Africa Addio (1966)

As Good As It Gets

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This film is an uneasy time capsule. While the early narration clearly bemoans the end of Colonialism in Africa, the 135 minutes of footage that follows clearly justifies the stance of the filmmakers on that point. Basically it says that the handover comes too soon, before Africans are truly ready to rule themselves effectively.This film chronicles the handover of power in several former Colonies, chiefly Tanzania and Kenya, but also a few others. It contains authentic footage of Uhuru rallies, the trials and aftermaths of the Mau-Mau revolutionary movement, and the countless slaughter of both animals and humans alike. In particular, the revolution in Zanzibar under John Okello, and the resulting massacre of some 5000 Arab men, women, and children is clearly exposed, with scenes of mass shootings, mass graves, truckloads of bodies, and beaches littered with corpses as far as the camera can see.Filmed to shock? Maybe, but then again this really happened on the Dark Continent. The film is not without humor however, in particular one scene where an aspiring African politician makes his case to a bunch of tribal people with his bullhorn mounted to the back of a donkey, while a herd of goats knocks over his microphone into the mud. But images like this fade quickly when the viewer watches miles and miles of animal bones and carcasses littering the landscape, hunters killing elephants with the aid of helicopter terrorism, and Belgian paratroopers who execute people on camera in an effort to save a group of missionaries.All in all this is a very important film for anyone interested in how the current state of affairs in Africa got their beginnings. Blame is squarely placed on both the colonial powers, and the new African rulers for failure to effect a proper transfer of power. This version of the film is available in both the Mondo Cane box set, and the far cheaper(in price) two-disc Shocumentary Extreme collection from Blue Underground.

Africa Addio contains some really strong scenes of animal cruelty and human death. However the editing, lack of storyline and historical facts in general disappointed me. If the directors had taken their time to research the events they portrait, the movie would have come out much better and informative. Some scenes are beautifully shot and made, but others seems added to just to shock and disturb the viewer. Generally the whole "Mondo" genre needs much more depth and facts, instead of the pure intention to shock the audience.Africa Addio is a movie that could have been so much more, but lands as an average gore filled documentary which display the lack of insight of the directors. Filming animals getting killed for sports, people executed, stacks of severed hands, rotten corpses along the road and mass graves for the sheer shock value seems uninspiring and sometimes plain dumb. The creators of Africa Addio invented the Mondogenre - but at the same time, they hit a new rock bottom for the whole documentary genre. It could have been so much more, but ended up real sad. I have seen the "Directors Cut" of the movie - which according to the directors should be "more political, historical and informative", all themes lack, and a movie which could have been highly educational end up as a sad shocker. Mondo Addio.

Africa Addio, is an Italian film with English subtitles. The film is a documentary about Africa, including scenes of animals being poached, a civil war and a revolution and a bunch of tribes being slaughtered. The film came out in Italy in 1966 and then came to North America in 1970 entitled Africa: Blood And Guts, and had 37 minutes cut from it's running time. Winner of The David Award for Best Production at The David Di Donatello Awards. The version I saw of the film was the 139 minute director's cut. The film is a very good looking film with great cinematography and production design. The film is also very interesting and is very powerful and disturbing with some of the images it shows us. After awhile the film started to feel long though and felt like it dragged on a little bit too much the last half hour or so. Some parts were also a little confusing but generally this is an entertaining, interesting and powerful film that is just as shocking now as it was in the 60's.

This just aired on the small (digital) "culture" channel here in Finland. I am not sure whether this was the censored or the uncensored version - if this was the censored one I don't even want to think about what might be in the uncensored version.Very very very impressive photography and - above all - editing. It *is* in parts very gruesome (esp. animal lovers should be prepared for some depictions of mindless cruelty) - but it also shows beautiful things, black, white, animal and floral.That this is hard to come by today I can understand, it is just impossible politically incorrect (and must have been so at the time too). The makers of this movie seem to sympathise with everyone and no-one