Out of the subgenre of cannibal films that cropped up in the 60s and 70,s the best and most infamous is Ruggero Deodato’s CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. The film has been called “pornographically violent,” but the onscreen bloodshed and carnage didn’t bother me. The footage of real animals being killed, though, that I had a big problem with. I refused to watch those segments of the film; fortunately the DVD is offered with an “animal cruelty free” option, wherein the offending scenes are skipped over. The director wanted realism, but filming real, living animals being dismembered was going too far, as he himself later admitted. Besides, the flick was realistic enough that Deodato got arrested, because people thought he’d filmed his actors actually being killed. It sounds like an urban legend, but it’s true. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST can be viewed as an indictment of the way “civilization” rapes and ruins primitive societies, or as a commentary on the atrocities allegedly committed by American soldiers during the Vietnam War. Or maybe it’s just a movie about cannibals. Take your pic.
Star Robert Kerman was predominantly a porn “actor” (he appears in the infamous DEBBIE DOES DALLAS), but he does serviceable dramatic work in CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and a few other legitimate roles. Kerman is still with us, but is confined to a nursing home and is said to be suffering from depression. He has made a request that fans write to him. If you’d care to show a little kindness and send a card or letter his way, his address is Robert Kerman c/o Komanoff Center for Geriatric Medicine, 375 E Bay Dr, Room 279, Long Beach, N.Y. 11561. I encourage you to drop him a line. Just don’t give him any grief over the animal killing scenes. That was the director’s call, not his.
