Goodbye Uncle 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:

The first motion picture, based on historical facts, about the rise and revolt of slavery in America.

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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

DECAMERONE NERO's German DVD has a Super-8mm version of "Goodbye Uncle Tom", (German audio only) as a special feature on the disc.

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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The movie was originally released in Italy in a 123-minute version and immediately withdrawn when the directors were sued for plagiarism by writer Joseph Chamberlain Furnas.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 135-minute version under the title 'Zio Tom.'

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Connections

Featured in Adam & Yves (1974)

User Reviews

WOW

MONDO CANE and AFRICA ADDIO creators Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi take us on a journey through time, back to the mid 1800's, not too long before the civil war. The movie is styled like one of their previous documentaries, with actors talking to the camera as though being interviewed, and just about every form of human cruelty being enacted on the Africans who have been dragged overseas to become slaves.

The movie is certainly disturbing, and it did indeed enrage me that ancestors of mine took part in this treatment of fellow human beings. But the movie lost me whenever it tried to create a parallel between the climate between blacks and whites in the 1800s and the 1960s.

Not that there weren't (and, unfortunately, still are) problems with racial tension in this country, but the movie seems to think that the average black person is still a savage at heart, just waiting for the right moment to break out an axe and slaughter the first white person he comes across. The movie climaxes with a radical black man reading The Diary of Nat Turner and imagining doing just that, including a horrific moment in which he smashes a baby's head against the wall.

To me, the movie seems to have a negative opinion of just about everyone. Obviously, due to its decidedly anti-slavery stance, the slave traders are viewed as sick, inhuman monsters with only the faintest mask of civility on the surface. But the African characters are portrayed largely as ignorant buffoons, too dim-witted to understand what's happening to them.

Later, during the modern day scenes, the sole black character is shown as having a major chip on his shoulder that has driven him nearly insane with rage, while the white people are a bunch of care-free bubble heads. Such generalizations and lack of depth or character development greatly lessens the power the movie may have had.

But, as a purely gut-busting exercise in sleaze and disgusting imagery, GOODBYE UNCLE TOM sits confidently alongside other such gross-out movies as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, SALO and MEN BEHIND THE SUN. Also, like those movies, GUT (hmmm, interesting abbreviation) goes so outrageously over-the-top in depicting its atrocities, most of the movie's true power is lost, and it becomes little more than a freak show.

I hesitantly recommend the movie for fans of sick cinema as a curiosity. I warn pretty much everyone else to stay far, far away.