[Pitt the Younger]

I had mixed feelings about this even before seeing it. For years, as it happens. One of those 'should I really watch it?' dilemmas, given the much reported animal cruelty (and with me being a vegetarian and all that). I read up on the shameless release, and my plan was to watch the re-edit without the animal nastiness, but then I changed my mind and watched the original.

The animal slaughter (it was slaughter and butchery, not torture, although the pig being kicked was nasty) was unpleasant, but no worse than anything I saw when I was active in the BUAV and such like. Still unnecessary, and I would have preferred it to have been faked (as would Deodato himself, now, I would have thought).

As for the film itself, I thought it was very good. That we were being invited to compare the behaviour of the savages with the 'civilised' people (who throughout the film conduct most of the animal abuse and indulge in rape, terror and murder) was evident right from the start given that the original american crew are obnoxious f__ks* from the off. The attendant dialogue/voiceovers ('I wonder who the real cannibals are?') sort of thing is completely unnecessary and grating.

I'm glad I saw it, there were some gripping set pieces and some extraordinary images. I'll probably watch it again in the new edit.


*I probably should have read the t&cs more thoroughly, but what's the rules on bad language here?