Savages - The Merchant Ivory Collection | Lewis J. Stadlen, Anne Francine

Savages - The Merchant Ivory Collection | Lewis J. Stadlen, Anne Francine | JUNGLE DUMS..........

DVDs:

Savages - The Merc...

	Savages - The Merchant Ivory Collection Lewis J. Stadlen, Anne Francine Merchant Ivory, 2004 average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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A masked, naked, clay-covered band of jungle primitives are disturbed in the middle of a human sacrifice by the sudden intrusion of a croquet ball. Led by their high priestess, they trek through the forest in search of its origins and arrive at an immense, deserted manor house. They occupy the mansion, which begins to have a civilizing effect on the savages; individual personalities emerge, and with them, pasts, futures, family connections, ambitions, and other trappings of society. Over the course of a weekend get-together, the savages soon become grand socialites, in fine clothes, who give elaborate dinner parties, where the talk is of world politics, art, and the fascinations of anthropology. But then their civilization begins to fall apart; the savages' manners and morals deteriorate and they even lose the habit of speech. By Monday dawn they have shed their clothes and we last see them retreating into the forest and their Stone Age lives.

The first American film from Merchant Ivory Productions is also their most uncommon and most unexpected, especially for audiences only familiar with their Indian films or their period films set in Europe or America. A fascinating meditation on the rise and fall of civilizations, with a witty screenplay by George Swift Trow and Michael O'Donoghue, Savages is filmed in an improvisatory, experimental style and merges a series of tragic?comic tableaux with pseudo-scholarly documentary narration and title cards. The result is a dark, biting satire that will turn viewer expectations upside-down.

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A Hilarious Allegory of the Decline of Western Civilization

Merchant and Ivory go on a psychedelic bender in this mad indictment of capitalist culture and hubris. The accidental discovery by the mud people of a perfect sphere induces them to abort their planned human sacrifice and follow the bouncing ball. This leads them to an abandoned Long Island mansion, where, literally overnight, they blunder their way into the formation of a perfect 1930's dinner-party society. There are an industrialist, a poet, male and female cross-dressers, a fallen woman, a slave girl, and the hard-boiled hostess with the mostest, Carlotta. All have their roles to play in the rise and fall of "progress". As various power struggles play out, unresolved tensions force a dissolution of the social structure and the characters devolve into the "savages" that they were at the beginning of the film.

Still one of the most amusing parables available regarding the excesses of Western -- and specifically American -- culture, "Savages" is as loony as a mushroom trip and as symbol-laden as a classic fairy tale.

I'd have given it five stars, except that there a couple of scenes toward the end that just don't seem as tight as the rest of the film -- but maybe that's just me.

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JUNGLE DUMS..........

THE MUD People are about to perform the usual human sacrifice, when out of nowhere - lo! A red ball [croquet I recall] comes whizzing out of nowhere and lands in their midst! Fascinated, they abandon the victim and trace the trajectory back to its origin - a decaying, vast, ancient mansion 'in the jungle'. THEN AN astute member finds a trunk filled with rather lovely period costumes [circa 1920 ish], and as they start donning the robes - they transform the action into something along the lines of Gatsby revisited ........ Hmmmm a quaint concept - and it does hold attention!

ODD little movie from the early 70ties with Sam Waterston, Salome Jens, Kathleen Widdoes, even Ultra Violet. [An Early
James Ivory for your collection]

Superb Costumes and Art direction - if you're in a quirky "Brazil type" mood.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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.........................................pt. 18
Great Period Movies ~ Merchant & Ivory Edition
Horror movies I want to see Part 8
The Films of Merchant/Ivory Ranked
Cult Movies 8