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So here\u2019s the basic stuff people say about this movie.<\/p>\n
First of the Cannibal Films<\/strong><\/p>\n Made in 1972, MAN FROM DEEP RIVER\u00a0(hereafter MFDR) is considered the progenitor of all cannibal films. Though perhaps not a cannibal film \u201cproper,\u201d the movie introduced elements that would later be shuffled around, reemphasized, and turned into a sort of easy-to-follow recipe for cannibalism and profit.<\/p>\n Influenced by Mondo Cane and similar films<\/strong><\/p>\n The film was a sort of strangely deformed love-child of two unlikely parents. The seed was provided by the MONDO\u00a0films. MONDO CANE and movies like it were like NatGeo style porn for amateur anthropologists, all shock and entrails with little of the soft colorings provided by cultural contexts and real scholarship. In short, MONDO films were like horror films without the plot, except real — or purportedly real, at least.<\/p>\n Influenced by A Man Called Horse<\/strong><\/p>\n The egg, as it were, was an American film of two years previous called A\u00a0MAN CALLED HORSE, a story about a British nobleman who gets kidnapped by Injuns and with the help of a lame and foolish trapper, plots his escape, but who eventually becomes a member (or maybe even chief?) of the very tribe he is trying to flee. This provided the plot that the MONDO\u00a0films were lacking.<\/p>\n MFDR\u2019s simple strategy of transposition allows for the enumeration of major concordances, as in the following.<\/p>\n But, aside from these changes, the basic narrative structure remains the same. (Keep this in mind, because I’m going to make a big deal out of it in Part II.)<\/p>\n \u00a0Not too Many Cannibals in this Cannibal Movie<\/strong><\/p>\n The cannibals in this movie are like 2% of the movie, if. You could maybe watch the movie, and then tell your friends about it later and completely omit any reference to cannibals or cannibalism. There really wasn\u2019t any reason for the cannibals in this movie to be cannibals at all. They might have been just a bunch of jerks in loincloths who wanted to FSU. But somehow the two and a half minutes of onscreen cannibalism overshadowed the plot, acting, and cinematography of MFDR (which maybe isn\u2019t all that surprising), so that when real people really talked to their friends about the movie later, all they could really express about the movie was summed up in the phrase, \u201cCannibals happened,\u201d or something similarly cannibal-centric, perhaps followed by some graphic descriptions of monkey beheadings or alligator unzippings. The producers overheard these conversations and decided to do it again the right way. Thus six years later JUNGLE HOLOCAUST\u00a0happened and the cannibal film proper was born — a sort of inbred or parthenogenetic monstrosity of the aforementioned deformed love-child.<\/p>\n But Wait! There\u2019s More!<\/strong><\/p>\n So that\u2019s it as far as common knowledge goes. Here’s some other stuff I wanted to talk about. What I find really weird about MFDR is the way it constantly and unintentionally derails the viewer\u2019s sympathy for the protagonist, one Mr. John Harris. Played to perfection by the Aryan-featured, suede-skinned Ivan Rasimov, John Harris is this sort of heroic, rugged, Marlboro-Man of a man who knows how to be firm with the natives and how to make love to a woman the way a woman wants to be made love to and whose pores probably exude whiskey-tinged cologne. He is part cowboy, part playboy, all man — in short, Western Civilization incarnate.<\/p>\n Everything about the way Harris is depicted shouts to the viewer, \u201cHarris is the man!\u201d But if you actually stop to consider the things that Harris does, you realize he\u2019s sort of a Grade-A asshole. The film attempts a pretty remarkable sleight-of-hand-style magic act in order to keep you from focusing on why he does what he does. In one\u00a0way, this is due to Rasimov\u2019s performance. When he speaks it\u2019s with authority, when he acts it\u2019s with intention, and when he slides into gendered, authoritarian He-Manism, he does it with the lithe grace of a saddle-soaped Baryshnikov.<\/p>\n And we viewers also help Rasimov pull this trick off because we come to a film with a whole stock of cinematic expectations that MFDR uses to sort of hijack our approval.<\/p>\n Consider the film\u2019s first moments. We see Harris and a beautiful woman watching a kickboxing match. He continually ignores everything she says, including her pleas to leave, and while he\u2019s busy thrusting vicarious punches at the air and throwing currency at a guy who may or may not be a bookie, she takes the opportunity to slip out with a sly-smiled, pompadoured townie who happens to be just sorta chillin\u2019 by the ladies\u2019 bathroom.<\/p>\n How are we viewers supposed to interpret all this? In our introduction to the film\u2019s title character, we not only see him as a completely inattentive date but we also witness him murder a guy. This isn’t just a derailment of viewer sympathy, it\u2019s an utter train wreck .<\/p>\n The film takes advantage of the fact that viewers are primed — trained through the experience of countless films — to like and sympathize with the main characters of a movie. So we suspend judgment concerning his actions, ignore the cognitive dissonance of seeing a person we are supposed to like do something we don\u2019t, and await some filmic justification.<\/p>\n I imagine there are an equal (sigh<\/em>) number of viewers who don\u2019t wait for the film to provide justification (they would be doing so in vain) but instead cite off-color credos such as, \u201cYou don\u2019t pull a knife on a man without expecting reprisals,\u201d or, \u201cIf you steal a man\u2019s woman you deserve whatever you get.\u201d Are these credos embedded in the film by virtue of its failure either to offer any alternative justification or to portray Harris\u2019s actions as wrong? Is a man like Harris justified in what he does simply by virtue of his having decided to do it?<\/p>\n There\u2019s another possibility that might help diminish the irritating dissonance created by the notion of the heroic asshole\u00b9.\u00a0Maybe we\u2019re going to see unlikable Harris change into a decent person. His experience in the jungle will teach him self-control and a respect for other human beings. Maybe we\u2019re going to see real character development here. . . .<\/p>\n Well, I watched Harris\u00a0flee into the jungle, go from fish to man, win the heart of the beautiful native maiden, gain the respect and acceptance of the tribe — all of this, without seeing him change as a human being.<\/p>\n So much for that theory. So we have a paradox. There is a deep and discomfiting contradiction in our attitude towards Harris. We hate him and everything he stands for, but he’s presented in such a way that we know we’re not<\/em> supposed to hate him and everything he stands for. I think that I can, if not resolve this paradox, at least explain it. Though in so doing, we will have to take a brief sojourn away from the gory land of cannibals and animal mutilation and take another look at the film that provided the narrative structure of MFDR — a film called A MAN CALLED HORSE.<\/p>\n So stayed tuned for PART II<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n NOTES:<\/p>\n \u00b9Or really assholic hero. It\u2019s not like we\u2019re talking about Ash from the EVIL DEADs.<\/p>\n All images\u00a0\u00a9THEINTERNET<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the sort of movie that if you are the sort of person who is into cannibal movies you probably will not like. But if you are the sort of person who is into movies that transport you to a distant place and time where a man can be a man and a woman … Continue reading SAWADEEDJA! A THREE PART REVIEW\/ANALYSIS OF MAN FROM DEEP RIVER: PART I<\/span> ![\"k12135335\"](\"https:\/\/jasondeadcat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/k12135335.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Western](\"https:\/\/jasondeadcat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/2-TR-as-president-239x300.jpg\")
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Cut to Harris, presumably later that night, alone at a bar downing whiskey. The same townie brushes against Harris\u2019s shoulder, spins around, and seeing Harris, immediately brandishes his switchblade. Instantly, Harris gets all ninja-eyed, seizes the townie\u2019s hand, and thrusts the knife into the man\u2019s belly. Harris\u2019s ninja-face melts into panic and he flees into the jungle.<\/p>\n![\"End](\"https:\/\/jasondeadcat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/train-300x223.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Until](\"https:\/\/jasondeadcat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/suspense-198x300.jpg\")