Schiave bianche - Violenza in Amazzonia

I have just watched this for the first time, I started watching thinking oh no, another Cannibal Holocaust wannabe, with it's VERY similar music and opening titles.

Fortunatly the whole central section of the movie is totally different, apart from the obvious facts of being set in the Amazon.

It's actually quite a well written (for the genre) tale of a girl who is dragged into the Amazon and lives with a tried there.

There is a lot of nudity but for the more part it doesn't feel gratuitous but rather just what you would expect.

There is some blood and some sexual situations but mostly not 'too' exploitationary.

On the whole this is a film I think I'd like to watch again, although it's not without it's faults which include the dubbing and some VERY gratuitous animal stock footage.

There are some interesting twists and turns in the movie too which makes a change, and no HUGE leaps of logic plot-wise. It also makes a far better point about western man being the real cannibals, far better than Cannibal Holocaust.

6/10

WHITE SLAVE has some decent elements and originality going for it. The story is about a girl who's lost in the jungle after her boat is attacked and her parents are killed. She ends up becoming part of a tribe because she has no choice and can't escape. One of the tribesman takes her as his wife, and he ends up being a pretty decent guy, as savage tribesman go...But she's having no parts of it because she believes it's his fault for the death of her parents. As she learns the tribal language, and her "husband" learns English, the lines of communication open up, and the death of her parents may not be what they seem... Definitely not as memorable as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or even CANNIBAL FEROX - but the twist in the story is a welcome change to an otherwise rather straight-forward genre. Not nearly heavy enough on the red stuff for most "gorehounds" tastes, but still worth a look. 7/10

Decent story about an eighteen year old student visiting her parents in the Amazon. On a cruise down the river her boat is attacked and her parents are beheaded as she is taken captive by the natives. As she tells the details of her captivity to a court while on trial for murder she provides the tales of strange tribal customs and barbarism. Told mockumentary style (ala Cannibal Holocaust), Slave is a halfway decent attempt to give a little narrative force to the ample nudity and rather tame violence. The photography is nice and the acting is passable but the court scenes are rather laughable because the prosecutor says some seriously stupid things. A good way to pass the time if you are into cannibal flicks or a fan of exploitation.

White Slave starts off looking like it's going to be a really lame pastiche of Cannibal Holocaust, what with an opening montage of the Amazon set to ho-hum music imitating Riz Ortolani's famous score for that other film. And actually it stays lame for a fair while - but then it gets good! Amazon headhunters ambush the boat of some well-to-do white landowners and their daughter, who's back fresh from studying in London. They remove the heads of the parents and drag the daughter back to their village, where gradually (and after much gnashing of teeth by all concerned) she's absorbed into their tribal lifestyle - which never seems to involve any more headhunting for the rest of the film, but don't dwell on that.

The film makes sure to include a little bit from all of the major food groups of this horror subgenre: gore, hazardous jungle treks, badly graded stock footage of wildlife, animals stupidly killing each other for real, tribal warfare, cruel and probably entirely fictitious tribal customs and punishments meted out left, right and centre, and plenty of nudity. Interestingly, there's no cannibalism at all. While the first third of the film really seems to be going through the motions with these things, there's a whole bunch of plot from then onwards and dare I say a good degree of human warmth. Once Catherine is fully ensconced in the tribe, she deals with character rivalries, tribal customs and conflicting loyalties and emotions. There's some honour and romance at stake, plus a minor mystery to be dealt with and revenge to be had. White Slave mobilises from being an extremely by-the-numbers exploitation film to one with an involving story and human qualities you can get into. You still have to put up with one of the silliest court trials in the world (it's used as a framing device), but overall, I found this film to be a pleasant surprise.

Although not technically a cannibal movie (the main tribe are 'head-hunters'; cannibals feature very briefly but no cannibalism is shown), Amazonia shares enough similarities with the infamous gut-munching gore classics of the 70s and 80s to be considered part of the genre.

Catherine Miles (Elvire Audray) is a beautiful 18-year old taken captive by a group of savages after her parents are killed on a river trip. Sold to a member of the tribe for the sum of 'a goose, a water-dog and a turtle', Catherine endures terrible suffering until she is helped by Umukai, a warrior who treats her with a bit of respect. After many months spurning Umukai, believing that he was the one who killed her mum and dad, she discovers that others were in fact responsible. Falling in love with her friendly native hunk, she convinces him to help her take revenge on those really responsible.

Amazonia is pretty close in theme to The Man From Deep River, Umberto Lenzi's classic from 1972, but doesn't quite match that one in terms of quality. However, with a fair amount of cheesy gore (several be-headings, blow-darts in the face, some bloody bullet wounds) and loads of female nudity (courtesy of Audray and the native women, some of whom are pretty foxy), fans of this kind of thing should find just about enough to enjoy in this flick to make it worth a watch.