| 07 May 2009
OK, OK, Here we go...
Bolla, Jungle Quint, and Jungle Quint's assistant Miguel go on a hunt for the footage. They encounter some jungle adventures, finding the dead body of the filmmakers' guide, killing a Coatimundi Muskrat for dinner, and encountering all kinds of tribal weirdness. They have to tread carefully, because there are three tribes who war against each other, and two of them eat people. One thing the tribes are very fearful of is the presence of outsiders. Something about their encounters with the previous white folk spooked them. But what? I mean white folks have been so good to the rest of the world throughout history.
Eventually, Bolla gains the trust of the Tree People, who are seen eating strange limbs and stuff. The tree people also have a torn backpack filled with film canisters in their possession. The tree folks invite the rescue party for some cannibal good times, and give Bolla the missing film canisters. After Bolla eats brains or penis or something icky.
The rest of the film does the whole "Blair Witch" film-within-a-film thing as Bolla returns to film footage to New York. As we watch the recovered filmed footage with Bolla and the producers we find out that the white folk ain't very nice to the "savages" and do terrible things to spice up their footage. Raping and looting and murdering all abound, with the majority of it done by the "civilized" filmmakers. Therein lies the film's message: we may look at primitive cannibalistic natives as "savages", but we are truly the evil of the world! Give me a break, man! Anybody with half a brain would leave these folks alone, and film them doing their thing because folks want to see cannibals anyways. What idiot would provoke them when they would already provide entertaining footage on their own?
What does Smokey think? Wow, this was a hard one to watch. The animal killings were a bit much. There is no justifiable reason to kill these things for real, let alone exploit the killing like this movie does via looong takes. PETA would love this film, that I can tell you. Besides the gratuitous violence the film has unnerving special effects. There is a castration scene in this movie that will give any self respecting guy the creepy-crawlies. Realistic is not the word. I am not surprised that the director was arrested for making this film, it truly does look like some kind of snuff film. I respect the director's point of view, but when he presents it wrapped in a package so vile, the average film-goer isn't going to get the punchline. It's too brutal, and casual viewers will not get past that fact. The characters are pretty one-dimensional, and in the case of the young filmmakers, over the top in their actions. So if you're looking for a great character study, this ain't your show. So should you watch this stuff? I dunno, if its your bag, baby, then go ahead. But if you are a Curious George who has heard the hype and wants to check it out for yourself, be prepared to be at least a little unnerved. Bonus points MUST be given to the soundtrack, which has the most calm, unassuming folk-funk track EVER as it's main motif. It also punctuates the gratuitous violence with a very annoying synth that was all over the seventies, the "disco poom". That shit will make you nutty after the zillionth time you hear it.
Smokey Rating: ** out of Five
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