The Savage Innocents

This is an extremely powerful and stunning movie portraying Innuit Eskimos and the way their living habits clash with our sensitive Western "civilisation". It is extremely annoying not to be able to find it in either VHS or DVD format. Hopefully this will be put right soon. A must for Anthony Quinn fans!

This movie presents an intriguing picture of two widely dissimilar cultures coming together. The Eskimos are simple and innocent, but ideally suited and armed with the knowledge to survive one of the harshest places that people inhabit. One my favorite moments occurs when the officer says he can subdue the main character by himself, to which the main character replies, "You are that strong?", showing the absence of boastfulness in the Eskimo culture, which stems from the cooperative nature necessary to survival. The stark and uncluttered settings give space to concentrate on the dialog. Definitely worth watching

This is a co-production by various countries : Italy (Magic films) , England (Play-Art) , France(Pathe) and distributed by Rank Productions , being firstly exhibited circa 1960 . Based on Hans Ruesch novel , being adapted by Franco Solinas . Although novelist Hans Ruesch never saw an Eskimo , but based his story on the film Eskimo . Nicholas Ray wrote the script and controlled completely the film , he always considered his best work . Ray investigated about Eskimos life , filming in documentary style and developed a lyric clash among two civilizations : The primitive , naive of the native Eskimos and the civilized Anglo-Xaxon . The ways of life confrontation originated loneliness , getaway and exclusion .

The picture was shot in Ottawa 1959 , March . Ray traveled to the Bay of Hudson and Churchill (Manitoba) for exterior location . Besides , for interior scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios (London)and Cinecitta (Rome) , during thirteen weeks in a studio work including quite a few transparency . Spectacular and colorful cinematography in Technirama 70 by Aldo Tonti and Henessy with marvelous landscapes from Arctic where we watch all type of animals : White bears , seals , walrus , oxes , whales , reindeer , Arctic fox.. Sensitive and evocative music by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino . Anthony Quinn gives an exceptional acting along with the newcomer and remarkable Yoko Tani . The veteran actress from silent cinema , Anna My Wong , plays splendidly as grandmother . In a secondary role shows up Peter O'Toole (though dubbed) , he plays a patrolman who pursues to Anthony Quinn accused for killing accidentally a missionary . However , Peter O'Toole demanded that his name be removed from the film's opening and closing credits because his voice was dubbed by another actor . The great and stylish filmmaker Nicholas Ray working at the peak of his powers . Well worth watching for the brooding script and wonderful location . Rating : Better than average.

I saw this movie many years ago. My recollection of it is that is a documentary comment on the interface of two widely different cultures. I also just finished reading Kabloona a book written by a white Frenchman in the later 1930s about the Eskimo Culture. The points made in the book confirm those points made in the movie. The Eskimo apparently is a guileless innocent whose life consists primarily of staying alive and fed. The innocence of these people was highlighted in the scene where Anthony Quinn came back to his igloo and found that his wife had given birth. He asked her the baby's name and when she told him, he responded in amazement, "How did you know?" As far as the scene where a man's hands were stuffed into a recently killed dog is concerned, the speed with which freezing occurs at 50 below zero is not to be believed. That scene demonstrates the fact that the Eskimo regards his dogs as livestock and useful. Shocking, but apparently realistic.

"The savage innocents" is Ray's last real movie, his two epics "King of Kings" and "55 days at Peking" ,in spite of their (often unfairly overlooked) qualities cannot be called "Nicholas Ray' s movies .The rest of his filmography includes a movie made with his students and the questionable Wenders collaboration "lightning over water" .

Not only Ray was the director whose influence was huge on the rock generation ("Rebel with a cause " was the first movie which rocked ,a feat for it was a work which did not include songs)but "savage innocents" inspired Bob Dylan a song which Manfred Mann made a big hit in the sixties.Mighty Quinn indeed.

Anthony Quinn was par excellence the perfect good all-around.a cursory look at his filmography is revealing:from Fellini's "La Strada" to his portrayal of Quasimodo in the French version of "Notre Dame de Paris" (Delannoy) From Barrabas (Fleischer)to an Eskimo.

Like so many Rayesque heroes ,Inuk does not follow the rules :in a way he is akin to the youngsters of "Rebel" ,to Davey Bishop ("Run for cover" ),to Nick ("Knock on any door" ) and of course to the outlaws ("the true story of Jesse James") .But anyway Inuk cannot follow the Whites' rules for ,in his naive innocence,he is incapable of understanding them,which proves they are not universal.Margaret Mead had already showed that what is good and what is bad is not the same wherever you live in the world.

.My favorite scene is the priest trying to make the "savage" understand that he's lived a life of sin: what can a tale of long ago and far away mean for a man whose life is a constant struggle against a hostile nature ? It's the same pragmatism which we find in Luis Bunuel's Oeuvre.

"The savage innocents " is half documentary half fiction;the documentary side shows its age :correct me if I am wrong but "Eskimo" (=raw meat eater) is not a term the Inuit would appreciate nowadays.Besides,they did not live in igloos which were only used during the hunting season.Entirely filmed in studio ,the pictures are magnificent though,a real symphony in white.The white color dominates everything (tinged with blue)except for this extremely moving scene when it turns black when the old woman is left in the snow to die (it will remind the young cine buffs of Imamura's "Narayama Bushiko" (1983)).

"The savage innocents " sets the nature and its quietness -although it's a cruel mistress;when you fight a bear,it's you or him-against the "civilization" here represented by alcohol,pop music ,money and the Law.Ray had already been an ecologist ahead of his time in "Wind across the everglades" These two works are like "twin movies" and should be seen one after the other.

After all "King of Kings" was also perhaps a Ray movie:Jesus himself was not born to follow the rules.