Red-Barracuda Deep River Savages is most famous for being the first of the Italian cannibal movies. This sub-genre is pretty notorious and a lot of the films made the video nasty list (films considered obscene by the British authorities in early the 80's). This movie was one of the ones that did and it's not really very surprising on account of several scenes of real animal slaughter and one showing cannibals rape and eat an unfortunate victim. But the cannibal tag is a little misleading in the case of Deep River Savages because the cannibals are fairly minor characters here. It seems though that their brief appearance was the idea that led to the cycle of cannibal movies that would appear in the late 70's / early 80's. More accurately, this film is an Italian version of A Man Called Horse, which had come out a couple of years beforehand. In that one a white man is captured by Native American Indians and has to go through various trials and rituals before finally assimilating into the tribe, Deep River Savages effectively does the same thing but with primitive South East Asian tribes. It also ramps up the exploitation angle.The story has a photographer working in Thailand who is forced to flee into the jungle after he kills a man in self-defence. He is soon captured by a primitive tribe who eventually take him in as one of their own after various trials and rituals. He falls in love with one of the young women of the tribe; meanwhile an enemy tribe of cannibals prowl menacingly in the periphery.This one was helmed by Umberto Lenzi who was one of the most prominent directors of the cannibal sub-genre, going on to make films such as Eaten Alive. The two main stars of that one appear in this earlier film too, namely Ivan Rassimov and Me Me Lai. They are pretty good and quite surprisingly their romantic sub-plot is quite extensively developed. This and the culture clash elements make up much more of the movie than the cannibal aspect. This might disappoint a few people who come into this expecting something akin to the likes of Cannibal Holocaust, as despite some legitimately disturbing moments this is far less intense than later entries in the sub-genre. It's not a bad film though and is one well worth checking out if you enjoy Italian exploitation movies. It's certainly one with a fair bit of historical importance for sure.

jfgibson73 This movie might not satisfy the viewers who seek it out assuming it is full of explicit gore and cannibal depravity, but I thought it was a likable story. It is a little slow in some parts, but concentrates on narrative more than shock. As a fan of movies, not bloody effects, I appreciated the effort.A Westerner gets captured by a primitive tribe and slowly becomes accepted as one of them. A romance develops with one of the tribeswomen, and the love story becomes the focus of the rest of the movie.Simple, but I enjoyed it, I think because it felt just authentic enough. Most of the actors looked like they could have been from the area, the setting didn't look totally fake, and there were some moments that were obviously not done with special effects. Perhaps the least convincing part of it was the actress who played the love interest. Never once did I even remotely imagine she was a tribeswoman, looking more like a model (supposedly she worked on a game show). However, I enjoyed her character's playfulness and believed her when she gave the leading man shy but loving looks. Could it be that these characters from the first cannibal movie are one of my favorite on-screen couples?

BA_Harrison Although this film is often cited as the first of the Italian cannibal classics, in reality it is nothing more than a rather well-made rip-off of Elliot Silverstein's A Man Called Horse (1970) with only a small amount of cannibalism thrown in at the end to spice things up. However, it does feature several elements that would become staple to the cannibal genre: graphic blood 'n' guts, some nudity and rape, and a whole load of nasty violence perpetrated on poor innocent animals.Ivan Rassimov plays John Bradley, a photographer who travels up-river to the border of Thailand and Burma, only to be captured by a primitive tribe. He is forced to be a slave, but eventually earns the villagers' respect, becomes a warrior and gets to have it away repeatedly with the chief's daughter (the beautifully exotic Me Me Lai).Director Umberto Lenzi, who would later bring us the infamous Cannibal Ferox and Eaten Alive (also starring Rassimov and Lai), delivers quite a restrained movie considering the excesses of some of his later work: the film moves at a leisurely pace, taking its time to develop the characters and story, only stopping occasionally to fling in a spot of rumpy-pumpy or a brutal animal slaying! If you're at all interested cannibal genre, then the movie is recommended; it is interesting as a point of reference for later films but is also pretty entertaining in itself (particularly if you like very cute nekkid native chicks!).I give it 6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb. That's on about a par with Mountain of the Cannibal God and Cannibal Ferox, slightly better than Eaten Alive, but nowhere near as good as Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal Apocalypse.

Jonny_Numb "Man from Deep River" is about as shocking in its purpose as anything contained within its gore scenes. Directed by Italy's go-to-guy for cannibal sleaze, Umberto Lenzi ("Make Them Die Slowly") weaves in his share of exploitative and downright offensive elements (he can't get enough of *live* animals fighting/being cut apart) to tell the tale of an American photographer (Ivan Rassimov, sporting a bad blonde dye job) who stabs a surly bar patron while drunk, and flees up a river in the Philappines only to run afoul of a cannibal tribe. Now, while Lenzi's subsequent efforts have celebrated the 'gore-to-profits' equation to success, "Deep River" has a surprisingly human story at its core--upon first glance, Rassimov is a prisoner seeking escape; but he eventually assimilates to the tribal culture and even weds one of the ladies (Me Me Lai). In a bit of ironic turnabout, our Ugly American gets in touch with his inner human, and his journey there is told with a pulse more dramatic than horrific, which blind-sided me. While this might not be to all tastes, Lenzi's commitment to the material truly sucked me in and made me care. Those seeking an alternative to "Cannibal Holocaust" should be pleased with "The Man from Deep River."