The Naked Prey - Criterion Collection (1966)

I've waited years for it!

I first saw Naked Prey when it was initially released to the theaters, but not since. That is, until I discovered Criterion had released a dvd. I ran up the isle to grab it. What a film! Teriffic acting, photography, music. And a story line that can't be beat.

It had been over forty years since my first and only viewing, yet I retained the images and initial emotions all these years.

Get a copy of the Naked Prey. It is unforgetable.

September 8, 2008

Naked excellence!

This is a movie with little dialogue and lots of acting. The commentary is also very good. August 26, 2008

Cornel Wilde is `Man,' and Man is The Naked Prey

`A hundred years ago, Africa was a vast, dark unknown. Only a few explorers and missionaries, the ivory hunters and the infamous slave traders risked their lives on its blood-soaked trails. Gleaming tusks were the prize and sweating slaves, sold by their own kings and chiefs in the ceaseless tribal wars or seized by slavers. The lion and the leopard hunted savagely among the huge herds of game. And man, lacking the will to understand other men, became like the beasts, and their way of life was his.'

Cornel Wilde is `Man,' and Man is The Naked Prey. How tough is Cornel Wilde? Not only could he star in a film that sees him chased across a hostile environment by murderous tribesmen but could direct it as well in a primitive location in terrible conditions while seriously ill. While not the world's greatest actor he's the right physical presence for the part: there's something primal enough about him to convince as the kind of man who, when spattered with the blood of an enemy, just rubs it in rather than brushes it off. Indeed, Wilde was even planning to make a sequel decades later while dying of cancer.

Based on John Coulter's escape from Blackfoot tribesmen during the Lewis and Clark expedition and originally intended as a Western before South African tax breaks prompted a change of locale, it's a simple story well told. Wilde is leading an ivory hunting safari that, thanks to callous employer Gert Van Der Berg, falls foul of Ken Gampu's tribesmen, who later attack them and deal out various imaginative tortures and deaths to all except Wilde, who shows no fear. Reasoning that because he looks like a lion, he deserves a lion's death, they give him a chance: stripped naked and completely unarmed, they'll give him a head start before chasing after him and killing him. Only their prey is far more resourceful than they imagine, and what was intended as a quick kill becomes a long manhunt through a savage landscape.

It's not a new story, even in 1966: the manhunt movie had been a sporadic staple since The Most Dangerous Game and the same true story it was based on had served as partial inspiration for Run of the Arrow ten years earlier while in more recent years its done service in First Blood and Apocalypto. Yet it's rarely been done this well. It's also surprisingly ahead of its time, anticipating Peckinpah in the village children play-acting each of the executions and, most surprisingly, avoiding much of the racial stereotyping of the day. The tribesmen aren't supermen - they run out of breath as well, get thirsty, argue among themselves and even want to go home. And while the tribe do delight in (probably) invented tortures, it's not without cause, and Wilde isn't that far removed from them. Allan Quatermain in all but name, the film clearly sets `Man' apart from his white business partner - he only kills for ivory, not for sport and isn't interested in going into the slave trade for easy money - and just before the attack, Wilde makes a direct link between Wilde's sense of hearing and Ken Gampu's sense of smell. Both men rely on their senses for survival, acutely aware of their surroundings. In a story where it's survival not just of the fastest and the fittest but also the one who can adapt most to their environment - and their environment is not a pretty picture here. Its depiction of nature as a savage and unsentimental battlefield where its kill or be killed today seems like a pre-emptive two fingers to Terrence Malick's recent work

Pared down to the bone - there's no characterisation as such - and played in deep focus throughout, it may not be the greatest adventure film ever made, but it's a damn good one.

The extras on Criterion's DVD aren't that plentiful but are good: soundtrack cues, a reading of an account of John Coulter's real-life escape, original trailer, booklet including an interview with Wilde and a good audio commentary despite the odd mistake (The Most Dangerous Game wasn't made in 1936). The 2.35:1 widescreen transfer is especially good and, unlike the TV prints, the film is uncut.

July 25, 2008

How far can You run with bare feet?

I loved this movie. It's not perfect. The scene where Wilde attacks the slavers is unrealistic Hollywood. Otherwise the film is riveting. I rather suspect the theme of being chased by savages who give you a fair start is taken directly from the account of the Mountain Man, Jim Coulter, in Yellowstone back in the early 1800's. According to Coulter, he and a friend encountered Black Foot Indians. Coulter's friend went for his weapon but was immediately pincushioned by the Indians.

Coulter, himself, was stripped naked. An arrow was shot into the distance and Coulter was told he must go to the arrow but, once he got there. the Black Foot would pursue and kill him. Coulter was a good runner but not as good as one of the Indians. Coulter managed to kill him, ran further, then dove into a river and hid underneath a beaver lodge as the pursuing Indians--having lost his trail--poked around in the lodge in case he'd hidden there. They gave up and Coulter escaped to tell his tale.

Although "Naked Prey" is Coulter's tale revisited, I'm doubtful that a naked white man, under similar circumstances, could survive in Africa. The reason is thorns. Yellowstone has few thorns. Southern Africa has plenty. One thorn in a naked foot and.....well....the rest would be history. A naked man crippled by even one thorn would be quickly finished off. It makes a good story, though.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Conquest of Mexico June 28, 2008

Naked Prey

Gift for my guy, he loved it! The quality was amazing and well worth the wait for it. June 11, 2008

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