Cinema: Shock Value

Africa Addio may well be the only movie ever to get a review from the United Nations. On behalf of five African U.N. delegates who had asked that its showing be suspended, U.S. Ambassador Arthur Goldberg wrote to the New York Times complaining that this Italian-made documentary about the Dark Continent was “grossly distorted” and “socially irresponsible.”

Critic Goldberg may have a point. Africa Addio is a lengthy rape scene in which the predators are the continent’s white and black citizens and the victim is Africa itself. Film Makers Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi (Mondo Cane) have assembled a grand guignol of atrocity scenes, strung together with a booming narration and a melodramatic score. Among them: the wanton slaughter of herds of hippopotamuses, zebras, elephants and other wildlife; the execution by a black and white firing squad of black Congolese rebels; mound of 54 amputated hands, the ghastly souvenir of Bahutu reprisals against their Watutsi neighbors.

The gory footage of Africa Addio is clearly genuine, and it is hard to deny the film’s message: that much of the Dark Continent today is beset by violence and turmoil. But with a careful selection of film clips, an adroit director could make most parts of the world seem in the grip of terror—many far more so than Africa. Despite its lofty pretensions, the film has all too obviously been made for its shock value alone. As such, it is genuinely shocking. It is the value that is questionable.