5. Savage Man, Savage Beast (1978)
Used by former chief of the BBFC - James Ferman - to demonstrate the need for film censorship, Savage Man, Savage Beast is a tour de force Mondo which takes no prisoners. The focus on the film is the relationship between animals and humans - more specifically it portrays different types of hunting from around the world. Scene follows scene with no narrative cohesion - just people killing animals (in the Western world as well as the Third World). There are shots of anti hunt protestors, animals killing each other - someone orchestrates a race between a cheetah and an Ostrich to demonstrate the cheetah's speed. African men copulate with the earth in the belief that the act will produce a fertile land and thus plenty of animals to feast on. There are two very controversial and contentious scenes for which Savage Man, Savage Beast is particularly famous. One is the group of lions mauling and eating Safari sightseer Pit Dernitz. The other is the rounding up of indigenous people to be killed by white mercenaries. It is the view of Kerekes and Slater in their excellent book about Mondo movies - Killing for Culture - that these disturbing sequences are factitious but they are still bloody awful to watch. Ditto that on the endless animal slaughter. It is grim, unnecessary and happens every two minutes. They have even used scenes from Africa Addio - a film I had to watch behind my pillow due to the abominable animal killings. Apparently in Hong Kong the only film that bested Savage Man, Savage Beast at the Box Office was Jaws. Whatever floats your boat I guess...