Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

bkoganbing Other than Nanook Of The North from silent days the only other two films concerning the Eskimos and their culture are Shadow OF The Wolf that starred Lou Diamond Phillips and Toshiro Mifune and this one The Savage Innocents. Almost 60 years have passed since the making of The Savage Innocents and the present. Are there still Inuits like Anthony Quinn and Yoko Tani untouched by our civilization.Envying another Inuit who has gotten a rifle and bullets, Quinn and his pregnant wife Yoko Tani travel months to a trading post to trade some skins for one. An encounter with a missionary played by Marco Guglielmi ends fatally for Guglielmi who is shocked by their sexual mores and for Quinn refusing Inuit hospitality is a grievous insult. Guglielmi is dead and Quinn and Tani are on the run back over the tundra. Quinn is a Savage Innocent in our civilized ways, but he certainly knows how to survive in his environment so the Mounties learn who are sent after him, one of those Mounties being Peter O'Toole.This must have been one rugged shoot for director Nicholas Ray and his cast and crew. But the result is some spectacular location footage of the Canadian and Greenland frozen north.Some of the issues raised here are similar if not the same as those in the film Hawaii which is also about westerners and missionaries intruding on the customs of the native population of Hawaii and the other Pacific Islands.I'd really recommend seeing The Savage Innocents with Shadow Of The Wolf and Hawaii. Or by itself, just see it.

bebop63-1 This movie serves primarily to showcase the versatility of veteran actor Anthony Quinn, who has portrayed characters of almost every ethnicity (Italian, Greek, Mexican, Native American, Arab,Filipino, just to name a few). Here he plays the role of Inuk, a typical Eskimo (Inuit) who lives and thrives in one of the harshest of climates, the Arctic, a perennial wasteland of ice and snow, where they have to subsist on the raw flesh of the native fauna such as seals, walruses and fish, as well as endure subzero temperatures and utilize the scant resources at hand. Yet for all the unforgiving nature of the environment, the Inuits are depicted as a warm-hearted, cheery lot who are content as long as they have sufficient food to go around and have the company of friends and relatives, and - in the case of the men - a woman to snuggle up to under the blanket and "laugh" with (a euphemism for carnal relations). Yet this wonderful cinematographic masterpiece is not without its flaws. Though the Eskimo culture is quite alien to most 'city slickers', one can obviously observe the inaccuracies and misconceptions of their way of life generated by this film. For instance, it is hard to believe that Inuk and his wife could be so naive as not to know that a baby is naturally toothless at birth which is not the result of some broken taboo, nor can viewers find it conceivable that their customs dictate that the old and infirm are mercilessly abandoned to exposure to the elements (or to be devoured by polar bears in this instance)when they begin to pose a burden to the family. That said, one can't help but empathize with the character of Inuk (whose name actually refers to all Inuits in general), admire his hunting prowess and survival skills, laugh at his foibles and follies and understand his adherence to traditional customs as that is all he knows and believes is right. It is also an insightful study of how the influence of white Western ways have a paradoxically beneficial and detrimental effect on indigenous cultures,as seen in the part where Inuk and his family visit the trading post.For those who prefer to concentrate only on the negative aspects (thereare indeed some stomach churning scenes such as the missionary beingserved food infested with maggots, which the Inuits consider gourmet,and the unseen but implied slaying of a dog to save a man's life), a second and perhaps third viewing is highly recommended.

dbdumonteil "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.

guil fisher Once again, cruelty to animals is exploited in this film when our hero, played by Anthony Quinn, after driving his sled dogs across the cold plains, decides to cut them open, alive, to keep warm. What a horrible scene that was. The screaming of the animals as they one by one were cut open so the likes of our hero can save his own skin by sticking his hands into their warm blood. Ugh!It made me sick! I saw no entertainment in this sort of film and turned the thing off. I wish the public would stop paying admission for films like this. It only encourages other producers to follow suit. A definite downer to watch. Glad it was on television so I could change channels.