Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 18, 2008

Cannibal Holocaust is a controversial exploitation film directed by Ruggero Deodato and based on a screenplay written by Gianfranco Clerici. Filmed in the Amazon Rainforest, it focuses on a team of four fictional documentarians who head deep into the jungle to make a documentary on the primitive native tribes that live there. After two months and no word from the team, a famous anthropologist is sent on a rescue mission in hopes of finding the team alive. Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most widely known exploitation films due to the controversy it caused upon its release. After premiering in Italy, the film was seized by the local Magistrate and Deodato was arrested for obscenity. He was later accused of making a snuff film based on circulating rumors that the film's actors were slain for the camera. Though Deodato would be cleared of these charges, the film was banned in Italy in 1980, the UK, Australia, and several other countries for graphic gore, sexual violence, and for the genuine slayings of six animals featured in the film. Despite this notoriety, Cannibal Holocaust is seen by some critics as a social commentary on civilized society. (more...)

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