The Savage Innocents

Anthony Quinn isn't yet Zorba the Greek. He's Inok the Eskimo and he is presented here to ll be so naive and childlike that to try to get through his story is like being left alone on an ice flow just so a polar bear can eat you.

"The savage innocents" is Ray's last real movie, his two epics "King of Kings" and "55 days at Peking" ,in spite of their (often unfairly overlooked) qualities cannot be called "Nicholas Ray' s movies .The rest of his filmography includes a movie made with his students and the questionable Wenders collaboration "lightning over water" .

Fascinating and amazing study in cultural clashes at their most basic level, in the face of the hard survival in an impossible world of practically only adversities and death - the first scene of the bear hunt sets the mood. The bears play a significant part of the drama, although their performance is minimal.

I was impressed to see Quinn in this role. Well done film, a really good plot and storyline.

This movie serves primarily to showcase the versatility of veteran actor Anthony Quinn, who has portrayed characters of almost every ethnicity (Italian, Greek, Mexican, Native American, Arab,Filipino, just to name a few). Here he plays the role of Inuk, a typical Eskimo (Inuit) who lives and thrives in one of the harshest of climates, the Arctic, a perennial wasteland of ice and snow, where they have to subsist on the raw flesh of the native fauna such as seals, walruses and fish, as well as endure subzero temperatures and utilize the scant resources at hand.

Other than Nanook Of The North from silent days the only other two films concerning the Eskimos and their culture are Shadow OF The Wolf that starred Lou Diamond Phillips and Toshiro Mifune and this one The Savage Innocents. Almost 60 years have passed since the making of The Savage Innocents and the present.

I cant remember which year I saw this film but it was a very long time ago. It did however make quite an impression on me, i enjoyed the glimpse into the lives and traditions of the Eskimo's.

I haven't seen this film for years.......but would love to again.

This movie showed a Culture foreign to many of us, for we are now living (at a great cost to our planet),an altered infrastructure which keeps us away from true life realities. Yes, this movie was indeed BOLD & GRAPHIC.