tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14575780.post9078116241834937309..comments2024-01-31T18:37:07.424+00:00Comments on The Agitation of the Mind: WINTER OF DISCONTENT : Cannibal Holocaust (part three: the clue’s in the title)Neil Fulwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14686296295535235988noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14575780.post-86756978458219794672010-11-22T21:48:27.232+00:002010-11-22T21:48:27.232+00:00Sam – you’re right, the term holocaust entered the...Sam – you’re right, the term holocaust entered the public consciousness in the late 70s due to the mini-series. Historians and academics had begun to apply the term to the Nazi atrocities since the 60s.<br /><br />Soiled Sinema – an accurate description.<br /><br />Tim – thanks for your comment. I owe a debt of honour to your Summer of Blood entry on this film, which convinced me it was both possible and necessary to write about ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ as rigorously and objectively as possible. (Though glancing back over the posts, I notice that a fair bit of gallows humour still managed to creep in. As Mrs F has been known to observe, I can be the Emperor of Inappropriate sometimes!)<br /><br />Troy – at the end of those three posts I’m sure of two things: (i) I’ll always have mixed feelings about this film; (ii) I’ll not watch it again. The segue from cannibalism to rednecks has pointed up some disturbing similarities. Savagery as a way of life; the bayou in place of the jungle; relations with one’s sister in place of flesh-munching. <i>Nice!</i> I think I need to case out a little sexploitation, nunsploitation and Nazisploitation – y’know, just for the laughs.<br /><br />As always, gentlemen, your comments are appreciated.Neil Fulwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14686296295535235988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14575780.post-14801016467012434082010-11-22T20:13:07.296+00:002010-11-22T20:13:07.296+00:00A great series of posts here, Neil. I've alwa...A great series of posts here, Neil. I've always been torn on this film. I'll agree with you -- it is a movie that still can affect the viewer, even if most everyone knows the results going in. <br /><br />And yet, just the nature of its exploitation roots lends me to be dismissive of Deodato's true motives for making the film. I just can't help but be skeptical of any of these directors feeling truly heartfelt about a cause, instead using that facade as a way to cover themselves when the critics started in on them. Perhaps that's entirely unfair, I don't know.<br /><br />For those that think this film is the dregs of movie making, I would suggest they watch some of the other cannibal films to see that in can and does get much, much worse than this. Umberto Lenzi's CANNIBAL FEROX was my introduction into the subgenre and boy is that a festering piece of crap.<br /><br />And now I see you have written about the hicksploitation genre, always a favorite...off to read that.Troy Olsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14843741571724231174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14575780.post-5881009992802500752010-11-21T04:38:48.343+00:002010-11-21T04:38:48.343+00:00Catching up on all the blogs I've been ignorin...Catching up on all the blogs I've been ignoring all week, and I have to say that, taken as a whole, this is one of the finest, most thoughtful attempts to wrestle with <i>Cannibal Holocaust</i> that I've ever read. And I've read way too many of them.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09491952893581644049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14575780.post-10474974127522258902010-11-21T04:13:02.146+00:002010-11-21T04:13:02.146+00:00Cannibal Holocaust is the cinematic equivalent of ...Cannibal Holocaust is the cinematic equivalent of a rusty faucet dripping into a pile of compost.<br /><br />-mAQSoiled Sinemahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00334225406050558050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14575780.post-77784258263704270992010-11-20T03:25:49.928+00:002010-11-20T03:25:49.928+00:00Neil, the paradox of Cannibal Holocaust is that it...Neil, the paradox of <i>Cannibal Holocaust</i> is that it implicates everyone who watches it while Deodato appears to exonerate himself because he can't possibly be denouncing himself, can he? His own penance came in the courts, to an extent, and that may only be fair. It's a typical Mondo experience; I can't help but hear the filmmakers asking why I want to watch such stuff. <i>Cannibal Holocaust</i> at least raises the question of why anyone films such stuff, but not, of course, in any way that consciously discredits Deodato's own film.<br /><br />BTW, regarding "Holocaust," my memory is that the word only came to be identified with the "Shoah" in the late 1970s by virtue of Gerald Green's novel and the miniseries it spawned, though I may be misremembering this. That's still late enough, of course, for Deodato to have the international hit in mind when titling his movie.Samuel Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00934870299522899944noreply@blogger.com