Savages (1972)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Admirable film.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

So Michael O'Donoghue wound up in this movie...alriiiiiiight!Known as 'Mister Mike', first head writer, and the guy who essentially established the weird part (aired in last 1/2 hr) of Saturday Night LIve, and also co-founder of Natl Lampoon, among many other achievements.A good bio, Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O'Donoghue by Dennis Perrin. Mr Mike was a literary terrorist who had a rare thing, the 'killer instinct'. A lefty, he fought against what he perceived as soft things like New Age, romanticism, and other nicenesses. He was a hip wild man with a brain tumor. An angry man.While the main idea for "Savages" was Ivory/Merchant and the general layout was probably Trow's the dialogue must have been pure Mr Mike. Not a 'complete' movie, but as a presentation of O'Donoghue it's gold. Because of Merchant/Ivory the production was quite good which makes for a paradox—normal-seeming film, but absolutely far out.Literary all the way, O'Donoghue deconstructed the deconstruction (throw a part of another decon in there and you have magic (transcendence)—2+, or three-ish, if you will. Three being the first resolution of the first bifurcation—1 manifesting as phenomenology (polar opposites, 2), creating movement between the two, or change (3). A basic theme in this grand satire of culture/civilization is the domination of masculine over feminine, of ration-only over rational AND irrational together. Of logic-only over logic and illogic together. This is played out masterfully, eg, in the Miramar discussion in the Dinner Party, but runs throughout. Style is used creatively to great effect—style being so misunderstood by almost everyone. Here it is portrayed as a mode or gestalt that holds together long enough to convey a subset of mores, folkways et al. Then it is pitted against another style, all within the scene itself—just like modal jazz. Add to this that the dynamics involved are esoteric and you have the main reason this film is not well understood or appreciated—it would just look like weirdness, however amusing. In fact, most creativity IS modal, which is basic flexibility, freedom of expression. Staying in musical 'keys' is essentially rigidity, like the Well Tempered Clavier of the rigid masculine-dominating West. Move like a Queen in Chess, in any direction—the killer instinct to be sure!All components of literary convention are in play here, even surrealism, which completes the self-referring second deconstruction. It's like 'anti-magic'; everything disappears.....of course, Mike was an angry man. Another very interesting thing is Mike's satiric usage itself—by showing 'Bletology' as 'itself' and thus hogwash, Bletology (occult system of elements as integrated through all of Life, eg, "9 Star Ki" from Japan) is presented in all earnestness to great effect, as though it is real. It is carried obviously too far, but the hogwash effect gets lost in the style experiments going on all over—'it's real'. Like other scenes 'making fun' of these hidden intelligences of Life, such as the damage modern buildings can have magnetically, the effect comes out 'sideways', like the whole sensibility of the film—perhaps normal. Hmmmm...In "The Masks are Off" pool scene exhibiting the 'wearing off' of cultural personas gets really far out, even for this film. Brief aspects of "Vanilla Sky", metaphysically; "The Shining" nr the end where the veil lessens and ALL the ghosts appear—chaos rampant, even bits we're not to understand.You get a Mr Mike 'sampler'; it's a lesson in how to appreciate what would otherwise be discounted as 'weirdness'. Remember, "all the things are like the real things, only here they're very small".Michael O'Donoghue was an angry killer and a creative genius who made beauty. There are (begrudged?) moments here that are all the more so for the immensity of scale, the 'whole world' they take things to task in. Those enemies of, besmirchers of, the precious. They are felled and done away with; not in our life any more. Any who put themselves vulnerable for art are protected, they can count on it even if it doesn't look like it. Thanks, Mike.

After a cringing song, we are introduced to "The Mud People" getting high on some foliage. This is our cast of characters, in black-and-white, and more unrecognizable than their names in the opening credits. They wander semi-nude in a collection of mop heads, jock straps, and animal gear. Some wear head masks resembling bags and buckets - the style made famous by "The Unknown Comic". From somewhere (possibly the future), a croquet ball interrupts their rituals. Croquet is the game of polite society, you know. The croquet ball eventually leads the cast to an abandoned mansion, where they assumed the identities of displaced inhabitants gathering for a dinner party. The switch from primitive to civilized brings color and conversation to the tribe...This is an obvious allegorical story. It would qualify as awful if it weren't so artfully made, overall, by "Merchant Ivory Productions"...Our charming hostess Anne Francine (as Carlotta) presides over an adept New York stage-dominated cast. These include two from the recently disbanded "Dark Shadows" company, Thayer David is blonde buzzed capitalist "Otto Nurder" while amorous transvestite "Hester" is played by Christopher Pennock; both actors had been in Tarrytown (one of the film's locations) to film "Night of Dark Shadows" (1971). Most familiar in the cast are probably limping man Sam Waterston and model-turning-actress Susan Blakely. Everything can be described in one of the film's title cards: "Tribal elders are often distinguished by pebbles embedded in their teeth although such is not the case here." Quickly as you flee, snatch this pebble from my teeth...***** Savages (5/8/72) James Ivory ~ Anne Francine, Thayer David, Christopher Pennock, Sam Waterston

Based upon release dates, I was provided with this version as opposed to the 2007 film of the similar name. Keeping an open-mind, I watched patiently.People will celebrate its oddness of colliding civilizations and languages while also mentioning the threads of overlap in poor behavior in both the 'mudpeople' and the merely dressed better actors - this is not enough to make a good film. To fixate on the eccentricities without considering the cohesive whole does anyone considering spending time with this film a disservice. To start, instead of developing the divide between words and actions, the plot moves forward without leaving the viewer with any motif. Stylistically, not providing moments of quiet with the camera to draw out the characters' inner thoughts makes this picture forgettable. Utterly two-dimensional, I pity Sam Watterson's involvement.There is humor unintentionally created by death and the indifference by the other characters. Amusement is highlighted at the end. The people's hysterical and manic attraction to merge with the jungle once more is laughable. Who knew croquet was so powerful?

The primitive tribal mud people are startled by a croquet ball that emerges from an unexplored region of their forest. The set out to find the origin of this alien sphere, and happen upon a lavish(and abandoned)estate. Bewildered by this strange place and all the things within it, they quickly "evolve", assuming the roles of bourgeois aristocrats. They do, however, retain many of their ritualistic customs and sexual behaviors, and, in one of the film's more inclement moments, respond to death with a discomposed, uneasy silence. These scenes might lead the viewer to query just how far removed people really are from their autochthon ancestry. SAVAGES is about as surreal and strange as movies come, but not at all lacking in depth, substance, or humor(chiefly in a subtly saturnine, cynical vein). Certainly not suited to all tastes, but strongly recommended to those with a slant toward wry absurdist cinema.7.5/10