The Savage Innocents
Director: Nicholas Ray
Year Released: 1960
Rating: 1.0
An Eskimo (Anthony Quinn) battles the elements, bears and 'modern' society's rules - for example: you shouldn't kill people because they won't eat your oldest meat and you shouldn't "share" your wife with strangers. The actual footage of essentially uninhabitable locations is lovely, but the hammy acting (in fractured English) is irksome and the 'instructional' voice-over reminds me of an educational program about Eskimo life (and it's unclear as to why an actor as great and distinctive as Peter O'Toole was dubbed). Western Civilization may have many, many, many faults, but some of the practices of the Inuit probably should have been eradicated: what's so wrong with marital fidelity, not leaving Grandma out to be eaten by bears and rock 'n roll? For a culture in which good women were (apparently) rare, putting your newborn daughter outside and filling her mouth with snow just doesn't seem so wise.
