BRUTES AND SAVAGES (1976)

 

Death by paper mache crocodile

 

In bald terms, the word ‘Mondo’ in Italian simply means ‘world’.  In cinematic terms however, the word has been co-opted to represent a particular brand of exploitation movie – Documentaries (or faux-documentaries) with a stated aim of exposing westernised audiences to either cultures and practices from lesser-known tribes and  groups in the developing world, or sub- or counter-culture groups within their own society.  Whilst a small number of mondo films do exactly this, and as a result are often genuinely fascinating, the majority say they’re documentaries but, to be frank, lie about it.    These are straight up exploitation movies, dog and pony shows (literally in some cases) who’s primary purpose is to titillate and appal in equal measure.  They couch their images in the language of the documentary, for the most part, because their canny producers and directors recognise that the format gave them the best possible chance to get material otherwise unacceptable to national censorship boards in fictional narratives, into cinemas.  For a short period in the late 1960’s and early 1970s, it was also the case that lines between mainstream cinema, exploitation cinema and art cinema were blurring and central to that was the crossover success of a number of Mondo Documentaries that somehow managed to walk the line between all three. 

The key text in the world of Mondo film-making is MONDO CANE (1960) – literally translated as ‘It’s a Dog’s World’.  MONDO CANE was the work of Italian Journalist Gaultiero Jacopetti, and traditional film-maker Franco Prosperi.  The film itself is essentially a groundbreaker in cinematic terms – it broke the mould of cinematic documentaries by combining a narrative approach to an essentially newsreel format, jumping from sequence to sequence (the narrative very loosely relates to the way animals are treated by people in different cultures) on the basis of a fairly unstructured story, but which nevertheless provided a pseudo-narrative context for the sequences .  Jacopetti had previously been an Italian newsreel journalist, so he was at home tweaking the format, and with Prosperi’s background in sword and sandal exploitation pictures, the pair hit upon a formula that was, in exploitation terms, the motherlode.

MONDO CANE is a freak of a movie, a film that demonstrates that you can fool all the people, all the time.  It was a critical success, despite sequences including nudity and violence (largely aimed at animals) that would have been unacceptable in all likelihood in mainstream fictional narrative, MONDO CANE survived a mauling at the hands of censorship boards, who felt that such material was justified in a documentary context.  The film played to huge audiences across the class, race and income divide.  The success of MONDO CANE made Jacopetti & Prosperi stars, and they were to return to the same format, with more and more extreme imagery and less and less genuine documentary footage, over the next 15 years.  We’ll look at two of their films – AFRICA ADDIO (1966) and GOODBYE UNCLE TOM (1971) at some point in the future – this review after all relates to Arthur Davis’ BRUTES AND SAVAGES (1978), however it’s important to underline the role of Jacopetti and Prosperi in the Mondo genre and recognise the part that MONDO CANE had in generating a mini-industry in third world ‘documentaries’.  It did three things that always get exploitation film makers excited – it managed to push the boundaries on what was acceptable in terms of nudity and violence, it played to crossover audiences – both provincial cinemas and inner-city grindhouses, and it was relatively cheap.  It’s difficult to over-estimate how heady a concoction that is to low-budget film producers and, sure enough, there followed a bewildering number of documentaries, faux-documentaries and outright con-jobs as seemingly every western European with a camera and a passport buggered off somewhere to film something generally being cruel to something else.  As we shall shortly see, however, not all Mondo films are created equal.

BRUTES AND SAVAGES supposedly follows the ‘Arthur Davis Expedition’, which sounds like it should be a lounge jazz quintet, but sadly isn’t.  It isn’t clear whether the aforementioned Mr Davis has culled the highlights of many different expeditions together, or whether he was on one spectacularly long, globetrotting expedition, however the film slavishly follows the MONDO CANE template, bookending it’s scenes of animal slaughter and mocked up ‘love rituals’ with Mr Davis and his local Incan expert earnestly planning and reviewing their ‘trip’, in ties foul enough to frighten children.  Occasionally, Davis or his Incan expert will pop up in a segment and gurn amiably to give the footage a sense of continuity.

The vast majority of BRUTES AND SAVAGES consists of animals killing animals.  Now the uninitiated amongst you may point out that you can see such things on pretty much any nature documentary.  This is true, except that ‘Arthur Davis’ doesn’t have the skill to film these sequences in the wild, so he chucks a range of captured and/or injured animals at a bunch of alligators, or snakes, or birds of prey.  Yes, we’re here again, in the world of CANNIBAL FEROX, asking whether a film really can go too far.  Again.  Alongside the sequences of staged animal atrocities are a few filler sequences of tribal erotic art and rituals (probably faked) and tribal brain surgery/rites of passage (definitely faked) and it’s back to the animal-on-animal cruelty until the end.

Not good news if you're a monkey

The film jumps all around the place – from South America to Africa and back again.  The narrative purports to be an examination of the lives and trials of ‘primitive’ jungle dwelling civilisations, but it really isn’t.  It’s a series of barely competent semi-professional shorts with lousy effects, lighting and cinematography, almost all of which are obviously faked.  BRUTES AND SAVAGES calls itself a documentary, but Arthur Davis lied.  The fact that the film proports to be a filmed expedition probably owes much to Pierre Gaisseau’s Oscar-winning genuinely fascinating documentary THE SKY ABOVE, THE MUD BENEATH (1961), a hugely influencial work on the Mondo genre, but there is where the comparison ends.  Gaisseau's film is a remarkable document, an unflinching  vision of the 1961 Franco-Dutch expedition into the unexplored centre of Dutch New Guinea, cataloging the remarkable tribal societies they encounter, the staggering variety of wildlife and the grim conditions, with constant battles against leeches and malaria.  The ordeal of the explorers (led by Gaisseau himself) lead to a fantastic, genuinely thrilling finale in which the team discover a brand new, until then completely unknown and unvisited river valley habitat.  By comparison,  Davis' film is a cheap fraud.  Like the contemporary SAVAGE MAN, SAVAGE BEAST (1975) and SHOCKING AFRICA (1982) it's a collection of largely staged sequences sold as something else entirely.  In many respects, these films are the purest form of exploitation movie, they offer almost nothing of artistic merit and instead rely entirely on a expectation that, just as Romans knew that there'd be an audience if they threw a collection of unarmed prisoners of war into an arena with a group of hungry lions, modern audiences would pay to see a group of alligators eat a wounded panther.

Whatever that says about the human race's capacity for growth over 2000 years, BRUTES AND SAVAGES is a dismal film, made with a lack of any real care, with nothing interesting to say and who's appeal relies almost solely on an expectation that there's a paying audience for filmed animal cruelty.  Sadly, there probably is, but you (hopefully!) wouldn't pay a tenner for a private dogfight in your front room, so why would you buy this?  BRUTES AND SAVAGES is not just a million miles away from a proper documentary like THE SKY ABOVE, THE MUD BENEATH, it's not even fit to lace the boots of the best films that Jacopetti and Prosperi made. 

Arthur Davis, you cock!