Ultimo Mondo Cannibale
| Ultimo Mondo Cannibale | |
|---|---|
 Spanish theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Ruggero Deodato |
| Written by | Giorgio Carlo Rossi Renzo Genta Gianfranco Clerici Tito Carpi |
| Produced by | Giorgio Carlo Rossi |
| Starring | Massimo Foschi Me Me Lai Ivan Rassimov Sheik Razak Shikur Judy Rosly |
| Cinematography | Marcello Masciocchi |
| Edited by | Daniele Alabiso |
| Music by | Ubaldo Continiello |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures (USA) |
Release dates |  February 8, 1978 |
Running time | 92 min. |
| Language | Italian |
| Budget | Unknown |
Ultimo Mondo Cannibale (1977) (English: Last Cannibal World a.k.a. Jungle Holocaust) is an exploitation film directed by Ruggero Deodato, which stars Massimo Foschi, Me Me Laid, and Ivan Rassimov, based on a screenplay written by Renzo Genta, Tito Carpi, and Gianfranco Clerici. This film is the precursor to Deodato's controversial 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.
Unlike the aforementioned film, Ultimo Mondo Cannibale is a straightforward survivalist adventure rather than a horror film (although it was clearly influenced by the Mondo Cane films), and does not use the faux-documentary film-within-a-film structure. The film is about Robert Harper (Foschi), an affluent American enteprenuer and oil-prospector who crash-lands in the rain forest on the Malaysian island of Mindanao with his party. He soon becomes seperated from the others, stranded in the jungle, and is eventually captured and maliciously abused by a society of cave-dwellers referred to as the "Tajedoes," a tribe "still living in the stone age;" "the last cannibals left in the world, except for some on the Amazon Basin and in New Guinea." It was shot in Techniscope entirely on location in the Amazon and was previously distributed under a morass of different heavily-censored edits and titles, including The Last Survivor, Cannibal, and Carnivorous. It was recently released uncut on DVD by Shriek Show.
Plot
Template:Spoiler Robert Harper (Massimo Foschi) is an oil-prospector who is travelling to an outpost on the Philippines island of Mindanao. They land safely, but in the process, damage one of the wheels. While the pilot makes repairs, Robert and his geologist/survivalist companion Rolf (Ivan Rassimov) descend upon the nearby campsite and find it to be completely deserted, aside from some stone-age weaponry which raises some questions as to the eventual fate of Robert's companions. After finding one of their bodies, they conclude that the other prospectors were killed by the natives, then hurriedly return to the plane but need to wait until morning to take off. Unfortunately, one of their ranks (Judy Rosly) leaves the plane and subsequently disappears. The next morning, the three of them search for her, and after the Pilot meets a rather gruesome fate involving a wrecking-ball-sized mace, they indeed discover that the young woman has encountered the cannibals and also, unfortunately, has met a nasty demise. The two of them become seperated while trying to make their way back to the airplane, and lost in the rainforest with no survival skills, the weary and annoyed Robert is eventually accosted and captured by the cannibals.
The next half-hour of the film, which contains no dialogue and abundant amounts of nudity, is devoted to the various degrading and humiliating acts Robert is subjected to by the natives, including having his genitals vigorously fondled (in close-up), imprisoned, starved, urinated on, repeatedly bungeed off a cliff (the natives think he's some manner of bird since they saw him arrive in an airplane, and subsequently test this theory - "...the bird, the plane...oh, my God, they think I can fly."), pelted with rocks, fed nothing but inedible bowels and sinue, and abused by a toucan with a short temper. The severe terror, boredom, and degredation of Robert's mental state is chronicled during this section of the film, although one member of the tribe, Pulan (Me Me Lai) seems fascinated by him and misinterprets his desire for food as one for sex, and subsequently masturbates him. However, after what seems like weeks pass culminating in a lengthy sequence involving the evisceration of an eagle from a crocodile's stomach, Robert finally snaps when his eventual fate occurs to him, and manages to escape from the cave with Pulan. After repeated attempts to break free of Robert's grasp, he violently rapes her, and apparently asserts his dominance over her as she is now subservient to him.
After even more weeks of wandering around aimlessly through the jungle, Robert eventually finds his companion Rolf hiding in a cave, who has developed a nasty case of gangrene, and his condition is steadily worsening. Soon enough, Robert and his companions find the landing strip, but not before the cannibals manage to find them and eat Pulan. Robert eventually kills one of the tribesmen in a heated battle and manages to make it to the aircraft with the quickly-decaying Rolf, and finally takes off. In an epilogue, it is explained that this film was based on a true story, and that it eventually led to the discovery of the primitive tribe on this island.
Cast
- Massimo Foschi as Robert Harper
- Ivan Rassimov as Rolf
- Me Me Lai as Pulan
- Shiek Razak Shikur as Charlie
- Judy Rosly as Swan
Trivia
- Massimo Foschi did all his own stunts in the film, including eating a raw liver and being bungeed off a cliff.
- The film was released almost three years to the day (2 years, 364 days) before Deodato's more infamous cannibal film, Cannibal Holocaust.