Turned into something of a cult movie when Bob Dylan immortalised it in song, ('The Mighty Quinn'), "The Savage Innocents" would probably have otherwise gone unnoticed. A kind of ecological companion piece to Ray's earlier "Wind Across the Everglades", this was an almost documentary-like look at life among the Eskimos, visually superb though at times almost embarrasingly simplistic.
Anthony Quinn is Inuk, 'the savage innocent' of the title, who accidently kills a missionary and is forced to go on the run, (Peter O'Toole, no less, is one of his pursuers). If anything distinguishes the film it isn't so much the plot but Ray's mise en scene and attention to detail. It also highlighted a way of life not really seen on the screen since Flaherty's "Nanook of the North". It's hardly classic Ray; rather it's a curio from a maverick film-maker unafraid to take chances though some may say with this he took one chance too many and yet there is still much to admire. This is one 'lost' movie worth finding.
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