Cannibal Holocaust: Controversy at its Finest

Through all walks of life you are bound to find some sort of controversy from little to huge. Politics are filled with it, sports have it often, the media feeds off it, but usually film isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you hear controversy. This is because we take movies to be exactly what they are, movies. However, depending on different factors which could include your religion or morals, movies many times step over the line in the name of creativity.
In 1980, directory Ruggo Deodato released what is widely regarded as the most controversial films ever made in Cannibal Holocaust. The premise of the film is that an American film team go into the Amazon to look for any signs of a team who previously went there but disappeared when investigating some of the indigenous cannibal tribes. The movie is in the “found footage” subgenre of horror because everything you see is the recovered footage of their expedition because they went missing as well.
What made this movie so controversial can be boiled down to three main points. For starters, Deodato had been accused of exploitation and racism after the movie’s release. He claims that the tribe understood everything that was going on, including how they were being depicted as cannibals in the film because they are in some aspects of their life. It’s traditional for them to be and it has been this way for ages. Nonetheless, there is often debate that there is little evidence of interest in the customs of the tribe within the movie.
The second point is the actual harm of real animals. Even though the director claimed no real animals were hurt, there was about seven animals who were actually killed in the making of this movie. This has been done many times in movies, but what makes this one stand out more so is in most movies it’s more so implied that they died whereas this movie shows them actually dying and in pain. Needless to say, there were definitely law suits involved with these scenes. Some of which included: the killing of a muskrat, the decapitation of a large turtle, and a pig being shot in the head with a shotgun.
The last point is the wellbeing of the actors involved. There are extremely disturbing scenes throughout the movie that caused emotional distress for many viewers, but that is nothing compared to what the actors may have gone through. The movie was made back in 1980, before technology and special effects could make movies the way they do now. It was believed for a long time that the director actually was physically harming the actors of the movie. There’s a scene of a forced abortion, a pole through a woman’s body, and many other grotesque and disturbing things that seem too real for its time. The directors were actually arrested at one point for murder and had to seek out and find some of his actors in order to prove that they were, in fact, still alive. There is also times within the movie where real life executions were shown, making the movie that much more shocking.
This movie was so controversial in its time that it was banned for over three years in over forty different countries. The United Kingdom only lifted the ban for this movie in 2001. Believed to be the pioneer of the found footage genre, this movie still continues to be listed as one of the top ten controversial films of all time. Be prepared, if you do eventually see this, that this is a very unsettling and hard movie to watch.

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.