Customer Reviews

Brutes and Savages [VHS]

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The only thing I can say about faked mondo movies like this is that it helps me realize how grand undertakings like Mondo Cane and Africa Adio were.

Other legitimate mondo movies certainly would have been made if it wasn't such a huge and expensive set of tasks. Instead faked movies in the 'mondo style' were made and effectively killed the genre early. Now the mondo genre is equated as these stupid faked hokey 'documentaries'.

There isn't a minute that could be mistaken as real.

In this one, the savages' facial paintings are checkerboards and round outlines of the eyes and mouth somewhat similar to a clown. The savages' dancing has pretty modern movements. A crocodile attack is cutting between an extremely fake rubber crocodile head, a guy splashing in a river, fake blood and thrashing obviously shot in a swimming pool.

The movie admittingly has 'recreated footage' however even the most gullible person will easily realize this is nothing but 'recreated footage'.

Watch Shocking Asia or Mondo Magic if seeking other Mondo films. Unfortunately, I don't know if there are any other real mondo films made besides these.

The film was boring and ridiculous. The DVD cover is the only thing interesting about this film. You could easily tell that all of the documentary footage are a re-enactment and hardly authentic. The re-enactments are so fake that I felt stupid for paying $24.99 for this DVD. Do not let the DVD cover intrigue you into wanting to see this boring disappointment. What a waste of my money.

This so called film is a semi bad travelogue from the 1970's, which supposedly shows rituals that still take place in South America.This is done in the "Faces of Death" style ,only not as good.

Now several rituals are shown. You got the ritualistic commemoration of a centuries old fight avenging a village raid and you have the "Turtle Wedding " ritual. Now this one actually sparked a bit of interest from ole Billy Ray. This one even showed the wedding night ....well sorta anyway. It had boobies and stuff y'know?

Ya gots lots of animals doing what comes natural. Killing each other in that mighty food chain deal. Alligators and birds of prey having a real munch fest. One of the best moments in the movie came during a "Manhood" ritual. Crazy natives crossing a river with hungry gators in it. You guessed it! Natives for lunch.

We're also shown some real high class culture in this movie. We visit a museum which features the Mochia Indians of the Andes. Seems these folks only had two things on their minds. Working and doing the Nasty. We see alot of pottery recovered from tombs that are.....well very explicit. Drink from this cup..... or not. They did.......

Now ole Arthur Davis saves the best for last.He shows you a bunch of Bolivian indians having a llama mating ritual. Now these things are so stupid they don't even know how to do it! So, these indians have a festival and show them how . Even has animal bondage fer those of you so inclined. Now if that ain't enough for ya, these indians get realllllll drunk and do it too! I guess chewing them coca leaves and drinking that home brew does make ya go blind! I've heard about gettin' some strange, but this goes wayyyyy beyond that!

So here's Billy Ray's summery: Lots of native boobies, ritualistic wedding night sex, alligators eating natives and each other and animal bondage (fer those of ya so inclined.....) So grab a beer or twelve and get ready to gag and laugh for 91 minutes. Billy Ray Bubba Jr. gives this thing a thumb sideways. See yawl at the movies!

Brutes and Savages seems to be a pretty typical mondo type documentary. Made in the days before the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, before every kid in America had seen crocodiles eating animals alive. It has the typical "savages" that are seen in most movies in this genre, and as they usually are the women are naked and the men are killing each other.

There is some disturbing footage in this "documentary," although I am pretty sure that all of it was completely stages. You get to see animals being killed in ceremonies, and while the animal deaths are real the ceremonies are obviously not. You also get to see some sixties style South American brain surgery, a bunch of sex related artifacts, and some supposed South American villages engaged in more "unusual" ceremonies. I would recomend renting this movie as I thought it was entertaining to watch once, but I will probably never watch it again. The fakery is too poorly done. An aligator attacking a man cuts back and forth between a dirty river and a very clean swimming pool probably in the directors back yard. It is funny, but again not worth watching more than once, and probably not even once if you aren't already a fan of the mondo doc genre.