Customer Reviews

Mondo Cane: It's a Dog World [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

"Mondo Cane" ("It's a Dog's World") might not have been the first shockumentary, but this 1962 film is the first such film to get a wide viewing. I cannot believe they actually showed this to us in high school (WHAT were they thinking?). Then again, I have to admit I have never forgotten the sight of a guy with a sword cutting off a bull's head with one swing or the bugs prepared for dinner.

The film offers an initial disclaimer that says, in part, "the duty of the chronicler is not to sweeten the truth but to report it objectively". Of course, this is the justification for this fascinating and repulsive look at outrageous things around the world. Writer and co-director Gualtiero Jacopetti travels back and forth around the world between the so-called civilized and primitive worlds, creating all sorts of ironic frames of meaning (aided and abetted by thinly veiled sarcastic narration). In Rome chicks are dye bright colors for Easter eggs while a tribe out in the jungles waits five years to slaughter a hundred pigs and have a big feast. Of course, there are better examples, but it seems kind of pointless to spoil the fun by telling you the best shocks in a film that was considered the "most argued about film" on earth when it was first released in 1963.

This 107-minute Italian film is in French, with English subtitles, and was helped with its legitimacy by the fact its theme song "More" was nominated for an Oscar. On the one hand it is relatively tame given what we see in movies today, but then it does have the virtue of being documentary fact rather than special effects fiction. Still, I have to believe that "Mondo Cane" will be of more interest to those on whom it made an impression way back when, rather than winning new generations of viewers. But remember, sooner or later, this film will make you drop your jaw at something. You were warned.

I saw this movie when it was first released in 1962. I was 17 years old at the time, and I must say it left a strong impression on me. I found the movie at the time to be original and disburbing for a youth of 17 years. I did not know of all the bizarre events that took place around the world. It opened my eyes to cultures different than mine. I found it to be educational and mind expanding. I would recommend it for anyone over the age of 14 years. Another plus to the movie is the title song "More", which was a big hit at the time. If you want reality, and want to learn about other cultures and their practices this is your movie. Have fun and enjoy.

This planet which many humans believe is theirs, has so many mysterious aspects that when a cinematic camera and lights are turned on it, are illuminated like the elusive creatures of the night. A world traveler may go seeking the strange, the unusual, the bizarre and occasionally the forbidden and often find much more than he bargained for. That is what the film "Mondo Cane" is all about. It is a black collection of the many unusual parts of our strange world. The film travels around the globe seeking out the odd customs of various people and offers them up as interesting fare to the ambivalent traveler, the timidly interested and the curiously morbid. In each country visited, we find that what one nation finds disgusting, another finds tolerable. One nation offers up unusual human sexual practices, which another country often finds offensive, tasteless and guttural. Animals in one country are revered, honored and treated as royalty. Yet in a neighboring nation, these same beasts are prepared as special delicacies fit for consumption. Women, boys and pain seeking parishioners are accepted as sacrificial fodder. Viewers are treated to the world's most primitive customs and often as not we see ourselves at the very depth of depravity and learn it is not polite to stare, which we do anyway. A frightening movie, but one which reveals much about us than we care to know. Still, one cannot turn away without wanting to see 'MORE' which happens to be the Theme Song of this same picture. ****

I question how much of a "documentary" this film really is. On track 20 (Japanese Hangover Remedy) the sound track tells us "a nice Japanese custom requires the clients to be naked [but] we have covered them up". In none of the scenes from Papua New Guinea do we see the long prominent penis gourds commonly worn by tribal men (that would have made a good subject on its own). Even the "stone age cave men" have their lower bodies very much covered up. Where did they learn that from, the Catholic missionaries (don't think there were any in the Stone Age) or from the film crew?

By all means buy the DVD if you saw this film like I did back when it was first released and want to see it again. Otherwise I suggest you give it a big miss.

I don't quite get reviewers who critique this film along the lines of "maybe it was shocking in 1962, but by TODAY'S standards it's tame". This brilliant, beautiful pastiche of stories is as captivating today as it was then (I suppose---I was two at the time). Reviewers seem overly concerned about whether the film is dated, whether "modern sensibilities" will find it "tame"---do we worry about that with Casablanca, or Beethoven's 5th Symphony, or Hamlet? The film is the film, and as such it is startling different from practically anything I can name. The cinematography is astonishing, and the score combined with the narration achieves a brilliant ironic tone that is remarkably consistent throughout the film. Mondo Cane is an absolute essential in any serious film student's repetoire, and unlike some other essential films, it's captivating (heck, most of the "essentials" are honestly a bore to sit through---from Birth of a Nation to Citizen Kane to Dogstar Man). See it for it's own sake, it's great.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED-- This amazing video is a 'must-have!' I rented 'Mondo Cane' (aka Mondo Magic) from a local video store when I was 15 years old, and now, at 28, I still remember with vivid clarity, the exhilarating experience of viewing this profoundly shocking video. YOU WON'T FIND THIS AT BLOCKBUSTER OR HOLLYWOOD VIDEO! Watcher BEWARE, the scenes depict actual documentary-style footage--not a fictionalized account--of native people practicing traditional rituals which may severely conflict with your notion of 'acceptable Western cultural practices.' Hunting, eating, come-of-age initiation and explicit sexual rites, dramatic celebrations, shamanic religious ceremonies and even everyday life scenes around a small village people, provide a significantly shocking experience, while the material is dealt with quite sensitively, almost clinically. This video will broaden your understanding of the profound diversity of human life, sex, religion, and death experiences in cultures different than your own. Be prepared to see with an open mind and a pretty tough stomach, before watching this film. --Loco Bonobo

The peoples of other countries do indeed eat the strangest things. Then again, they don't have Pizza Hut like we do. Amusing at times, and hurtful at others, this theatrically released documentary samples the traditions of other cultures via sometimes grotesque video-tapings of said traditions/customs. Not for xeno-phobes! Oddly, this film also introduces us to the song "More" , a touching instrumental that's acheived status as a standard. My most memorable segment shows us the effects of nuclear testing near a small island group in the South Pacific: the trace radiation destroys the directional instinct of baby turtles who, after hatching, crawl toward the center of a desert island in search of water. In fact, they should be crawling in the opposite direction. An eye-opening sequence to be sure.

I remember when this film first came out in the very early nineteen sixties. The advertisements were lurid, and the film was described as "shocking". Of course, as a girl on the cusp of becoming a teenager, my curiosity was piqued, but, alas, still being under parental supervision, I was forbidden to go and see what all the fuss was about. Well, over forty years after its release, I finally got to see what all that fuss was about. I am sorry to report that the answer simply is: not much.

This Italian made documentary (or "shockumentary", as the critics of the time liked to call it) is little more than a newsreel of some of the more bizarre or seemingly strange practices prevalent in other parts of the world at the time that this documentary was made. Some of it even focuses on the decadence of some "civilized" nations. The film definitely has an anachronistic feel to it, almost amateurish. Some of the voice over dialogue is even patronizing or tongue in cheek, at times. The most shocking thing about the film is how tame most of it seems, although some aspects of it, those having to do with animals, might still be viewed by some as being a little controversial.

Quite frankly, one scene where the well-heeled sit down in a pricey New York restaurant to lunch on a then extravagantly priced meal of fried insects, while repulsive and even decadent, considering other scenes in the film where third world people have undergone hunger, is pretty mild given what they eat nowadays on shows such as "Fear Factor" and "Survivor". Some of the religious self-mortification practiced at the time in remote villages in Italy is a little more shocking, as is the scene involving the "suckling" pig. The restaurant in Asia where one selects the dog one wishes to eat may be culturally abhorrent to us, but by now I think most people are sophisticated enough to realize that in this global village in which we all live, tastes will vary and some tastes will repulse us.

Moreover, having naked, bare-breasted, native women running across the big screen may have been considered controversial and designed to appeal to the viewer's prurient interest at the time that this film was released. When viewed in today's climate and in the context of the current social mores, however, given the fact that today's actors and actresses run across the big screen naked at the drop of a hat, it seems pretty ho-hum. This is definitely not a film that will have wide appeal to today's generation of moviegoers. I suspect that its target audience is those, such as myself, who were around when this film was first released and remember the firestorm of controversy that surrounded it but who, for one reason or another, did not have the opportunity to see it then.

I did not realize, however, until I viewed the film, that the song "More", which had received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song in 1963, originated with this film. As it is a song that I have always enjoyed hearing, the fact that such a terrific song was originally associated with such a mediocre film was probably the most shocking thing about this otherwise schlock film. This Academy Award nominated song is probably the real legacy of this film. If one is interested in seeing this film, which is a curiosity at best, one should rent, rather than buy, it.

This is an abridged edition of a classic exploitation film. In particular the communion scenes from New Guinea are cut which deflates the whole end of the film.

I love this film even more now than when it first appeared 46 years ago! And now it has been lovingly repackaged and smartly re-presented with many Special Features on DVD thanks to "Blue Underground". It seems to be made from a master copy or perhaps it has been digitally remastered. I think it's brilliant in every way, humour, satire, direction and is a classic in cinematography! It's also a fun filled romp around the globe with rare footage of tribal ritual. So thrill to the bizzare practices, chill to the savagry. SEE the living dead in the House of Death in Singapore...SEE a real case of Elephantitus on the feet of a villager and men hoaxing their own drowning. Observe Aborigines create a Cult of the Cargo Planes (which come from Heaven)! And real cavemen also add to the anthropoogical value. But there is also much spectacular voyeuristic eye candy and gay festivities and celebrations. And in the long tradition of exploitation films, this was a great leap forward. But it has also been described as "Shockumentary". Mondo Cane refers to a "World gone to the Dogs"! But romantics take heart: the paradox is that although it's a satirical film, the soundtrack is the music/lyrics of a great love song "More" which was recorded by several vocalists such as Della Reese and was nominated for an Oscar. With two years in the making, one is reminded of the struggle in the making of Apocalypse Now! And the tradition has continued with many spin-offs, even the Peckinpah's, the Tarantino's, and grind house kung fu and women's prison movies. Enjoy!