The Savage Innocents

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!

I saw and heard Anthony Quinn in a television interview about his autobiography which had just been published. He said that there were only three films out of the many that he had made in his life that he was truly proud of. The Savage Innocents was one of the three. (Guess what the other two were. Right! Zorba and La Strada.) This estimation puts this movie in with some very select company. And this film deserves it.

It is NOT a documentary. There is a story here, an exciting story, at times edge of your seat--or maybe I should say, a number of stories, all interesting, all moving. The photography, sound, scenery, acting, all were excellent.

What struck me most, out of a long list, was the way the point of view of these Inuit people was gotten across. For instance, the missionary butts his head into the igloo and says, "God be with you." Quinn looks puzzled, glances at his wife and says, "No, there's nobody here but us." When the missionary goes on preaching at them, trying to convert them to the "true" faith, Quinn whispers to his wife, "I think he needs to laugh with a woman. Make yourself beautiful." In other words, the guy needs to get laid. The Freudian insight implied by these simple remarks is staggering. And this is only a small sample.

Perhaps the fate of this movie had a lot to do with the advertising. The picture at the top of this page suggests that this is a "savage" movie. It isn't. The title itself is unfortunate.

Yes, when oh when will we get to see this movie again? When will the savage and not-so-innocent moguls deign to put this beautiful film onto DVD?

One of the stupidest most inaccurate movies I have ever seen! From a real live "raw meat eater". We didn't kill female babies, females are just as important as a male babies. And the part about sharing wives is such BS, culture had some wife swapping and to the Inuit people sex was something that happens not a taboo, people have sex that's how babies are made even we savages knew that.

It's a MYTH that the elderly were left on ice flows or in a snow drift. In the Atomic age even us savages knew what a gun was and golly gee we even saw those metal birds a flyin over head. Ugh.

Someone wrote "far northern natives that lived almost exclusively on the arctic ice". How stupid. Do you suppose we all lived in kayaks and Umiaks during the spring thaw and summer months? We hunted on the ice sometimes when we weren't hunting caribou deer and moose we are MEAT EATERS. No hunter would kill a dog to warm someones' hands', he would have never let the trooper get that bad to start with. A live dog would have warmed a person as well as pull you to a place you could get help. Or we would have eaten the animal should the need arise. Hunt a polar bear alone, ridiculous!

And giving the dead seal a drink of fresh water. Unbelievable! Yes we would surely have given thanks to the animal spirits. Sea mammals don't drink fresh water, they get all the liquid they need from the foods they eat. Look it up. The clothes were authentic for sure but from different cultures of Inuit.

All in all the reviews praising this movie for "culturally authentic" are from people who have no idea what they are talking about and believe all the things that they see in movies. It's a movie not a documentary. Par for the times they didn't hire real Inuit or even American Indians to play the parts Anthony Quinn and Japanese Chinese played as Inuit's is funny. Too that nobody would bother to hire on a real Inuit as a consultant was standard for the times.

Entertaining maybe, insulting to THE MEN absolutely.

This movie presents an intriguing picture of two widely dissimilar cultures coming together. The Eskimos are simple and innocent, but ideally suited and armed with the knowledge to survive one of the harshest places that people inhabit. One my favorite moments occurs when the officer says he can subdue the main character by himself, to which the main character replies, "You are that strong?", showing the absence of boastfulness in the Eskimo culture, which stems from the cooperative nature necessary to survival. The stark and uncluttered settings give space to concentrate on the dialog. Definitely worth watching

"The savage innocents" is Ray's last real movie, his two epics "King of Kings" and "55 days at Peking" ,in spite of their (often unfairly overlooked) qualities cannot be called "Nicholas Ray' s movies .The rest of his filmography includes a movie made with his students and the questionable Wenders collaboration "lightning over water" .

Not only Ray was the director whose influence was huge on the rock generation ("Rebel with a cause " was the first movie which rocked ,a feat for it was a work which did not include songs)but "savage innocents" inspired Bob Dylan a song which Manfred Mann made a big hit in the sixties.Mighty Quinn indeed.

Anthony Quinn was par excellence the perfect good all-around.a cursory look at his filmography is revealing:from Fellini's "La Strada" to his portrayal of Quasimodo in the French version of "Notre Dame de Paris" (Delannoy) From Barrabas (Fleischer)to an Eskimo.

Like so many Rayesque heroes ,Inuk does not follow the rules :in a way he is akin to the youngsters of "Rebel" ,to Davey Bishop ("Run for cover" ),to Nick ("Knock on any door" ) and of course to the outlaws ("the true story of Jesse James") .But anyway Inuk cannot follow the Whites' rules for ,in his naive innocence,he is incapable of understanding them,which proves they are not universal.Margaret Mead had already showed that what is good and what is bad is not the same wherever you live in the world.

.My favorite scene is the priest trying to make the "savage" understand that he's lived a life of sin: what can a tale of long ago and far away mean for a man whose life is a constant struggle against a hostile nature ? It's the same pragmatism which we find in Luis Bunuel's Oeuvre.

"The savage innocents " is half documentary half fiction;the documentary side shows its age :correct me if I am wrong but "Eskimo" (=raw meat eater) is not a term the Inuit would appreciate nowadays.Besides,they did not live in igloos which were only used during the hunting season.Entirely filmed in studio ,the pictures are magnificent though,a real symphony in white.The white color dominates everything (tinged with blue)except for this extremely moving scene when it turns black when the old woman is left in the snow to die (it will remind the young cine buffs of Imamura's "Narayama Bushiko" (1983)).

"The savage innocents " sets the nature and its quietness -although it's a cruel mistress;when you fight a bear,it's you or him-against the "civilization" here represented by alcohol,pop music ,money and the Law.Ray had already been an ecologist ahead of his time in "Wind across the everglades" These two works are like "twin movies" and should be seen one after the other.

After all "King of Kings" was also perhaps a Ray movie:Jesus himself was not born to follow the rules.