Savage Man Savage Beast

Lore & Background

The film was co-produced, co-written, co-edited and co-directed by Antonio Climati and Mario Morra. Climati drew influence from the mondo films of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, and the cinéma vérité style was previously used in Africa addio. Some scenes were directly lifted from Africa addio. The music was composed solely by Carlo Savina, resembling Riz Ortolani's score from Africa addio.

Reader's Guide

Savage Man Savage Beast is arguably the most notorious film of Climati and Morra's Savage Trilogy, which also includes Savana violenta and Dolce e selvaggio. It became influential in exploitation cinema through its cinematographic techniques, which were repeated in numerous subsequent mondo films. Two scenes—a lion attack on a tourist in Namibia and the murder of an indigenous man by mercenaries in South America—have gained notoriety as genuine footage of human death. The film also sparked a rivalry between the team of Climati and Morra and the brothers Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni, both teams becoming forerunners of the second generation of mondo cinema. The film fared well in Asia, outgrossed in Hong Kong only by Jaws, and in Japan it was the second highest-grossing foreign film. Reception from mainstream critics was almost completely negative, but it is well accepted by critics in exploitation film circles.

Did You Know?

• The film is narrated by Italian actor and dubber Giuseppe Rinaldi, with text written by the directors and others, not by Alberto Moravia.
• In Japan, it was the second highest-grossing foreign film with theatrical rentals of 1.75 billion Yen.