Rating: 1/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2017 | 21/52 | Mondo
All the scenes you will see in this film are true and are taken only from life. If often they are shocking, it is because there are many shocking things in this world. Besides, the duty of the chronicler is not to sweeten the truth but to report it objectively.
This film launched the “mondo” genre: a pseudo-documentary style meant to explore the subjects that exploitation films love under the guise of reality. It ventures from the nudie cuties a la Mondo Topless to footage of people and animals dying, such as Faces of Death.
Like all mondo films, this one presents itself as a travelogue, letting us see the world as it “truly” is, but it contains many fictions. This film’s most controversial scenes are either manipulated or staged, propagating racist, misogynistic, and *-phobic beliefs. In 2025, none of it is shocking, and most of it is eye-rolling.
The movie does that familiar judo of exploitation films where it is so obviously crass and tasteless that meaningful critique does little more than show the critic’s preferences. So here’s my preference: not this. It’s Ripley’s Believe It or Not cruelty does nothing for me.