Man from Deep River (1973)

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Since discovering Italian genre films at the start of the year,there has always been one sub-genre at the very top of the list which I've wanted to stay as far away from as possible:the Cannibal sub-genre.With the Giallo genre always having some mysterious titles,and the Italian Crime genre promising non stop action,the titles of the Cannibal films always got me as being extremely nilealistic,with the as happy as a Happy Meal sounding Cannibal Holocaust being one of the main ones. Seeing Halloween on the horizon,I decided that it was at last time for me to enter the world of the Italian Cannibal genre,by watching the very first film of the sub-genre,which is directed by the man,whose brilliant films have introduced me to the Giallo and Italian Crime genres:Umberto Lenzi. The plot: Falling out with his girlfriend,photography John Bradley chooses to shut out all of the dismissive voices,and to instead hire a guide and go on a journey down a rarely travelled Amazon river. Waking up one morning on his boat,John finds his travel guide dead in the river,with his body being covered with arrows.Shortly afterwards,Bradley is captured by a tribe of Amazon natives,who due to all of John's equipment for wild life photography think he is some sort of fish god!.Wanting to find out if he really is a god,the natives put John though a gruelling three day challenge,which he just about survivors,thanks to one of the tribe elders secretly being able to speak English,and also giving him some herbal medicines.Surviving the challenges,John soon enters "the tribe family",with him even getting together with a woman from the tribe called Maraya.Shortly after becoming pregnant,Maraya starts to get a terrible illness.Reaiseing that the only chance for Marays survivor is to get her to a hospital,John begins trying to think of a way to break the tribes biggest rule:of never going out into the "outer" world. View on the film: For the film being shot on location,director Umberto Lenzi shows an undiscovered eye for "real" location filming,with almost all the scenes in the film from beginning to end having a tremendous,bright "pop",which makes the movie tantalising to watch,and also allowing Lenzi to fill the movie with his very distinctive "scattering" style,whilst smartly placing some calm moments in the film,that allow the actors to express a surprisingly strong bond between each other,in between Lenzi's dazzaling whip-pans and well-timed snappy editing.Originally bracing my self for the worst,I was stunned to find that the film had only a minimal amount of Cannibalisum,with it wisely instead focusing on John's increasingly strong relationship with the tribe.Looking at the most (in) famous element of the film,Lenzi thankfully does not (mostly) make the scenes of the animal killings that drawn out,with them instead moving at a pretty fast,"obsikal" pace, (although a scene near the end-involving a goat,did make me shiver ,due to it completely coming out of nowhere)giving the film a strong signal to the audience that if they able to handle the gathering of food scenes by the tribe,then the film will allow the audience to get a closer look at the bond between John and the tribe.Since my expectations of the film,were of it being an extremely aggressive gore fest,I had picked up a very cheap Swedish DVD of the film,which I was disappointed to find meant that I was not able to understand any of the words that the tribes people said in most of the scenes!.Astonashingly,this hardly ruined my enjoyment of the film,mostly thanks to the highly under-rated cast who all put in great performances,with each cast member of the tribe having distinctive characteristics,which express the feelings and emotions of them being part of an 'out cast' society in a way which works brilliantly without any words.During my viewing of this terrific film,a few moments in the other wise solid screenplay almost left me with a bitter taste from the film,mostly from John becoming uncharactriskly patronising to the tribe,in some oddly chosen moments.Stunningly,lead actors Ivan Rassimov and the beautiful Me Me Lay make the troubling moments in the film fade away,to become a distant memory,thanks to both of them giving performances which have a huge amount of unexpected warmth,with Rassimov brilliantly showing John develop feeling of compassion and love,whilst Lay shows Maraya as someone who instead of being closed-minded,is actually willing to open her life up,and take a look into the great unknown. Final view on the film: A tremendous film,with a shocking amount of heart,that along with the amazing performances of the whole cast and Umberto Lenzi's gripping directing,make this a must see film for fans,and even "non" fans of the Italian Cannibal genre.

This movie might not satisfy the viewers who seek it out assuming it is full of explicit gore and cannibal depravity, but I thought it was a likable story. It is a little slow in some parts, but concentrates on narrative more than shock. As a fan of movies, not bloody effects, I appreciated the effort.A Westerner gets captured by a primitive tribe and slowly becomes accepted as one of them. A romance develops with one of the tribeswomen, and the love story becomes the focus of the rest of the movie.Simple, but I enjoyed it, I think because it felt just authentic enough. Most of the actors looked like they could have been from the area, the setting didn't look totally fake, and there were some moments that were obviously not done with special effects. Perhaps the least convincing part of it was the actress who played the love interest. Never once did I even remotely imagine she was a tribeswoman, looking more like a model (supposedly she worked on a game show). However, I enjoyed her character's playfulness and believed her when she gave the leading man shy but loving looks. Could it be that these characters from the first cannibal movie are one of my favorite on-screen couples?

John Bradley (Ivan Rassimov) a London based photographer is on assignment in Thailand, after accidentally killing a local thug and taking into account that he is blonde and over six foot, he goes on the run into the countryside where along with a local as his guide he travels north to Burma by boat to film underwater river life. After falling asleep on the boat, he wakes to find his assistant dead in the water and himself captured by natives, they use him as a slave, but after some time he gradually builds up his credibility and becomes a warrior within the tribe and even finds himself courted by the chief's daughter Maraya (Me Me Lai), but not before they subject him to some tortuous trials. Inspired somewhat by A Man Called Horse and itself perhaps an inspiration for Dancing with Wolves, Man from Deep River is often touted as the first real cannibal film, its certainly one of the first to show the practice graphically. The film though should not be compared to later gorefests like Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox or Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust, as it is much more restrained film that plays much more like a love story doomed to fail, that has cannibalism as a backdrop, even the de rigeur animal slayings seem to be there to further the plot, in fact it's a rather sad tale of tribal life, told well. Rassimov at times resembles a Christ-like figure, one minute bound and tied and being speared, the next stooping in a loin cloth while struggling to carry large pieces of timber…he looks the part too. Former UK gameshow assistant Me Me Lai provides the love interest and the not so ample curves as she had later in her career.

Umberto Lenzi was a diverse director, having made Giallo films, Italian crime films and some of the most notorious cannibal flicks, not to mention a whole host of other films with various sub-genres of horror. Deep River Savages is the film that is often given credit for kicking off the whole cannibal tradition, and it's also a member of the British 'Video Nasty' list, which lead to it's banning in the eighties. It's odd that this film should be on that list; however, as it's debatable as to whether or not it's even a horror film. Sure, it features some gore; but this is more like an early version of Dances with Wolves than its more bloodthirsty cannibal film cousins. The film follows Ivan Rassimov; a man who, after accidentally killing another man in a bar, finds himself in the Amazon jungle, where he is taken captive by a bunch of savages. After enduring various tortures, he finds himself the object of affection for a dim-witted female member of the tribe, and when she chooses him as her husband; he soon realises that despite being bloodthirsty savages; these guys aren't all that bad...Ivan Rassimov is one of my favourite cult Italian actors, and he does well in this film as his rugged appearance fits the feel of the movie very well and this makes him believable in the lead role. His performance gives the film credibility; something which is lacking in a lot of these types of films. He is joined by his Last Cannibal World and Eaten Alive co-star Me Me Lai, whose appearance again helps the movie and the pair do actually bode quite well on screen together. Umberto Lenzi's direction is assured as usual, and he does a good job of ensuring that the location fits the tone of the movie at all times. The jungle setting is well realised, and the shots the savages' village look great. The film is, like Kevin Coaster's highly rated nineties film, more than a little bit cheesy; and this isn't helped by Ivan Rassimov's voice-over. If it wasn't for the fact that I've seen 1957's 'Run of the Arrow', I would imply that Kevin Costner stole ideas from Umberto Lenzi. Of course, Dances with Wolves was about an Indian tribe; but there isn't a lot of difference. Still, I'd take Ivan Rassimov and cannibals before Kevin Costner and Indians any day! Overall, this isn't one of the 'great' Italian cannibal films...but it's not bad either.