THE NAKED PREY (1966)
Cornel Wilde's always been a bit of an interesting guy - of his previous work, I loved him as an actor in classic noir THE BIG COMBO and as a director on the grim post-apocalyptic drama NO BLADE OF GRASS (a DVD release would be nice, please). Add to that a passing interest in the history of colonial Africa and I became curious when reading about this Wilde vehicle in forums when it was first announced.
Having caught my eye, the DVD release then popped up again in the pages of Sight & Sound magazine, where Tim Lucas's review made it sound just too fascinating not to see, so I added it to one of my recent transatlantic DVD orders despite never having heard of it until now.
How can I never have heard of this magnificent film? I am astounded.
The plot, in brief: Wilde is part of an expedition in 19th-century Africa which upsets a tribe. The tribe take gruesome revenge on everyone else in the party except for the sympathetic Wilde, who is instead stripped naked, released into the wild and then hunted by the rest of the tribe. An anti-TARZAN? Colonial variation on PREDATOR? JUNGLE HOLOCAUST by way of the arthouse cinema? I could try and come up with all manner of snappy summaries of this movie but none of them would do it justice and all of them would fail to account for what an immaculately made piece of cinema it is.
A few minor details may have dated - the hero of the movie decides that killing for sport is wrong, but for ivory is okay; the bright red blood that lights up some otherwise sickening violence; the occasional moment of sped-up film - but there are some things that will never age. A stripped-down but gripping story; nail-biting tension; an incredibly effective score built around indigenous African sounds and instruments; a powerful performance by Wilde in a film almost devoid of dialogue; the brutal savagery of not just the human characters but of the animals too.
That latter detail may make it difficult for some to watch, with animals popping up to kill each other with alarming regularity. However, it's this violence that forms part of an integral theme that runs through the film - man is just another animal. There are parallels between both beast and man, but furthermore Wilde continues to draw parallels between the so called civilised man and the alleged primitives. Just as Wilde descends into savagery to survive, so too do we see the tribesmen become far more recognisably "human" (there are a couple of terrific scenes where, despite not understanding what they are saying, we can still recognise ourselves in their slowly-disappearing patience and petty bickering as Wilde continues to evade them). It's one of the more sympathetic portrayals of African tribes I've seen, particularly given that the film is not exactly recent.
Few films have captured Africa in all its simultaneous beauty and savagery and that is helped no end by the other gobsmacking aspect of the film that I've not mentioned yet, which is the jaw-droppingly gorgeous widescreen location photography. There are few instances I can recall of natural environments being so impressive on film outside of nature documentaries and a handful of westerns.
On that front, Criterion have done a bang-up job of the film. It's an amazing transfer of an amazing film. If there is any disadvantage, it's that a few minor flaws are perhaps more apparent, such as the naked Wilde clearly not being naked and a fight between two animals clearly showing another person running around in the background (these are the two I spotted, but you can find more on the IMDb). Such trivial detail however is a small price to pay for such a stunning release of an incredible film.
Okay, sorry, I've rambled on for a bit longer than anticipated and there are plenty of better writers than me who will do justice to the film in half as many words and be twice as eloquent. But if I didn't have at least one outpouring of my thoughts on this masterpiece I might just burst. Perhaps I'm in a minority and you're all sitting there thinking "God, has he only just heard of that film now?" but if there are any other people out there who, like me, were totally unaware of this gem, do yourself a favour and buy it right now.
Incredible movie, incredible experience.
Having caught my eye, the DVD release then popped up again in the pages of Sight & Sound magazine, where Tim Lucas's review made it sound just too fascinating not to see, so I added it to one of my recent transatlantic DVD orders despite never having heard of it until now.
How can I never have heard of this magnificent film? I am astounded.
The plot, in brief: Wilde is part of an expedition in 19th-century Africa which upsets a tribe. The tribe take gruesome revenge on everyone else in the party except for the sympathetic Wilde, who is instead stripped naked, released into the wild and then hunted by the rest of the tribe. An anti-TARZAN? Colonial variation on PREDATOR? JUNGLE HOLOCAUST by way of the arthouse cinema? I could try and come up with all manner of snappy summaries of this movie but none of them would do it justice and all of them would fail to account for what an immaculately made piece of cinema it is.
A few minor details may have dated - the hero of the movie decides that killing for sport is wrong, but for ivory is okay; the bright red blood that lights up some otherwise sickening violence; the occasional moment of sped-up film - but there are some things that will never age. A stripped-down but gripping story; nail-biting tension; an incredibly effective score built around indigenous African sounds and instruments; a powerful performance by Wilde in a film almost devoid of dialogue; the brutal savagery of not just the human characters but of the animals too.
That latter detail may make it difficult for some to watch, with animals popping up to kill each other with alarming regularity. However, it's this violence that forms part of an integral theme that runs through the film - man is just another animal. There are parallels between both beast and man, but furthermore Wilde continues to draw parallels between the so called civilised man and the alleged primitives. Just as Wilde descends into savagery to survive, so too do we see the tribesmen become far more recognisably "human" (there are a couple of terrific scenes where, despite not understanding what they are saying, we can still recognise ourselves in their slowly-disappearing patience and petty bickering as Wilde continues to evade them). It's one of the more sympathetic portrayals of African tribes I've seen, particularly given that the film is not exactly recent.
Few films have captured Africa in all its simultaneous beauty and savagery and that is helped no end by the other gobsmacking aspect of the film that I've not mentioned yet, which is the jaw-droppingly gorgeous widescreen location photography. There are few instances I can recall of natural environments being so impressive on film outside of nature documentaries and a handful of westerns.
On that front, Criterion have done a bang-up job of the film. It's an amazing transfer of an amazing film. If there is any disadvantage, it's that a few minor flaws are perhaps more apparent, such as the naked Wilde clearly not being naked and a fight between two animals clearly showing another person running around in the background (these are the two I spotted, but you can find more on the IMDb). Such trivial detail however is a small price to pay for such a stunning release of an incredible film.
Okay, sorry, I've rambled on for a bit longer than anticipated and there are plenty of better writers than me who will do justice to the film in half as many words and be twice as eloquent. But if I didn't have at least one outpouring of my thoughts on this masterpiece I might just burst. Perhaps I'm in a minority and you're all sitting there thinking "God, has he only just heard of that film now?" but if there are any other people out there who, like me, were totally unaware of this gem, do yourself a favour and buy it right now.
Incredible movie, incredible experience.
Labels: cornel wilde
posted by Alan at 4:28 pm
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