The Naked Prey

The Naked Prey is a 1965 American adventure film[3] produced and directed by Cornel Wilde, who also stars in the leading role. Set in the South African veldt, the film's plot centers around a safari guide trying to survive in the harsh environment all the while trying to avoid death at the hands of vengeful African natives. The story is loosely based on the experiences of American explorer John Colter. The acclaimed screenplay earned writers Clint Johnson and Don Peters an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

This article is about the 1965 film. For other uses, see Naked Prey (disambiguation).
The Naked Prey
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCornel Wilde
Produced by
  • Cornel Wilde
  • Sven Persson
Written by
  • Clint Johnston
  • Don Peters
Starring
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
Running time
96 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
Language
Budget$647,649[2]

The film premiered at the 1965 San Sebastián International Film Festival before receiving release in the United States on March 23, 1966. Made on a scant budget of less than $700,000, the film was shot entirely on location in Southern Africa.

Plot

Preface

In colonial era South Africa, a professional safari guide leads one haughty, white, dominantly Euro-centric investor and his troupe on an elephant hunt through the African veldt. When the group intrudes on a local tribe's territory, some natives and locals require a toll to be paid for walking through their territory. They are friendly, peaceful, smiling, and non-violent; the guide demands that they be paid, but the investor of the expedition ignores this advice, brushes them aside, and physically knocks the African, tribal leader to the ground barring his way. Animosity broods across everyone's face except for the investor's. No violent retribution immediately occurs, and the European troupe is allowed unharmed to walk past the African warriors guarding their border.

Capture

Later on, the guide and investor are arguing about their kills. The investor brags about killing so many more elephants than anyone else. His guide reminds him, "Everyone else only shot ivory-bearing elephants," to which the investor only laughs. During this conversation, a group of warriors from a local village discovers the poachers' camp grounds, and armed only with spears, captures or kills the entire European, rifle-armed party.

Dispatching the European Captives

After a victory march of the victims to their captors' home village, most are executed using various torture methods. For instance, one man is covered in clay, which is allowed to harden, and then he is roasted alive by being dangled over a fire. Another victim experiences the equivalent of being tarred and feathered (tar is not immediately or regularly available in 1800's South Africa, so the film crew made due with leather lashings and ropes), then chased and killed by common villagers (mostly women and children) armed with pointed sticks. The investor who insulted the tribesmen is tied up and placed in a ring of fire with a venomous snake, in a scene that choreographically resembles (without the tying up) a scene from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The Escape

The guide is spared until the last. He is stripped naked and then an arrow is fired into the air. The guide is ordered at the point of a spear to run; he runs and once he passes the arrow, he is chased by another tribesman in waiting. His pursuer throws a spear at him and misses, which he uses to kill his pursuer. Afterwards, he takes his supplies and evades his captors. His pursuers are too grief-stricken about their friend to carry on the hunt. The guide then flees, and a chase ensues.

The Middle-Eastern Slavers

Over the course of the film, several of the pursuers fall; either killed by the guide or the ravenous wildlife. The guide eats a snail, an onion, a snake, and any type of food that comes his way. Eventually, he comes across a village and camps nearby. He succeeds in stealing some barbecue from the village and to sneak away, only to be awoken by the gunfire of slavers of Middle-Eastern descent (the audience can infer this fact because they wore turbans and they were armed with Jezails, or muskets inscribed with the words of the Qur'an).

During this event in the movie, the guide cuts slaves from their rope bindings, has some minor melee with the slave guards, and prepares to meet the slave captain for combat, just as the captain falls into a ditch with the notable, memorable cinematic effect of thorns entering his eyes.

The Orphan Girl

Amidst the chaos of the melee, he meets an African girl (6 to 8-years-old) who is hiding from the slavers. The slavers were closing in on their location, and having never met her, he runs out for the sake of diversion, where he witnesses the dispatch of the slaver captain. He eventually escapes by jumping into a river, but gets incapacitated after going through a waterfall. Luckily, the girl from earlier finds him on the river bank and revives him. They become friends, and as she travels with him for the next few days, he sings a nineteenth-century drinking song, "Little Brown Jug". The child sings a song in her own language and they then attempt, with much cinematic humor, to sing each other's songs. They part ways near an area that she indicates as her homeland, which she is unwilling to leave.

Ending

By the end, the guide spots out a colonial fort just seconds ahead of his pursuers. In classic Hollywood style, the guide's lead pursuer is shot down by colonial soldiers firing in the distance, just a second before possibly landing a fatal blow to the guide, leading to a positive conclusion to the guide's survival. As he reaches safety, amidst the stiff movements of colonial troops, the guide turns and exchanges a saluting nod with the leader of his pursuers, who returns one back.

Muslim Slavers from the Middle East being Active in South Africa

Historically, the part of Africa most under the influence of Islam was the part closest to the Middle East (Northeast Africa, with Mozambique being a perfect example of wholesalers in the slavery trade). The idea of Muslim slavers active in South Africa during the 1800's is not historically-accurate, and it's actually a nod to Henry Morton Stanley, who wrote about Muslim slavers in North Africa, not South Africa, but who had gripped British, public imagination since the 1900's when it came to the Euro-African, literary romance.

Cast
  • Cornel Wilde as Man: The guide, who is the unnamed protagonist of the film, and the eponymous "naked prey." He is a professional safari guide, and by the end of the movie, he is left as the sole survivor of his group after all other members are murdered by tribesmen.
  • Gert van den Bergh as 2nd Man: A member of the safari troupe. He is killed by the tribe.
  • Ken Gampu as Leader of the Warriors: The leader of the tribe who is disrespected by the safari travellers.
  • Bella Randels as Little Girl: A native girl who saves the safari guide from drowning and accompanies him on his passage.
  • Patrick Mynhardt as Safari Overseer/Slave Dealer/Irish Soldier: Mynhardt plays three roles.
  • Sandy Nkomo, Eric Mcanyana, John Marcus, Richard Mashiya, Franklyn Mdhluli, Fusi Zazayokwe, Joe Dlamini, Jose Sithole and Horace Gilman play warriors that pursue the guide.

Production

The Naked Prey was filmed on location in Southern Africa.[lower-alpha 1][4][5][6] The film's screenplay was only nine pages long.[7][8] The film's opening titles were accompanied by paintings illustrated by local artist Andrew Motjuoadi.[8]

Critical reception

The minimal dialog, richly realized African settings, and emphasis on making "the chase (and violent combat along the way) a subject unto itself, rather than the climax to a conventional story"[9] distinguish Naked Prey as an innovative and influential adventure film.[10] However, although it is considered a small classic today,[11] it received mixed reviews at the time of its release. Robert Alden of The New York Times, reacting to the brutality of some of the early scenes, dismissed the film as "poor and tasteless motion-picture entertainment", but did acknowledge its "authentic African setting" and "effective use of tribal drums and native music."[12] Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times, taking a different tack, called The Naked Prey "pure fantasy" of the "great white hunter" variety, adding disdainfully: "Sure, it's nice to think you could outrun half a dozen hand-picked African warriors simply because you'd been to college and read Thoreau, but the truth is they'd nail you before you got across the river and into the trees."[13]

Other reviewers, however, were more enthusiastic. In Time, the film was described as "a classic, single-minded epic of survival with no time out for fainthearted blondes or false heroics" where "natives are not the usual faceless blacks but human beings whose capacity for violence the hero quickly matches."[14] Variety reviewer praised the documentary-style use of nature photography to show "the pattern of repose, pursuit, sudden death and then repose" that characterises the entire chase.[15]

Retrospectively, the film's reception has grown better. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 6.93/10.[16] Metacritic gave the film a 64 out of 100 rating indicating "generally favorable reviews, based on 12 reviews.[17] In July 2016, Matthew Thrift of the British Film Institute named the film among the ten greatest "chase films" and praised its "lush widescreen lensing" that "captures all the natural beauty and brutality of the African savannah".[7]

Accolades
Award Subject Category Result Ref
Academy Awards Clint Johnson and Don Peters Best Original Screenplay Nominated [18]

Home media

The Naked Prey was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in January 2008.[19]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack consists of African tribal chants, natural sounds, and occasional dialogue, in English and otherwise. There are no subtitles, and incidental music is mostly absent. It features Nguni tribal songs specifically recorded for the film. A vinyl LP The Naked Prey was released in 1966 on Folkways Records.[20] It was re-released as Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey in CD form on Latitude/Locust Music in 2004.[21][22]

Comic book adaptation
  • Dell Movie Classic: The Naked Prey (December 1966)[23]

Cinematic influence

As teenagers, Joel and Ethan Coen shot their own version of The Naked Prey on a Super 8 film camera. They called it Zeimers in Zambia and cast neighbor Mark Zimering in the lead role.[24]

Mel Gibson's film Apocalypto resembles The Naked Prey in its plot and in several similar scenes. The scenario of a man being pursued by a pack of warriors who set out, one by one, after he has reached the point where a loosed arrow fell was seen also in the 1957 film Run of the Arrow.[8]

Likewise, Robert Redford's 1972 movie Jeremiah Johnson has a similar plot line where Native American tribesmen give chase often, individually, to challenge Redford's character (Jeremiah Johnson) to duel to the death. Similarly, he signs off with the chief from a distance at the end of the movie. The character Jeremiah Johnson is loosely based on famous mountain man John Colter who reported an experience of being captured, then becoming naked human prey for Blackfeet Native Americans, in 1809.

The 1924 Richard Connell short story "The Most Dangerous Game" with the theme of humans hunting humans for sport, has run through film adaptations, as early as 1932.

Cultural influence

The progressive rock group Coheed and Cambria was originally named Shabütie after the African chant from the film. Shabütie translates to "Naked Prey".

In the first scene of the Mad Men season 5 episode, "Far Away Places," Abe coaxes a distracted and reluctant Peggy to go see the film with him. His pitch: "You're resisting a chance to see Cornel Wilde naked? I heard he wrestles a boa constrictor. Sounds pretty dirty."

The 266th episode of Cheers is titled "Bar Wars VII: The Naked Prey."

In the movie Where's Poppa?, the main character's brother (played by Ron Leibman) is regularly mugged while taking a shortcut through Central Park. In one mugging, the group of muggers refer to The Naked Prey as they strip him and then chase him. Garrett Morris plays one of the muggers.

See also
  • Survival film, about the film genre, with a list of related films

Notes
  1. Sources differ on which country the film was shot in.

References
  1. "The Naked Prey (12)". British Board of Film Classification. October 19, 2015. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  2. Dick, Bernard F. (2001). Engulfed: The Death of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2202-3.
  3. Stafford, Jeff. "The Naked Prey". Turner Classic Movies. Turner Entertainment Networks. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  4. Eagan, Daniel. "When Humans Are the Prey: 5 Movies That Came Before The Hunger Games". Smithsonian. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  5. "The Naked Prey | film by Wilde [1966]". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  6. "African Music from the Film - The Naked Prey". Smithsonian Folkways. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  7. Thrift, Matthew (July 26, 2016). "10 great chase films". British Film Institute. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  8. Stephen Prince (Film historian) (October 2, 2018). The Naked Prey [Audio Commentary] (Motion picture). The Criterion Collection.
  9. Brode, Douglas. Boys and Toys: Ultimate Action-Adventure Movies. Citadel Press, 2003, p. 186.
  10. Brode, ibid.
  11. "Naked Prey is Wilde's Minor Classic", The State, October 20, 1989, p. 4D
  12. Alden, Robert "Screen: 'The Naked Prey': Cornel Wilde Is Chased Through the Jungles", The New York Times, June 15, 1966.
  13. Ebert, Roger "The Naked Prey", Chicago Sun-Times, June 14, 1967.
  14. "Man Hunt" (review). Time, June 17, 1966.
  15. "The Naked Prey" (excerpt of 1966 review), Variety ((full text)
  16. "The Naked Prey (1966)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  17. The Naked Prey at Metacritic
  18. "The 39th Academy Awards (1967) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  19. Kehr, Dave (January 15, 2008). "New DVDs - January 15, 2008". The New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  20. The Naked Prey at Discogs
  21. Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey at Discogs
  22. Crumshaw, Michael. "Review of Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey (soundtrack)." Dusted Magazine, June 13, 2005 (full text)
  23. Dell Movie Classic: The Naked Prey at the Grand Comics Database
  24. Gods of Film-making, "Joel and Ethan Coen" (full text) Archived 2008-09-21 at the Wayback Machine
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.