Amazonia: The Catherine Miles Story (1985)

Touches You

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Sweet, lovely, innocent rich girl Catherine Miles (nicely played by stunningly comely blonde knockout Elvire Audray) celebrates her 18th birthday with her parents in the Amazon jungle. Catherine winds up being abducted by a savage and primitive tribe of head hunters after her parents are brutally murdered. Poor Catherine gets stripped naked, smeared with smelly oil, becomes the love slave of a vile lout who defiles her, tries to escape, and eventually adopts as best she can to her dismal situation to the point where she falls in love with noble warrior Umukai (handsome Will Gonzales). However, Catherine still wants to escape and exact a harsh revenge on the killers of her parents. Director Mario Gariazzo relates the grimly arresting plot in a sturdy and compelling manner. Silvano Ippoliti's stark, no-frills cinematography gives the film an effectively gritty semi-documentary look. Franco Campanino's sweeping majestic score likewise hits the pleasing melodic spot. The acceptable acting, okay dubbing, suitably hideous graphic gore (several ghastly decapitations rate as the definite gruesome highlights), steady pace, breathtaking verdant jungle scenery, surprisingly poignant love story, and the plentiful female nudity (Audrey looks especially delectable sans clothes) are all up to speed as well. One of the better and more satisfying of the many Italian cannibal splatter features made back in the late 70's up until the mid 80's.

I have just watched this for the first time, I started watching thinking oh no, another Cannibal Holocaust wannabe, with it's VERY similar music and opening titles.Fortunatly the whole central section of the movie is totally different, apart from the obvious facts of being set in the Amazon.It's actually quite a well written (for the genre) tale of a girl who is dragged into the Amazon and lives with a tried there.There is a lot of nudity but for the more part it doesn't feel gratuitous but rather just what you would expect.There is some blood and some sexual situations but mostly not 'too' exploitationary.On the whole this is a film I think I'd like to watch again, although it's not without it's faults which include the dubbing and some VERY gratuitous animal stock footage.There are some interesting twists and turns in the movie too which makes a change, and no HUGE leaps of logic plot-wise. It also makes a far better point about western man being the real cannibals, far better than Cannibal Holocaust.6/10

WHITE SLAVE has some decent elements and originality going for it. The story is about a girl who's lost in the jungle after her boat is attacked and her parents are killed. She ends up becoming part of a tribe because she has no choice and can't escape. One of the tribesman takes her as his wife, and he ends up being a pretty decent guy, as savage tribesman go...But she's having no parts of it because she believes it's his fault for the death of her parents. As she learns the tribal language, and her "husband" learns English, the lines of communication open up, and the death of her parents may not be what they seem... Definitely not as memorable as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or even CANNIBAL FEROX - but the twist in the story is a welcome change to an otherwise rather straight-forward genre. Not nearly heavy enough on the red stuff for most "gorehounds" tastes, but still worth a look. 7/10

This Italian film with once again more alternative titles than actual dialogue is a mid-80's exploitation attempt by enthusiast director Mario Gariazzo, who obviously was deeply impressed by the work of his fellow Italian filmmakers Rugero Deodato and Umberto Lenzi. It's a supposedly true story (yeah…sure) about an 18-year-old girl who visits her parents' plantation in the middle of the Amazon jungle. Shortly after her arrival, her parents are brutally murdered and beheaded during a boat ride. The poor cutie is taken prisoner by a savage and primitive tribe. During two years, she's has to take part in traditional and barbaric rites of this tribe. She's sold to the richest man in town (price = one goat and a chicken), has to work and, eventually, she escapes with the head warrior she has fallen in love with. Now, 'Amazonia' isn't a bad little flick but it tries to be so much bigger than it actually is. The entire production seems to shout out: 'Look, we're as good as Cannibal Holocaust!!!' The opening sequences, in which the beautiful jungle is shown guided by a great score, is an exact copy of Deodato's film and throughout the whole film, the same documentary style is used. The film could have done without these pretentious aspects. At his best, Amazonia is like a fairly reasonable crossover between Cannibal Holocaust and Umberto Lenzi's 'Deep River Savages' (in which an Englishman spends years among a primitive tribe in New-Guinea). It's not nearly as memorable as the majority of Italian sleaze classics and that's merely due to the atrocious acting of Elvire Audrey. There's some great gore and terrific authentic sleaze to enjoy, though.