 |
| This Violent World |
| aka. Mondo Violence aka. Mondo Diavolo |
| Written and Directed by Antonio Climati, and Mario Morra. |
| This was yet another movie produced by Titanus that was inspired by the phenomenally successful Mondo Cane, and it has to be one of the more entertaining and hilarious examples of the mondo genre. Like all good mondo movies, it is a documentary style film covering the more strange and unusual aspects ( both real, and blatantly staged) of the world around us with an emphasis on violence, nudity, and good old fashioned exploitation. This Violent World begins with a bang. We are taken to India where we see a guy shoving pins through his face .... a scene that featured prominently in the films poster art and promotion. We are also shown another guy cutting off his own tongue, though it's more likely a sheeps tongue (if it was his tongue, he's lucky the film crew got it in one take). I was also surprised at the amount of white Italian amputee beggars in Italy....Climati and Morra obviously imported them. There are countless absolutely hilarious scenes in this. |
| I'll describe some of my favorites. Early into the film, we join a group of urban 'great white hunters' in the sewers of New York. They are hunting down exotic animals which have escaped into the sewers. They first find a viper, and of course run into an alligator. The narrator tells us that it's a caiman, but we can't really rely on his identification of animal species' anyway because he later identifies a tiger shark as a great white, a goanna as an iguana, and a frilled neck lizard as a species he just makes up off the top of his head. I'm not sure whether this is intentional humour, or just total lack of research. There is also an Amazonian slave trading scene that gives this a Cannibal Ferrox feel, and in probably my favorite scene, we are shown victims of a strange new illness caused by mercury poisoning that causes those infected to laugh uncontrolably. They probably aren't sick at all, and were merely showed other scenes from this film such as natives copulating with the ground, and penguins singing opera. Speaking of music, any Umberto Lenzi fans may be interested to know that the score from Ironmaster is used in some scenes. |
| The only down side to this is that it does have quite a bit of animal cruelty, so if you don't like this sort of thing (I'm no vegan, but I think clubbing baby seals over the head is pretty sick , unsettling stuff to watch, along with the African cops looking for smuggled diamonds up cows asses.), I'd recommend keeping your finger poised over the fast forward button. Still, This Violent World is a pretty good party tape to watch with freinds, and you'll have a great time deciding what's real, and what's fake ( I'm still trying to make up my mind about the shark attack victim). Mondo movies are kind of like pro-wrestling. The appeal makes no sense, and can't really be explained, but they are extremely surreal and entertaining nonetheless. |
| Entertainment : 3 out of 4 |
| Watchability : 3 out of 4 |
| Overall : 3 out of 4 |
| Reviewed by Blake. |
| If you like this, you might enjoy : |