The Savage Innocents (1960)

Perfect cast and a good story

Best movie of this year hands down!

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Anthony Quinn, a giant among all actors. With a minimum of gestures, he creates a simple man character, a naive Eskimo, a character not quite easy to live. Another great role, a great Inuk, alongside Zampanò, Alexis Zorba, Paul Gauguin, Bombolini, Quasimodo, Attila, Barabbas and many others. Nicholas Ray, an exceptional director, who made masterpieces such as "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Johnny Guitar". Excellent Yôko Tani as the wife of Inuk, Asiak. A very young and hard-to-recognize Peter O'Toole in a small role. Natural landscapes in Greenland and Canada are amazing. A unique movie, absolutely to be seen and seen again. I say this now, being 59 years old, after I saw it three times at great intervals.

This film is not without its merits. The second unit shot some really quite beautiful location footage in the Arctic, and the cinematography throughout is impressive. Anthony Quinn brings tremendous verve to the role, and there are several memorable turns by the supporting cast, particularly Peter O'Toole.But it's depressing to see how many people regard this as an accurate portrayal of Inuit culture. One hardly knows where to begin! The Inuit customs regarding "wife-sharing" are distorted (the idea that it would be a terrible insult not to accept such an offer is groundless), and the use of "laughter" as a euphemism for sex is merely an old Hollywood notion. Inuit mothers are not left until their mother's death to be told of common matters such as the importance of cutting a child's umbilical cord, and a grandmother, however infirm, would never be left out in the open to be eaten by a polar bear (a special igloo would instead be prepared, with important personal items, and then sealed up, after which the village would be moved). Most insulting of all is the notion that somehow Inuit would be unaware that babies are born without visible teeth!The inaccuracies are not merely cultural, but historical as well. There is simply no period of time when the Inuit (or other Arctic groups such as the Inighuit, Inupiat, or Yupik) would have been unfamiliar with firearms and yet exposed to 1960s-style rock music -- these events are anywhere from 75 to 100 years apart, depending on the region. Inuit who went to trading posts would never be mocked by other Inuit, or by traders, at a trading post -- trading was serious business -- and would never be sold a gun with zero ammunition. This is not to say that traders were always totally fair; the guns were often of inferior quality, and the addiction to a source of powder and shot, along with the switch to fur-bearing animals as a sort of cash crop, were indeed problems.The saddest thing of all is that, 27 years before "Savage Innocents," a far more accurate account of the disparities, tensions, and injustices between Inuit and traders and police was released by a major Hollywood studio -- this was 1933's "Eskimo," starring Ray Mala, a half- Inupiat Alaskan actor.Having nearly no Inuit in the cast at all is, despite comments to the contrary, a problem as well. Hollywood had cast Inuit as Inuit as early as 1911, and "Eskimo" enjoyed an almost all- Inuit cast. The fact that all of the principal photography was done on a sound stage decorated by people with no knowledge whatever of either Inuit or northern homes is a further issue.There's no question that "Savage Innocents" works hard to elicit sympathy with an "alien" culture -- the only problem is that this culture is almost entirely a fantasy.

I recently bought The Savage Innocents on a Region 2 DVD. Most US DVD players can be easily converted to play Region 2 DVDs. It is in Mono and full frame, but very good. Though it never says so, it appears the movie was suppose to take place in the 1950s because a very bad rock song plays on the jukebox. The movie was filmed mostly on stages and by an Italian studio. It is unclear if it was suppose to take place in Alaska or Canada. Having lived in Alaska for 30 years, I am sure there were no Eskimos in Alaska in the 1950s who did not know about firearms. This is especially true because of the Eskimo Army units organized during World War II. That being said, I enjoyed the movie and seeing it again after so many years. It is interesting to compare the plot of this movie with one called the " Wild North" from 1953 (The Savage Innocents was released in1960). It stared Steward Granger and Cornel Wilde and has a very similar plot. In Wild North, Granger accidentally kills a man and is arrested by Wilde a Canadian Mounted Policeman. They have a number wild experiences when Wilde attempts to takes Granger back to civilization for trial. Wilde eventually decides to let him go free. In my mind the plots are too similar not to be from the same source.

In the late sixties, bob dylan was asked how he came to write the song "Quinn the Eskimo". He replied that he'd seen this movie in which Tony Quinn played an Eskimo. The Savage Innocents is that movie. (In a much later book about his lyrics, Dylan says he doesn't remember how the song came about- like many of us, ol' bob's memory ain't what it used to be.)This is the most accurate portrayal of Eskimo customs ever to come out of Hollywierd. It contrasts the cultural practices of Inuit and North American societies at a time when many Inuit people had not yet encountered the white man and his ways. The movie asks the question "who is savage and who is innocent?" The movie is full of memorable performances and "sound bites". You'll come away with a new appreciation for traditional Eskimo culture and more than a few new quotable quotes.When Quinn the Eskimo gets here, everybody's gonna jump for joy!