Product Details

• Actors: Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, David Flint, Benito Frattari, David Kerekes
• Directors: Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, David Gregory, Paolo Cavara
• Writers: Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, Paolo Cavara
• Producers: Angelo Rizzoli, Carl Daft
• Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Limited Edition, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Studio: Blue Underground
• DVD Release Date: January 1, 2004
• Run Time: 234 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000096IC0
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,851 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Mondo Cane Collection - Limited Edition (Mondo Cane / Women of the World / Mondo Cane 2 / Africa Addio - English Version / Africa Addio - Directors' Cut / Goodbye Uncle Tom - English Version / Addio Zio Tom - Director's Cut / The Godfathers of Mondo" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi are widely considered to be the creators of the "mondo," the cynical and often exploitative '60s-era cousin of the documentary and the template for today's reality TV. Blue Underground compiles five of the pair's most controversial films in an eight-disc set (which includes uncut versions of two titles) that proves their images have not lost their power to shock and amaze. Journalist-turned-director Jacopetti and former naturalist Prosperi first teamed for 1962's Mondo Cane (A Dog's Life), which explored strange customs around the world. The film (co-directed with Paolo Cavera) balanced its humorous and repulsive images with some genuinely beautiful ones and captured audiences' imaginations worldwide as well as an Academy Award for composer Riz Ortolani's theme, "More." Many critics decried the film, but a fleet of copycat mondos appeared in its wake. Enough footage was shot during the making of Mondo Cane to allow for a sequel (also known as Mondo Pazzo) in 1963; it was quickly followed by Women of the World, which explored women's roles around the globe.

Tiring of the travelogue approach, the pair headed to Africa to document the unrest that had erupted in the wake of colonial abandonment. The result, 1966's Africa Addio, was acclaimed for its disturbing images but also earned the duo charges that they had orchestrated on-screen executions. Though they were eventually acquitted, Jacopetti and Prosperi's reputations was irreparably marred. They attempted to amend the situation with Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971), an overripe fantasy that transported them to the pre-Civil War South to explore slavery. Unfortunately, its horrific violence further turned off audiences, and the duo split soon afterwards. Though the early titles are somewhat dated, and the later films are often overwhelmingly grotesque, the Mondo Cane Collection is a powerful visual experience that avoid the sheer exploitativeness of other mondo and their modern offspring. --Paul Gaita

Product Description

They've been called pioneers and geniuses, criminals and charlatans. For more than four decades, their movies have been both banned and acclaimed all over the world. Now THE MONDO CANE COLLECTION presents the still-shocking films of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, a body of work that has influenced everything from broadcast news to 'reality TV' and changed the face of cinema forever.

MONDO CANE is the original 'Shockumentary' sensation that launched the entire 'Mondo' genre, as well as its notorious hit sequels WOMEN OF THE WORLD and MONDO CANE 2. AFRICA ADDIO - here in both its devastating English version and rarely seen Director's cut - is the horrific portrait of the Dark Continent that ignited an international political firestorm. GOODBYE UNCLE TOM - and its even more incendiary Director's Cut - are perhaps the filmmakers' most controversial works, an epic depiction of the American slave trade and its brutal legacy that remain Among the most racially charged films ever made. And THE GODFATHERS OF MONDO is an all-new documentary by David Gregory on the films of Jacopetti & Prosperi featuring explosive interviews, never-before-seen footage, and much more.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerfully compelling stuff!, February 3, 2004

By	Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Thanks to William Lustig and the friendly folks at Blue Underground, serious fans of cinematic weirdness can check out the numerous films of Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti. Who are Prosperi and Jacopetti, you ask? Good question. Before checking out this awesome eight disc limited edition set, I knew little about these two Italian filmmakers. I once heard about "Mondo Cane" years ago, but had never investigated further. Thanks to the voracious appetites awakened in the masses with the advent of DVD technology, I finally got the chance to acquaint myself with this film and the others that followed it. What an experience! The eight discs in the set consist of "Mondo Cane," "Mondo Cane 2," "Women of the World," "Africa Addio: The Director's Cut," "Africa Addio: English language version," "Goodbye Uncle Tom: English language version," "Addio Zio Tom: The Director's Cut," and an interview disc with the two directors created especially for this set called "The Godfathers of Mondo." So what does it all mean? According to these discs, the two filmmakers birthed a phenomenon that led directly to the current spate of reality-based media. Most of these films are documentary style epics showing our world--or at least how it looked back in the 1960s--in all of its bizarre and frivolous forms. "Mondo Cane," by the way, translates as "A Dog's World." An apt title when you see the films, to be sure.

Start your experience with "Mondo Cane," "Mondo Cane 2," and "Women of the World." These are the first three films made by the two moviemakers, and are arguably the quirkiest. These three documentaries capture some of the oddest rituals practiced by peoples throughout the world. We see strange and bloody religious rituals in Italy, the grotesque lengths women will go to retain their youthful appearance, animals dying from radiation poisoning in the South Pacific, shark hunts, the horrific effects of Thalidomide, primitive peoples in New Guinea building shrines to airplanes, and so many other diverse oddities that it simply staggers the imagination. Many scenes are tame to modern eyes, some are still shocking, and several are just plain amusing. For example, you will laugh yourself sick over the "slap the faces" concert seen at the end of "Mondo Cane 2," although the participants look decidedly unhappy over their performance. There are plenty of extras on these three discs, including poster stills, trailers, and a few other worthwhile goodies; the picture quality is so good, so crystal clear, that the colors simply take your breath away.

Perhaps the most controversial film made by Prosperi and Jacopetti was "Africa Addio" ("Farewell, Africa"), an attempt to document the changes in Africa during the time when the European imperial powers granted independence and withdrew from the continent. Ultimately accused of racism by critics for their unflinching portrait of a region gone mad, "Africa Addio" reveals in grisly detail the monstrous crimes committed by indigenous Africans against the remaining white settlers and the local wildlife. Large segments of the film show poachers brutally killing animals in the parks set up by Europeans. Moreover, the killing extends to humans as civil wars break out across the continent, with Africans killing each other, slaughtering Muslim minorities, and battling white mercenaries. Two executions caught on camera eventually resulted in charges against Gualtiero Jacopetti, who stood accused of orchestrating the killings for the camera (he was eventually exonerated). As tough as this film is to watch, try and look past the bloodshed and enjoy the panoramic scenery found in nearly every scene. Africa, despite all of its troubles, truly is a beautiful land.

Nothing will prepare you for the nightmarish images in "Addio Zio Tom," (Goodbye Uncle Tom) a film made to counter charges of racism stemming from the "Africa Addio" experience. Fashioned as a sort of pseudo documentary where the filmmakers go back in time and visit the American South during the slave era, the movie is a grim look at the degrading conditions faced by Africans brought here as chattel. Every scene is absolutely mind blasting stuff, a horrific recreation of such abhorrent activities as the breeding of slaves, the formulation of scientific racism, hunting down and killing escaped slaves, the sickening conditions of the slave ships, the slave markets, and a billion other objectionable situations. The filmmakers based their film on written records and accounts of slave life, ultimately using the issue of slavery to make a statement about contemporary (1960s and 1970s) American race relations. Be sure and watch both versions: the English language cut is an entirely different film from the director's cut. Both are grueling experiences tempered only slightly by Riz Ortolani's FANTASTIC musical score (Ortolani scored "Mondo Cane" as well and snagged an Academy Award nomination for the song "More" from that film).

"The Godfathers of Mondo" provides plenty of information about the collaboration between Prosperi and Jacopetti, Ortolani's musical work on the films, and a chronological discussion of each film. The impression I took away from the "Mondo Cane" films was the silliness of humanity in general, how we all do ridiculous things in our everyday life and never give any of it a second thought. At the same time, we are capable of particularly vicious activities that we never give a second thought to, either. With "Africa Addio" and "Addio Zio Tom" the whole scope of Prosperi and Jacopetti's documentary style changed. These films dwell on human beings as barbarians engaged in enormous bouts of cruelty and bloodshed. One of the filmmakers says in "The Godfathers of Mondo" that violence is a part of life that should appear in any attempt to document the human experience. I agree wholeheartedly, but that doesn't make these two films any easier to watch. Thanks, Blue Underground, for a truly memorable experience.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent BoxSet from Blue Underground!!!, November 11, 2003

By	Roule Duke (the Green Inferno) - See all my reviews

There is no denying the importance of the films of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi as they have influenced everything from hardcore horror films ie Cannibal Holocaust to broadcast news and the reality TV craze of today. Blue Underground in an ambitious move have put out this great 8 disc box set (limited to 10,000 copies) which should more than satisfy any mondo fan.

The first two discs are Mondo Cane and Mondo Cane 2. Mondo Cane is certainly a milestone and in fact this entire genre of "shocking documentaries" which where made by Euro filmmakers is better known as the 'mondo' genre. Essentially Mondo Cane is a strange journey into some of the more bizarre and macabre places with the camera voyeuristically witnessing all kinds of oddities and bringing them back for the curious viewer. Mondo Cane 2 continues this tradition. The third disc Women of the World is similar but all the footage is tied together by a common theme of the varied roles women play in different parts of the world.

The next 2 discs are the cut English language version of Africa Addio and the Italian language uncut version. Considered by many to be the greatest mondo doco of all time, the crew head of into Africa during it's transition from colonial control. While the majority of this focuses on the interactions of white and black and some long sequences on the fate of wildlife with laws protecting them diminished (countless animals are gunned down and speared in these scenes and hippos are dismembered) what sets this apart is the aftermath of several massacres caught on film. Later the crew hook up with a group of mercenaries (these nuts look as though they just walked of col. Kurtz's compound in 'Apocalypse Now') and go on a mission, filming a couple of executions.

After the English language print was recut to exclude much political commentary and the censored version was released the film makers came under fire and accused of exploitation, racism and some even called them murders (accusing them of paying for the executions). Being labeled racists must have really angered Jacopetti and Prosperi resulting in them making Addio Zio Tom (Goodbye Uncle Tom) in order to prove that they are not racist.

The next 2 discs are Goodbye Uncle Tom in the cut English version and Italian Language directors cut (this disc alone in worth the price of the set). The butchered English version done little to mend their reputations as in order to have it released alternate versions of scenes were shot and some extreme (but easily justified) politics were omitted. In essence it became a different movie.

The director's cut of Goodbye Uncle Tom is one of the most amazing films I have ever seen. While some scenes are mondo filmed modern 70's events in America, the majority of this film is a departure of the mondo formula as they have made a regular motion picture with actors and sets under the pretense of them traveling back in time to shoot a mondo doco on the slave trade in America pre civil war. All these scenes are set up based on factual accounts and are unsparingly brutal and authentic, literally using 1000s of extras. The sweeping photography and epic scale of this film as we are taken into various aspects of slavery make for a simply breathtaking motion picture experience.

Some people have claimed these scenes are a false representation, by pointing out silly little things like "there probably wouldn't be so many slaves in the house" and "they wouldn't be allowed to jump on the bed like that" as well as others who are infuriated by this film claiming that "it was never as depraved as this" but once again this film is clearly well researched quoting writers of the time and besides how could any people who kept slaves not be "depraved" anyway? Gone With the Wind this certainly is not. Roots, while well made and genuinely heartfelt, is pure sacarine by comparison. Steven Speilberg made the typically cowardly film 'Amistaad'. How can this courtroom drama depicting Europeans as being cruel to slaves and Americans liberating them via the righteous legal system be hailed as "tackling slavery head on" when it completely ignores the 200 years of slavery in America? Goodbye Uncle Tom is clearly a one of a kind spectacle and in my humble opinion the best disc in the set.

The final disc is a doco on the filmmakers themselves, rounding out what is an awesome boxset!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Puts the "Real" in Reality TV, August 16, 2005

By	Max Fire (California) - See all my reviews

When I was a child living in Africa there had always been this almost mythical rumor that a movie existed that chronicled the atrocities that happened when the Europeans left Africa. The movie was censored. Seeing it for myself, well all of the rumors didn't prepare me for what I saw.

These pioneers of shockumentary actually took the time and risked their lives to show what was happening in their world through a camera lens that never favored one side or the other. All of the DVDs in the 8 disk pack are thought provoking. Leaving you with a sense that what ever you do see (headlines or news) in our world may not be the entire story.

Unfortunately I think that these classics may be overshadowed by fake documentaries or ones where the director asks leading questions. This is not the case in the Mondo Cane Collection. The collection is a little pricey, but well worth the education.