AMAZONIA:
THE CATHERINE MILES STORY (1985) Region B Blu-rayDirector: Mario Gariazzo
88 Films
AMAZONIA:
THE CATHERINE MILES STORY (1985) Region B Blu-rayA young heiress becomes a "white slave" to cannibals in AMAZONIA: THE CATHERINE MILES STORY on Region B Blu-ray from 88 Films.
Catherine Miles (Elvire Audray, THE SCORPION WITH TWO TAILS) is facing trial in the Amazon for the murders of two people. Her lawyer has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of extenuating circumstances. In flashback, she tells of leaving her boarding school in London to join her parents at their rubber plant in the Amazon. On her eighteenth birthday, she takes a trip down the river with her parents only for them to be ambushed by headhunters who murder her parents and sweep her temporarily blow dart-paralyzed nubile form (and her parents' heads) off into the jungle and back to their village. Young warrior Umukai (Will Gonzales) takes a protective stance towards her when it comes to the undesired attentions of the chief, and Catherine starts to feel conflicted in her hatred for him for murdering her parents. As she is initiated into the tribe by ritual defloration and even wins the admiration of the tribe (who believe her to have magic when she treats a warrior's broken leg), Catherine continues to plot her escape; but she discovers that there are more dangers than the wilds of the jungle and lurking cannibals in her subsequent brushes with civilization.
Scripted by filmmaker Franco Prosperi – who also scripted Jess Franco's WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN and Antonio Climati's THE GREEN INFERNO – and also known in some territories as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST II (and not the only Italian film from this period to have that alternate title), that moniker seems to be the aim of director Mario Gariazzo (THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW) and crew in contrasting of the "savagery" of the natives and of the white man, along with a theme song of Franco Campanino (TO BE TWENTY). It is not really a cannibal film. In some ways, it is more like Umberto Lenzi's MAN FROM DEEP RIVER with its white character adjusting to life among head hunters while the cannibals are an enemy tribe; indeed, it is more of a gory, sexed-up throwback to jungle serials and pulp fiction a la Sergio Martino's MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD. The film is gorgeously photographed by Silvano Ippoliti (CALIGULA) – aside from the National Geographic stock footage of variable photographic quality and condition – with some striking visual set-pieces (partially thanks to some fine jungle art direction). There is also a fair amount of gore courtesy of Franco Di Girolamo (NIGHTMARE CITY) and Rosario Prestopino (PHENOMENA and DEMONS) but little gut-munching and less animal cruelty than normal for the genre except for a couple kills by a leopard and a wincing bit with a snake. The flashback structure does take away from both the film's suspense, but it does allow us to indeed question some of her claims (although the annoying prosecutor's voice-over objections dash away any sense of doubt). There are surely better examples of the genre, and AMAZONIA may more interesting as part of Mario Gariazzo's job-of-work filmography that stretched from sixties spaghetti westerns to seventies horror/sci-fi/crime.
Released stateside by Empire Pictures as WHITE SLAVE and on video under that title by Charles Band's Force Video, AMAZONIA came to DVD under the American title from Full Moon utilizing the ancient tape master while an authorized edition turned up from Shriek Show utilizing an anamorphic European master. That master was the same source for 88 Films' 2013 DVD which included the film's trailer and the American WHITE SLAVE title sequence as extras. Transferred from a new 2K scan of the original camera negative, 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen transfer has a warmer overall look compared to the DVD and a softness that is not unusual in Ippoliti's often diffused photography but seems a bit odd here with a lush jungle setting which at first seems as if it had been employed to make the differences between the stock footage and original footage less noticeable, but there are close-ups during the London scenes that also look softer and grainier. It is an improvement over the DVDs but not a stunning one in keeping with the film's level of production and shooting conditions. English and Italian dubs are offered in uncompressed LPCM 2.0 with optional English subtitles revealing some differences between the two tracks.
Extras start off with "The Last Supper: The Final Days of the Cannibal Film" (51:19) in which academics Mikel Koven and Calum Waddell, author and critic John Martin, actor Michael Sopkiw, as well as directors Ed Sanchez and Ruggero Deodato discuss the cannibal genre after its heyday from 1972 (MAN FROM DEEP RIVER) to 1981 (CANNIBAL FEROX), with Koven and Martin suggesting that Deodato's CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST was not as influential on its contemporaries and not the cult success at the time that it later became, while Waddell suggests that the resurgence of the genre in the mid-1980s was influenced by the delayed release of the Deodato film in Japan in 1983 and the United States in 1985. Discussion of the latter day cannibal films encompasses AMAZONIA, MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY – the Sopkiw contribution of which was noticeably absent from 88's Blu-ray of the film – CUT AND RUN, and THE GREEN INFERNO. In the discussion, AMAZONIA is viewed as a watered down genre entry motivated by the need to capture a wider audience in the waning days of Italian genre cinema, MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY a ROMANCING THE STONE-esque take on the genre, CUT AND RUN an amalgam of Ruggero Deodato's proposed CANNIBAL FURY and Wes Craven's MARIMBA which both fell through in their funding, while Waddell suggests convincingly that THE GREEN INFERNO was Mondo filmmaker Climati's response to Deodato's skewering of the Mondo genre addressing CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST's own "moral blindspots." "An Italian in Amazonia" (14:24) is an interview with cameraman Federico Del Zoppo who discusses his beginnings with his first credit as assistant operator at age sixteen, his collaborations with cinematographer-turned-director Stelvio Massi, esteemed DP Giuseppe Rotunno, and director Lina Wertmuller as well as his experiences on George P. Cosmatos' LEVIATHAN, Ciro Ippolito's ALIEN ON EARTH, and the miniseries MOSES THE LAWGIVER with Burt Lancaster. The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (2:33). All pressings come with a reversible cover while the first five hundred copies ordered directly from 88 Films come with an exclusive slipcase and a booklet on Audray by Calum Waddell highlighting what little is known about her from her failed disco single and first major role in Sergio Martino's THE SCORPION WITH TWO TAILS to her suicide at age forty. (Eric Cotenas)