrator claims to have seemingly negated the animals' violent instincts. This deception is demonstrated with the mauling of a tourist named Pit Dernitz by lions.
Another anti-hunting demonstration becomes the film's focus, this time on the Isle of Wight
. Nudity and intercourse are practiced freely amongst the demonstrators, and this is contrasted with ancient hunter-gathering groups, who had strict rules concerning nudity. The narrator argues that once hunting had left this group of people, so did their rules toward nudity. Also highlighted is the contradiction that though this people are against hunting, thousands of farm-raised animals had to die to support them. The focus changes to Humboldt Penguin
s, which cannot hunt because of polluted waters, and thus seem detached and without focus. This effect is compared to modern day Eskimo
s, who no longer hunt since the discovery of oil in their homeland and have fallen into depression and melancholy. In order to reverse the process, several groups of men go out and revive their hunting ways. Reflected in this is a montage of gun ownership, which the film relates to feelings of masculinity, followed by shots of illegal elephant poaching from Africa. To offset the dwindling number of game due to poaching, warriors from the Lobi tribe celebrate the "Ceremony of Life", in which they masturbate
with ceremonial rods and pour the product into the river, hoping the animals will drink the semen and multiply. Attention shifts to large electronic probes in the Peruvian savanna used to measure the winds of El Niño for optimal fishing conditions. Fishing birds are also electronically tagged so the prime fishing areas can be located based on the birds' fishing habits. This fish frenzy in South America is reflected in the salmon run in Alaska, where kodiak bear
s hunt and fight for prey.
An examination of a hunting tradition in northern Europe follows, where falcons assist humans in hunting by catching wild game, such as rabbits and pheasant
s. Further collaboration with man and animal is highlighted, this time with cheetahs. To demonstrate the cheetah's speed and effectiveness, a chase between a group of cheetahs and ostriches is arranged, in which the birds are hunted down and killed. The next animal collaborators are dogs, which hunt wild boar in Patagonia and a puma which has attacked a herd of sheep and a shepherd. In cities, however, stray dogs are the ones hunted by dog catchers, which the narrator claims demonstrates that the hunt is still active, but the prey has changed. Indios
also use dogs to hunt monkeys, but their efforts are compared to mercenaries hunting the Indios themselves in order to clear them from their native land for development. In one such instance, mercenaries retaliate against a death of a workman by hunting down a group of Indios, one of which they torture, castrate and murder. Various scenes of wildlife are then shown, after which orangutan
s are hunted to be sold to zoos. The film then ends with the coexistence of man and animal between Erik Zimen, an ecologist, and wolves, the group of animals he wishes to save.
only by Jaws
. Despite this, reception to the film from mainstream movie critics is almost completely negative, although it is well accepted by critics in exploitation film
circles. Mark Goodall calls the film a "remarkable, pseudo-philosophical mondo examination of hunting fixated on the cyclical, the (inter)relationship of the hunter and the hunted," Kerekes and Slater also comment that it was, "The success of Savage Man... Savage Beast [that] inaugurated the 'savage' trilogy."
Time Out Film Guide made similar criticisms of the film's content, calling it "[a] bloody, blatantly exploitative mess of a movie", and says it is "just another opportunity to gawp at raw scenes of sex and (more especially) violence". Due to its graphic content, the film was also used by James Ferman
at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
as an example of the need for film censorship.
The inclusion of several staged or scripted scenes has made the film a target for critical condemnation. Numerous scenes have been proven fake, including the anti-fox hunting campaign involving the fictional "Wild Fox Association" and the murder of the indigenous men by mercenaries. During another wildlife rally, the fabrication of the scene is apparent with the presence of Italian porn star Ilona Staller
. The lion attack on Pit Dernitz is also suspected of being a fabrication by film historians.
Although staged footage has been included since the early history of Mondo cinema, these scenes are nonetheless targets for critical abashment. Kerekes and Slater call the anti-fox hunt sequence "self-parody," and Goodall labels the same scene as "ludicrous". The staged scenes of human death have also been criticized for being more exploitative than educational, particularly among critics who are aware of the scenes' fabrication. Aside from his criticism of the film's staged footage, Goodall also points out the reuse of sequences of African tribal hunting and poaching from Africa addio as a flaw of the film.
Due to its graphic content, Ultime grida dalla savana has encountered censorship issues with certain countries' film boards. In Australia, the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) banned both an uncut and cut version of the film in 1976. An appeal filed later that year was denied. Ten years later, the home video
distributor Palace Video brought the same cut print before the film board and it received an R18+ rating. The cuts include segments from the lion attack, the torture and murder of the indigenous man by mercenaries, the death of a fox by a pack of hounds, and the death of a stag by a hunter in the opening scene.
The film faced similar censorship problems for its theatrical release in the United Kingdom
. In 1976, nearly 10 minutes were cut before it was passed with an X-rating by the British Board of Film Classification
(BBFC). Various scenes of animal cruelty, a race between cheetahs and ostriches, the lion attack, and the mercenaries' hunt of Amazonian natives were all cut from the British release. The scenes of animal cruelty were targeted by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
(RSPCA) to be cut from the film, specifically the hunt and disembowelment of a puma. Also in 1976, the Valtion elokuvatarkastamo, the Finnish film classification board, banned the film in Finland
in its entirety for the inclusion of scenes of genuine human death.
and Franco Prosperi. The camera work used in Ultime grida dalla savana, particularly the cinéma vérité
styled shots, was previously used in Africa addio, and some scenes are directly lifted from the latter film. Also, Carlo Savina's music conducted for the film bears similarities to the music Riz Ortolani
conducted for Mondo cane
and Africa addio. In terms of content, Kerekes and Slater say, "Savage Man Savage Beast is a slight return to the more encyclopaedic world view of mondo cinema which was prevalent in the 60s...," which demonstrates Climati's early roots in Mondo cinema. Firsching and Goodall also note that Ultime grida dalla savana was a transitional film, as it, "...provided a vital link between the 'classic' shockumentaries of the early-mid 1960s and the much crueller mondos of the mid 1970s and beyond."
The scenes of human death, which were shot in a manner that resembled an observational documentary, became influential in exploitation cinema, as several subsequent films would use similar filming techniques to lend certain scenes a sense of increased realism. Ruggero Deodato
used this style prolifically in his film Cannibal Holocaust
, in which a group of filmmakers goes missing after they head into the South American rain forest to make a documentary on local cannibal tribes. In the film, only the team's footage is recovered, which is all shot in the cinéma vérité style that resembles the "amateur footage" in Ultime grida dalla savana. The footage from Cannibal Holocaust proved so realistic that Deodato was arrested for making a snuff film
. Charges were ultimately dropped when he produced the supposedly slain actors for the courts.
The release of Ultime grida dalla savana initiated a rivalry between Climati and Morra and two other Italian Mondo film makers, Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni. The Castiglionis had made two previous Mondo films, Africa segreta and Africa ama, before the release of Ultime grida dalla savana. One of the Castiglionis' following films, Addio ultimo uomo, released in 1978, includes a scene of "amateur footage" that mimics the scene in which mercenaries hunt natives in Ultime grida dalla savana. This scene, in which an African bushman is captured, tortured, and castrated by a rival tribe, has also been proven staged. Again in 1978, the death film Faces of Death
included fabricated "amateur footage" that is a reenactment of the death of Pit Dernitz, replacing lions with a bear.
in 1975 and was later rereleased with the soundtrack to Savana Violenta on CD
in 1991.
in 2002 with burnt-on Japanese subtitles and a running time of 91 minutes. Another version was released in the United States as part of the Grindhouse Experience box set in 2007, as was an Australian DVD from I-Entertainment. The version featured in the Grindhouse Experience box set runs at 89 minutes, as does the Australian DVD, which is mastered from a VHS release of the film by Palace Video.
Climati and Morra made two followup films to Ultime grida dalla savana. The first followup, Savana violenta, also known as Savage Man Savage Beast no. 2, was released in 1976. Savana violenta was slightly less graphic in its depiction of violence, and unlike its predecessor, it encountered no censorship troubles in Australia. A recut version of the film was also released in the United States under the title Mondo Violence. The last film, Dolce e selvaggio, was released in 1983 and consisted partly of outtakes and recycled footage from Climati and Morra's previous two films. It was originally released uncut theatrically in Australia, although a 1987 video release was forced to be cut by approximately two minutes. Morra went on to make one final Mondo film without Climati called The Savage Zone, while Climati later made the jungle adventure Natura contro
in 1988.
Mondo film
A mondo film is an exploitation documentary film, sometimes resembling a pseudo-documentary, usually depicting sensational topics, scenes, and situations...
documentary directed by Antonio Climati and Mario Morra. Filmed all around the world, its central theme
Theme (arts)
In the visual arts, a theme is a broad idea or a message conveyed by a work, such as a performance, a painting, or a motion picture. This message is usually about life, society or human nature. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a work. Themes are usually implied...
focuses on hunting and the interaction between man and animal. More specifically, the film documents various forms of hunting that can be found in the world and how humans and animals can both become the hunter or prey. Like many Mondo films, the filmmakers claim to document real, bizarre and violent behavior and customs, although some scenes were actually staged. It is narrated by Italian novelist Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
.
This was the first film of Climati's and Morra's Savage Trilogy, which also includes Savana violenta
Savana violenta
Savana violenta , also known as This Violent World and Mondo Violence, is a Mondo film directed by Antonio Climati and Mario Morra. The film documents various scenes of graphic behavior in an attempted exposé of worldly violence...
(This Violent World) and Dolce e selvaggio
Dolce e selvaggio
Dolce e selvaggio is a Mondo film directed by Antonio Climati and Mario Morra. The title "Sweet and Savage" refers to the juxtaposition of pleasant and violent imagery within the film...
(Sweet and Savage). The best known film of the trilogy, Ultime grida dalla savana became influential in exploitation cinema
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
by use of cinematographic techniques that were repeated in numerous subsequent Mondo films. Two scenes in particular, a lion attack on a tourist in Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
and the murder of an indigenous man
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
by a group of mercenaries in South America, have gained notoriety as purportedly genuine footage of human death. The film also sparked a rivalry between the team of Climati and Morra and the brothers Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni. These two teams became the forerunners of the second generation of Mondo cinema.
Plot
The film is a depiction of various scenes, usually violent or bizarre, that somehow relate to hunting. Each scenario is presented one after the other with little regard for narrative continuityContinuity editing
Continuity editing is the predominant style of film editing and video editing in the post-production process of filmmaking of narrative films and television programs...
. The opening scene introduces a Patagonia
Patagonia
Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...
n hunter who hunts stags to survive. The opening credits play over as he chases after a stag, which he ultimately shoots, kills, and beheads. Afterwards, one of the numerous scenes of anti-hunting gatherings is shown, this one in Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
. The attention quickly shifts to wildlife hunting, where a monkey is killed by a leopard, and then a squirrel monkey
Common Squirrel Monkey
The common squirrel monkey is a small New World primate from the Cebidae family, and native to the tropical areas of South America.-Location:...
by an anaconda
Anaconda
An anaconda is a large, non-venomous snake found in tropical South America. Although the name actually applies to a group of snakes, it is often used to refer only to one species in particular, the common or green anaconda, Eunectes murinus, which is one of the largest snakes in the world.Anaconda...
. The theme changes again to the social hunt
Pack hunter
A pack hunter is a predator belonging to the animal kingdom, which has evolved to hunt its prey by working together with other members of its species. Normally, such animals are closely related. The most commonly known pack hunter is the Gray Wolf, the ancestor of all breeds of domesticated dogs...
of wild game in Australia and Africa. Aborigines
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
hunt kangaroos and other large marsupials with spears and giant bats with boomerangs. Indigenous tribes of Africa hunt large game, including antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
, buffalo
African Buffalo
The African buffalo, affalo, nyati, Mbogo or Cape buffalo is a large African bovine. It is not closely related to the slightly larger wild Asian water buffalo, but its ancestry remains unclear...
, and elephants
African Bush Elephant
The African Bush Elephant or African Savanna Elephant is the larger of the two species of African elephant. Both it and the African Forest Elephant have usually been classified as a single species, known simply as the African Elephant...
, in the savanna
Savanna
A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...
. Religious ceremonies are also shown, where the African hunters proceed to suck fresh blood from the entrails of an antelope, and the Australian aborigines symbolically bury their prey in dust to placate the spirits of the animals. Lastly, two brothers are arrested after partaking in a form of ritual post-mortem cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
of three of their relatives in order to acquire the hunting skills of the dead.
Other hunting traditions then follow, again rooted in religion. The warriors of the Kuru tribe in Africa commit a sacred act in which they copulate with the ground in belief that it will make the Earth fertile and produce animals for the hunt, and a stag hunt in France, rooted in ancient pagan beliefs of the Gauls
Gauls
The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....
, is blessed by a mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
before the hunt takes place, during which the hunters and dogs chase and ultimately kill a fleeing stag. In a fox hunt, the Wild Fox Association sabotages the hunting efforts by serving wine laced with a laxative to the hunters and distracting the dogs with an Afghan bitch
Afghan Hound
The Afghan Hound is one of the oldest sighthound dog breeds. Distinguished by its thick, fine, silky coat and its tail with a ring curl at the end, the breed acquired its unique features in the cold mountains of Afghanistan, where it was originally used to hunt hares and gazelles by coursing them....
in heat
Estrous cycle
The estrous cycle comprises the recurring physiologic changes that are induced by reproductive hormones in most mammalian placental females. Estrous cycles start after puberty in sexually mature females and are interrupted by anestrous phases or pregnancies...
. Their efforts are then connected to species conservation
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
, and to exemplify that hunters are truly concerned in wildlife conservation, Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
hunters capture an Andean condor
Andean Condor
The Andean Condor is a species of South American bird in the New World vulture family Cathartidae and is the only member of the genus Vultur...
to sell to a zoo. A collage of other conservation efforts is shown, including the tagging of white rhinoceros
White Rhinoceros
The White Rhinoceros or Square-lipped rhinoceros is one of the five species of rhinoceros that still exist. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species...
es, grizzly bears and elephants, which are shot with morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
darts. Argentinian deer and elephant seals are physically subdued and marked. Tourists on Africans safaris
Safari
A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. Traditionally, the term is used for a big-game hunt, but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife.-Etymology:Entering the English...
then come to view the conservation efforts, which the narrator claims to have seemingly negated the animals' violent instincts. This deception is demonstrated with the mauling of a tourist named Pit Dernitz by lions.
Another anti-hunting demonstration becomes the film's focus, this time on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
. Nudity and intercourse are practiced freely amongst the demonstrators, and this is contrasted with ancient hunter-gathering groups, who had strict rules concerning nudity. The narrator argues that once hunting had left this group of people, so did their rules toward nudity. Also highlighted is the contradiction that though this people are against hunting, thousands of farm-raised animals had to die to support them. The focus changes to Humboldt Penguin
Humboldt Penguin
The Humboldt Penguin is a South American penguin, that breeds in coastal Peru and Chile. Its nearest relatives are the African Penguin, the Magellanic Penguin and the Galápagos Penguin...
s, which cannot hunt because of polluted waters, and thus seem detached and without focus. This effect is compared to modern day Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
s, who no longer hunt since the discovery of oil in their homeland and have fallen into depression and melancholy. In order to reverse the process, several groups of men go out and revive their hunting ways. Reflected in this is a montage of gun ownership, which the film relates to feelings of masculinity, followed by shots of illegal elephant poaching from Africa. To offset the dwindling number of game due to poaching, warriors from the Lobi tribe celebrate the "Ceremony of Life", in which they masturbate
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
with ceremonial rods and pour the product into the river, hoping the animals will drink the semen and multiply. Attention shifts to large electronic probes in the Peruvian savanna used to measure the winds of El Niño for optimal fishing conditions. Fishing birds are also electronically tagged so the prime fishing areas can be located based on the birds' fishing habits. This fish frenzy in South America is reflected in the salmon run in Alaska, where kodiak bear
Kodiak Bear
The Kodiak bear , also known as the Kodiak brown bear or the Alaskan grizzly bear or American brown bear, occupies the islands of the Kodiak Archipelago in South-Western Alaska. Its name in the Alutiiq language is Taquka-aq. It is the largest subspecies of brown bear.- Taxonomy :Taxonomist C.H...
s hunt and fight for prey.
An examination of a hunting tradition in northern Europe follows, where falcons assist humans in hunting by catching wild game, such as rabbits and pheasant
Pheasant
Pheasants refer to some members of the Phasianinae subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have...
s. Further collaboration with man and animal is highlighted, this time with cheetahs. To demonstrate the cheetah's speed and effectiveness, a chase between a group of cheetahs and ostriches is arranged, in which the birds are hunted down and killed. The next animal collaborators are dogs, which hunt wild boar in Patagonia and a puma which has attacked a herd of sheep and a shepherd. In cities, however, stray dogs are the ones hunted by dog catchers, which the narrator claims demonstrates that the hunt is still active, but the prey has changed. Indios
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
also use dogs to hunt monkeys, but their efforts are compared to mercenaries hunting the Indios themselves in order to clear them from their native land for development. In one such instance, mercenaries retaliate against a death of a workman by hunting down a group of Indios, one of which they torture, castrate and murder. Various scenes of wildlife are then shown, after which orangutan
Orangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
s are hunted to be sold to zoos. The film then ends with the coexistence of man and animal between Erik Zimen, an ecologist, and wolves, the group of animals he wishes to save.
Reaction
The film was released in Italy on 24 October, 1975, and internationally in 1976. The film fared well in Asia; in 1976, Ultime grida dalla savana was outgrossed in Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
only by Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
. Despite this, reception to the film from mainstream movie critics is almost completely negative, although it is well accepted by critics in exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
circles. Mark Goodall calls the film a "remarkable, pseudo-philosophical mondo examination of hunting fixated on the cyclical, the (inter)relationship of the hunter and the hunted," Kerekes and Slater also comment that it was, "The success of Savage Man... Savage Beast [that] inaugurated the 'savage' trilogy."
Criticism
The content of the film, particularly the graphic violence and human death, has been criticized as too explicit and exploitative. Robert Firsching of Allmovie states:Time Out Film Guide made similar criticisms of the film's content, calling it "[a] bloody, blatantly exploitative mess of a movie", and says it is "just another opportunity to gawp at raw scenes of sex and (more especially) violence". Due to its graphic content, the film was also used by James Ferman
James Ferman
James Alan Ferman was an American television and theatre director. He was the Secretary of the British Board of Film Classification from 1975 to 1999....
at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
as an example of the need for film censorship.
The inclusion of several staged or scripted scenes has made the film a target for critical condemnation. Numerous scenes have been proven fake, including the anti-fox hunting campaign involving the fictional "Wild Fox Association" and the murder of the indigenous men by mercenaries. During another wildlife rally, the fabrication of the scene is apparent with the presence of Italian porn star Ilona Staller
Ilona Staller
Ilona Staller , also known by her stage name la Cicciolina, is a Hungarian-born Italian porn star, politician, and singer. She continued to make hardcore pornographic films while in office. She is famous for delivering political speeches with one breast exposed.-Early life:Anna Ilona was born in...
. The lion attack on Pit Dernitz is also suspected of being a fabrication by film historians.
Although staged footage has been included since the early history of Mondo cinema, these scenes are nonetheless targets for critical abashment. Kerekes and Slater call the anti-fox hunt sequence "self-parody," and Goodall labels the same scene as "ludicrous". The staged scenes of human death have also been criticized for being more exploitative than educational, particularly among critics who are aware of the scenes' fabrication. Aside from his criticism of the film's staged footage, Goodall also points out the reuse of sequences of African tribal hunting and poaching from Africa addio as a flaw of the film.
Controversy
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
distributor Palace Video brought the same cut print before the film board and it received an R18+ rating. The cuts include segments from the lion attack, the torture and murder of the indigenous man by mercenaries, the death of a fox by a pack of hounds, and the death of a stag by a hunter in the opening scene.
The film faced similar censorship problems for its theatrical release in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. In 1976, nearly 10 minutes were cut before it was passed with an X-rating by the British Board of Film Classification
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
(BBFC). Various scenes of animal cruelty, a race between cheetahs and ostriches, the lion attack, and the mercenaries' hunt of Amazonian natives were all cut from the British release. The scenes of animal cruelty were targeted by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a charity in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. In 2009 the RSPCA investigated 141,280 cruelty complaints and collected and rescued 135,293 animals...
(RSPCA) to be cut from the film, specifically the hunt and disembowelment of a puma. Also in 1976, the Valtion elokuvatarkastamo, the Finnish film classification board, banned the film in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
in its entirety for the inclusion of scenes of genuine human death.
Influence
As their former cinematographer, Climati drew influence from the Mondo films of Gualtiero JacopettiGualtiero Jacopetti
Gualtiero Jacopetti was an Italian director of documentary films.He was born in Barga, in northern Tuscany...
and Franco Prosperi. The camera work used in Ultime grida dalla savana, particularly the cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
styled shots, was previously used in Africa addio, and some scenes are directly lifted from the latter film. Also, Carlo Savina's music conducted for the film bears similarities to the music Riz Ortolani
Riz Ortolani
Riziero "Riz" Ortolani is an Italian film composer.In the early 1950s Ortolani was founder and member of a jazz band of national Italian renown...
conducted for Mondo cane
Mondo cane
Mondo cane is a documentary written and directed by Italian filmmakers Paolo Cavara, Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti. The film consists of a series of travelogue vignettes that provide glimpses into cultural practices around the world with the intention to shock or surprise Western film...
and Africa addio. In terms of content, Kerekes and Slater say, "Savage Man Savage Beast is a slight return to the more encyclopaedic world view of mondo cinema which was prevalent in the 60s...," which demonstrates Climati's early roots in Mondo cinema. Firsching and Goodall also note that Ultime grida dalla savana was a transitional film, as it, "...provided a vital link between the 'classic' shockumentaries of the early-mid 1960s and the much crueller mondos of the mid 1970s and beyond."
The scenes of human death, which were shot in a manner that resembled an observational documentary, became influential in exploitation cinema, as several subsequent films would use similar filming techniques to lend certain scenes a sense of increased realism. Ruggero Deodato
Ruggero Deodato
Ruggero Deodato is an Italian film director and screen writer, best known for directing violent and gory horror films. Deodato is infamous for his 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.- Biography :...
used this style prolifically in his film Cannibal Holocaust
Cannibal Holocaust
Cannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Ruggero Deodato from a screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici. Filmed in the Amazon Rainforest and dealing with indigenous tribes, it was cast mostly with United States actors and filmed in English to achieve wider distribution...
, in which a group of filmmakers goes missing after they head into the South American rain forest to make a documentary on local cannibal tribes. In the film, only the team's footage is recovered, which is all shot in the cinéma vérité style that resembles the "amateur footage" in Ultime grida dalla savana. The footage from Cannibal Holocaust proved so realistic that Deodato was arrested for making a snuff film
Snuff film
A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...
. Charges were ultimately dropped when he produced the supposedly slain actors for the courts.
The release of Ultime grida dalla savana initiated a rivalry between Climati and Morra and two other Italian Mondo film makers, Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni. The Castiglionis had made two previous Mondo films, Africa segreta and Africa ama, before the release of Ultime grida dalla savana. One of the Castiglionis' following films, Addio ultimo uomo, released in 1978, includes a scene of "amateur footage" that mimics the scene in which mercenaries hunt natives in Ultime grida dalla savana. This scene, in which an African bushman is captured, tortured, and castrated by a rival tribe, has also been proven staged. Again in 1978, the death film Faces of Death
Faces of Death
Faces of Death is a 1978 mondo film which guides viewers through explicit scenes depicting a variety of ways to die and violent acts....
included fabricated "amateur footage" that is a reenactment of the death of Pit Dernitz, replacing lions with a bear.
Soundtrack
The musical score and songs in the film were composed and written by Carlo Savina and Gilbert Kaplan. The songs were sung by Kaplan and Ann Collin. The music resembles Riz Ortolani's score from Africa addio, as most tracks are of a light and upbeat nature, particularly during the opening and closing credits. The arrangement of music to enhance atmosphere and create comic effect also mimics the compositions in Africa addio. The soundtrack was originally released on LPLP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
in 1975 and was later rereleased with the soundtrack to Savana Violenta on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
in 1991.
Track listing
- "Questa grande terra"
- "Caccia al cervo"
- "Cattura elefante"
- "Holland and Holland"
- "L'Armadillo"
- "Morgan il cacciatore"
- "Morte di un animale"
- "Orango in libertà"
- "Accalappiacani"
- "Canti di caccia"
- "La Camargue"
- "Gli Struzzi"
- "Ragazzi in festa"
- "Festa paesana"
- "Prigionia di un orango"
- "La Gioia della libertà"
- "Questa grande terra"
Releases and sequels
Several DVD releases of Ultime grida dalla savana are available on the market. A Japanese DVD was released by PioneerPioneer Corporation
is a multinational corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products, based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. The company was founded in 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and speaker repair shop...
in 2002 with burnt-on Japanese subtitles and a running time of 91 minutes. Another version was released in the United States as part of the Grindhouse Experience box set in 2007, as was an Australian DVD from I-Entertainment. The version featured in the Grindhouse Experience box set runs at 89 minutes, as does the Australian DVD, which is mastered from a VHS release of the film by Palace Video.
Climati and Morra made two followup films to Ultime grida dalla savana. The first followup, Savana violenta, also known as Savage Man Savage Beast no. 2, was released in 1976. Savana violenta was slightly less graphic in its depiction of violence, and unlike its predecessor, it encountered no censorship troubles in Australia. A recut version of the film was also released in the United States under the title Mondo Violence. The last film, Dolce e selvaggio, was released in 1983 and consisted partly of outtakes and recycled footage from Climati and Morra's previous two films. It was originally released uncut theatrically in Australia, although a 1987 video release was forced to be cut by approximately two minutes. Morra went on to make one final Mondo film without Climati called The Savage Zone, while Climati later made the jungle adventure Natura contro
Natura contro
Natura contro , also known in English as The Green Inferno and Cannibal Holocaust II, is a 1988 Italian cannibal film directed by mondo director Antonio Climati...
in 1988.