Cannibal Holocaustis a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Ruggero Deodato and written by Gianfranco Clerici. The movie is presented in a found-footage style format and follows an anthropologist into the Amazon Rainforest searching for a missing crew of documentary filmmakers. The documentarians enter the jungle to cover a group of cannibalistic native groups; the anthropologist is only able to find the footage that was left behind, finding that the group was killed after watching the lost film. The found footage captured by the documentarians makes up about half of the runtime ofCannibal Holocaust; the other half shows the anthropologist and his conflict with an American broadcast network that wants to show the footage on television to its American audience. The film’s legacy is not so much in the story shown but rather in thefilm’s graphic depictionsof violence,layers of controversyin both the production and release, as well as the film’s censorship all over the world.
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Following the premiere of the film, the movie was ordered to be seized by the Italian government, and the director Ruggero Deodato was charged with obscenity. After the 1981 theatrical run in France, it was suggested that the deaths seen onscreen, including the missing documentary crew and the native actor in the infamous impalement scene, were real. The documentary filmmakers that were shown to be killed on-screen had not been seen since the film’s release and Deodato’s charges were adjusted to include murder.
The disappearance of the documentary crew following the film’s release had been by design to add realism to the film and promote the idea that the deaths had in fact been real. In reality, however, the actors who died on-screen had signed contracts that stated they would not appear in any other type of media for a year following the film’s release. To clear his name for the murder charges, Deodato had the supposedly dead actors appear on a television broadcast and was made to explain in court thedetails of howthe impalement scene was shot and show additional footage of the native actor to prove it was not real.
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Censorship
The murder charges were dropped, but Deodato was still convicted of obscenity for the incrediblygraphic goreportrayed on film.The film was censoredfor varying amounts of time in Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, Singapore, and the United States, among others. In the United Kingdom, the film saw an initial release but was banned in 1983 following a crackdown on obscenity. In the UK the film saw its first official release in 2001 with six minutes of mandated cuts; it was then re-released in 2011 with only 15 seconds of cut footage. In the United States, the film saw its first release in 1985, but this was short-lived, and was pulled from theaters after a few weeks. It wasn’t until 2005 that the film got an official release in the United States.
With the changing sensibilities of the 21st century, the film’s graphic content became more broadly tolerable, especially in the context of the messaging of a film like this. The film’s depiction of the native cannibal populations and the story surrounding the narrative of the American broadcasting network airing the footage can be seen as a critique of sensationalist journalism and the exploitation of native groups for western entertainment. The artful juxtaposition of western journalism and native cannibalistic traditions raises questions surrounding the morality of the actions shown. Further examination of themes within the film uncovers a strong anti-imperialist tone throughout, with the depicted unsuccessful exploration into already occupied land.
The societal commentary made through this film is powerful, but the execution is often critiqued. Some say the statements being made about the sensationalization of journalism become hypocritical when the content of the film is very provocative in and of itself. Beyond the graphic violence shown, there is additionally graphic sexual assault and genuine animal violence depicted on-screen. Deodato wanted to make a film critiquing exploitation, but on set the goal of making his movie took precedence. He yelled at a female cast member when she refused to act partially nude and killed seven animals for the production of his film, six of which were shown on screen. Deodato later regrettedintroducing animalsto the film, but the legacy will forever be sullied with these gruesome executions including a turtle mutilated and a pig shot in the head at point-blank range.
