The Savage Innocents

1959

1 hr. 50 min.

Adventure

List

71%

14 Reviews

Tomatometer

71%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Inuk (Anthony Quinn), an Eskimo hunter, offers his wife, Asiak (Yôko Tani), to a visiting Christian missionary as a courtesy, which is a custom of his people. When the missionary refuses this offer with disdain, an angered Inuk attacks and accidentally kills him. After Inuk is later caught by a pair of troopers who seek to return him for a trial, they face a blizzard. The troopers must decide whether to let the resourceful Inuk help them. Otherwise, they all may perish in the storm.

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Matthew D

Apparently Inuits are a race of giggling psychopaths that don't know which way is up or that babies are born without teeth. Makes one wonder how the race lasted so long being so damn stupid. Somehow everyone thinks this movie does a brilliant job in eliciting sympathy for Inuits and their culture despite each portrayal alternating between cartoonish stupidity and unbridled insanity. The only explanation I can think of is that Nicholas Ray directed it and this is the old Hitchcock/Allen/Tarantino effect; the assumption that if some of a director's output is good, then every dump he takes must be soild gold. Sadly, reality doesn't work that way. Yes, Ray did direct 'Rebel Without a Cause' and 'Johnny Guitar', and 'Run for Cover', but all those great movies don't make 'The Savage Innocents' not bad. It was bad, it is bad and will always be bad and not even Nicholas Ray having co-directed 'On Dangerous Ground' is going to change that. It's a fact we're all just going to have to live with.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

08/27/21

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Audience Member

It is impossible not to cringe when you see Anthony Quinn playing an Eskimo (now referred to as Inuit or with specific tribal affiliations) and the assorted supporting actors come from a range of Asian cultures (with Yoko Tani excellent as Quinn/Inuk's wife). Setting this aside - and also setting aside the condescending view of indigenous people as less civilized - is difficult, but persisting with the movie does allow for some rewards. In fact, contact with the white man reveals them to be more decadent, foul, and unwilling to understand the (stereotypically noble) "savages" who eat raw meat, wife-swap, and occasionally kill each other. Director Nick Ray heightens the emotional interpersonal drama between the two main characters and their surrounding sparse social network and uses (probably stock footage of) arctic animals along with trained seals and a polar bear for counterpoint. The whole thing is so strange - and the characters speak in a kind of pidgin English that heightens this strangeness - that the viewer is quickly absorbed into an entirely different world. It is just too unfortunate that the rampant stereotyping of the time infects everything.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

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Audience Member

It's weird, possibly racist, and terrifically uneven but I kind of like it's kooky imperfection.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

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Audience Member

if one can get past the obvious problems, like racially insensitive casting, animal slaughter and romanticizing native culture, it's quite a remarkable example of outsider cinema. containing peter o'toole's film debut (tho they saw fit to dub his voice), this is still a powerful film. you'll not see nothing like the mighty quinn!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

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Audience Member

Vastly under-appreciated Nicholas Ray film

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

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Audience Member

Anthony Quinn as an eskimo is amazing.A strange movie from one of the greatest american directors and a favourite of Bob Dylan

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Nicholas Ray

Director

Anthony Quinn

Inuk

Yôko Tani

Asiak

Peter O'Toole

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Carlo Giustini

Second Trooper

Marie Yang

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Variety Staff

Variety

Art director and editor have done a standout job in matching and cutting so that it is virtually impossible to decide where Pinewood began and Canada came in.

Oct 23, 2007

Full Review

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Though scuppered by problems worse than those usually associated with international coproductions, this is nonetheless rather more than just another engaging oddity from Ray.

Feb 9, 2006

Full Review

Eugene Archer

New York Times

His strange, disturbing drama will leave most of its viewers dissatisfied and some outraged, but few will remain indifferent.

Rated: 2.5/5

May 9, 2005

Full Review

Gerri Major

Jet Magazine

Anthony Quinn... turns in a performance that may win him an Oscar.

Jan 16, 2024

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

'The Savage Innocents' is an adventure that Nicholas Ray manages with ease and some anthropological discursive claims, but I'm not so captivated by the look he offers on the idiosyncrasies of the Eskimos. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 6/10

Jul 25, 2020

Full Review

Clyde Gilmour

Maclean's Magazine

Hollywood's Anthony Quinn is the primitive hero in a drama, beautifully-photographed but sometimes ludicrous in style...

Oct 31, 2019

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Synopsis

Inuk (Anthony Quinn), an Eskimo hunter, offers his wife, Asiak (Yôko Tani), to a visiting Christian missionary as a courtesy, which is a custom of his people. When the missionary refuses this offer with disdain, an angered Inuk attacks and accidentally kills him. After Inuk is later caught by a pair of troopers who seek to return him for a trial, they face a blizzard. The troopers must decide whether to let the resourceful Inuk help them. Otherwise, they all may perish in the storm.

Director: Nicholas Ray
Screenwriter: Nicholas Ray
Genre: Adventure
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 11, 2017

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