Addio zio Tom (1971)

Two documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.

Directors:

Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi

Writers:

Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi

Stars:

Stefano Sibaldi, Dick Gregory, Gualtiero Jacopetti

Cast

Cast overview:
Stefano Sibaldi	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

Two documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.

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Plot Keywords:

bare breasts | defloration | loss of virginity | virginity | clothes ripping | 

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Taglines:

Beasts of Burden! Tools of Pleasure! Objects of Torture!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian English

Release Date:

30 September 1971 (Italy)

Also Known As:

White Devil: Black Hell

Filming Locations:

Florida, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Euro International Film (EIA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min 103 min (Québec)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie was originally released in Italy in a 119-minute version and immediately withdrawn when the directors were sued for plagiarism by writer Joseph Chamberlain Furnas. It was re-released in March 1972 in a re-cut 136-minute version under the title 'Zio Tom.'

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Crazy Credits

'Questo film è un documentario. I fatti sono storicamente avvenuti ed i personaggi sono realmente esistiti.' Which translates to: 'This film is a documentary. The facts historically happened and the persons really existed.'

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Alternate Versions

The 135-minute version (available only in Italian) now available on DVD is very different from the American version. It has 14 mins of new footage, including a new introduction which shows the reaction of African Americans to the death of Martin Luther King Jr. The new film is edited so that the timeline also continually shifts back and forth from the past to the present. Also much of the most disturbing footage was cut out.

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Connections

References Gone with the Wind (1939)

User Reviews

powerful, sometimes shocking

Not exactly a "humanitarian masterpiece" as someone else said (yeah right!). More like cryptic super-exploitation. This is wildly, hilariously, rollickingly misguided pseudo-history at best. Outright race-baiting at worst. Made by the sleazoids who barfed up "Africa Addios" (giving Africans their own country back so soon just wasn't the right idea, was it!!), a film that featured the genuinely bizarre white South African girls on trampolines montage. A fervent call-to-arms for African-Americans made by white Europeans must inherently ring false, I am afraid. (we enslaved you. kill us!) Manages to be both numbing and completely, hideously insulting at the same time.

The film is, under its very "SO racist it isn't being racist" exterior a sly work of racism. Presents blacks as nothing more than animals and savages, capable only of violence or submission to the will of whites. All the while remaining mute and mindless. No African-American in the film is presented as having a personality, substance, or intelligence. Every white all but glows. Every caucasian is a verbose, mercurial, immaculate sprite.

That said, the film does (I would assume) approximate the way Africans were treated during the slave era more closely than other films. In that respect it deserves respect. The conditions are shown as filthy, disgusting, cruel. Every imaginable indignity is portrayed (and some you probably could not imagine).

However, the film does have some power. The camera work is very inventive and the directors handle some of the chaotic scenes around the plantation very well. Some of the imagery is genuinely striking. There's a general feeling of chaos that comes through that's very effective. I'm not sure what the point is. But it's effective.

Anyway, see the movie if you really want to be grossed out and insulted. File this one under SUPER exploitation. The directors may have had good intentions when they started out, but I think they just lost it when they got onto the set and decided to see how far out they could go. And no one, it seemed, was around to tell them to tone it down or put on the breaks. This is up there with Cannibal Holocaust and Men Behind the Sun. It's that sort of a deal.

But don't kid yourselves, this AIN'T no humanitarian masterpiece.