Dolce e selvaggio (1983) User Reviews

Not as good as "Savage Man, Savage Beast" or "This Violent World", but still good

[FunkyDan · 7/10 · 26 September 2008]

I remember picking up the "Grindhouse Experience" movie pack, and popping in the first film of the notorious "Savage" trilogy, "Savage Man, Savage Beast". If you read my review for that film, it can easily be said that I had to see more. I ended up ordering "This Violent World" online, and it too was excellent. I soon felt the need to watch the final film, and come full circle. Having finally seen it, these are my thoughts.

The film opens with shots of penguins nestled together, with an excellent score accompanying it. We are then introduced to Mike Gunn, shooting at land mines to prevent local wildlife from stepping on them. This man appears throughout the film, and is by far the best part of it. To show contrast, we are shown antelopes being blown apart by said mines. After this, we are introduced to some dolphins and their trainers. Once again, this is juxtapositioned with the image of Japanese fishermen killing dolphins. This is a truly disturbing bit. Contrasts of this nature are displayed for about twenty minutes, then there are brief segments on human murder and dismemberment. A man gets his arm ripped off by a truck, dead bodies are fed to vultures, and a stuntman falls to his death.

The second half of the film focuses on more pleasant matters: Mike Gunn is shown playing with cheetahs, a quadriplegic is helped out by a trained monkey, dancing rituals are shown, and a few bits and pieces from "Savage Man, Savage Beast", and "This Violent World" are shown, with different narrations than previously.

Both parts of the film have some truly disturbing footage, as well as some truly heart-touching scenes. That being said, I do have a few complaints: Picture quality: Looks like ass. But this is thanks to the fact that this is only available in bootleg form, to my understanding. The filmmakers are not at fault.

The fact that the film feels like it's been split into two halves actually injures it somewhat. The film is supposed to show a contrast between the sweet and the savage, which while accomplished to a degree here, would've worked much better if they spread out the violent footage, as there would be more and better contrasts. Instead, the first half is all: "Look over there, someone's dying" and the second half is all: "Look over there, people are having fun" without proper contrast.

All in all, while it doesn't hold a candle to the films that preceded it, it still manages to be a solid entry into the mondo genre, and makes a good conclusion to the "Savage" trilogy.

Outrageously unpleasant.

[Moshing Hoods · 25 March 2002]

SWEET AND SAVAGE represents Climati and Morra's final attempt at Mondo cinema. Having been seriously stung by previous criticisms of their film-making and of the genre itself in the past, it's surprising to see that once again they happily exhibit scene after scene of almost unwatchable nastiness.

SWEET AND SAVAGE contains a large bulk of out-takes and reused footage from Climati and Morra's previous mid-70s Mondo efforts, and predictably follows the same format. Accompanied by a pretentiously epic sound-track, the beauty and the savageness of nature are juxtaposed in a vain attempt to justify the violence on display. However, the more pleasant scenes just come across as twee and make the disturbing footage even more distasteful. As usual, scenes of animal slaughter make up the majority of the movie, but there are also a few faked and unfaked sequences involving humans. Tightrope walkers and stunt-men fall to their deaths; a corpse of a Tibetan monk is hacked up and eaten by vultures atop a mountain (surprisingly, this footage looks genuine); and in the "stand out" scene, a man is tied to two trucks and has his arm torn away. The final scene is clearly fake but that didn't stop it (as well as much of the other footage in this movie) turning up in Damon Fox's appalling TRACES OF DEATH series...

For me, the aspect of the Mondo genre that is so fascinating yet also indefensible is the misrepresentation and misinformation that these supposed "documentaries" push on the viewer. SWEET AND SAVAGE is no exception. For instance, many of the scenes have been clearly over-dubbed using actors voices in hilariously un-PC ways. In one scene, Africans are shown snapping the necks of ostriches, but these men have been over-dubbed with ebonics-laden, deep South accents. I can't help but laugh at such moments, but it is one of the aspects of these movies that is the most distasteful.

So all in all, this is the close of a fascinating and controversial chapter in Italian exploitation cinema. Saying that, I doubt it is for everyone.

Evidence where we all went wrong

[chrislawuk · 8/10 · 3 August 2023]

On the verge of mass extinction and deforestation, you can look back to see these mondo films as evidence of where the human race went wrong. Where else can you see an animal rescue guy jump out of a helicopter on to the back of an antelope, to supposedly save them, and take to a wild life park. Steve Irwin hasn't got a look in. Obviously horribly out dated principles. The juxtaposition of elements of western civilisation with those of tribal populations is some what philosophical. The camera crew are photojournalists, much like the war photographers, who go to the most primitive and dangerous places to observe the inhabitants & their rituals.

It is very shocking, but what I respect about these mondo movies is they show life as how it is. Now we live in a bubble, protected from what is happening in war zones around the world; to the horrors inflicted on wild life etc. We live in a sugar coated consumerist version of reality. We can not even openly speak what is happening with in our on societies. This is raw stuff, and I doubt little if any of it is faked for show. It is the essence of the documentary to provide that lens to view in to those areas of life we dare not cross, or it is not feasible to do so. When some one applies constraints on what you see a documentary it will be critically acclaimed, defined art house-but when you show it in all its graphic detail, the majority of people just don't want to know, define the flick as "exploitation". They bury their heads in the sand, like the the ostrich that features in this movie. I like Mondo docs, but even I get to put them in a box, detach myself from reality. I view them as the product of a past age, pretend to myself that these cruelties exhibited are of a time past, and perhaps humans are not like that anymore.

In the age of the camera phone, everybody is essentially a documentary film maker, and it highlights the shield of censorship we live under, where we are unaware of the large quantities of disturbing captured content which must be out there.

Is this made for exploitation purposes: yes! However, it is a documentary film undoubtedly, and documentaries are a product of their environment. Should documentaries about the dark side of human nature not be made? I think they should, and are as every bit as important in the field of documentary film making as, take Attenborough for example. Even Attenborough is taken a bit of a u-turn now, and devoting his later years to warn us about the for ever impending environmental catastrophe looming ahead. This makes some interesting early commentary on this subject, and also war politics (at least in the English language version I seen on Youtube it did). It is not for the documentary film maker to justify its subjects, as it is the documentary film makers job to capture reality, not shape it. Some mondo films are of very bad taste, and it is the direction of the movies which is partly responsible for these. With this movie, I did not feel this way about this movie. It is very graphically violent. You have to say that this documentary team are very well travelled, and the documentary as a whole provides some thought provoking insights in to not only the struggle to live, for all species, including ourselves, but natures propensity for violence and destruction. Recommend for doc buffs.