Review of Goodbye Uncle Tom

This is an extraordinary piece of documentary cinema that is as fresh and cutting edge today as it was when it was first released and universally crucified. Directors Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, who also made the two "Mondo Cane" films and the equally extraordinary "Africa Adios", were true originals. The fact that their methods were so questionable is what made them unique. In this brilliant staged "documentary", the filmmakers travel back in time, via helicopter, to the "golden age" of Slavery in America's Deep South. They "interview" white slavers, depict the degradation and humiliation of the blacks, recreate the transportation of slaves across the ocean and show white landowners enjoying the exploitation of people they considered for less than human. An early helicopter shot of the filmmakers arriving at a cotton plantation, the rotor blades whipping the fields into a frenzy, is absolutely mesmerizing. Riz Ortolani, the talented composer who scored "Cannibal Holocaust", the great American Western "The Hunting Party", and "House on the Edge of the Park", to name but a few of his achievements, enriches this production with a sweeping, majestic, searing score that acts as an ironic counterpoint to the film 's bold perspective. You really have to see and hear "Farewell Uncle Tom" to appreciate its incredible originality and courage.