Starring: Cornel Wilde, Ken Gampu
Directed by Cornel Wilde
Written by Clint Johnston and Don Peters
Studio: Paramount Pictures (DVD by The Criterion Collection)
Video: 2.35:1 Aspect Widescreen
Audio: DD mono
Subtitles: English
Extras: Audio commentary by Stephen Prince, “John Colter’s Escape”: an account read by Paul Giamatti, soundtrack cues by Cornel Wilde and Andrew Tracy, theatrical trailer, a 30-page booklet on “The Naked Prey” and Cornel Wilde
Length: 96 minutes
Rating: ****
I remember seeing The Naked Prey on TV in the 1970s, chopped up and seeming at that time to be cut from the same cloth as “King Solomon’s Mines” or any of the other potboiler movies about white men facing danger and adventure in “darkest” Africa. But viewing it now, it’s a much different movie than I remember. I expected stereotyping, exploitation,and even camp, but I instead saw was a movie stripped of any fat—as lean and economical an example of moviemaking as any I’ve ever seen. In truth, there is some stereotyping of the natives, but in context to the time that this movie was made in 1966 (South Africa, where parts of it were filmed, still had Apartheid and we were undergoing our own Civil Rights upheavals), “The Naked Prey” is fairly evenhanded and non-judgmental in its portrayal of African natives. For its time, that is.
The plot goes like this: a Man (Cornel Wilde in this role, who is never given a name) is leading a safari in Africa, hunting elephants for ivory. The safari encounters a group of tribesmen who ask for gifts to give to their chief. Another white man, who plans to get into slavery after the safari, insults and rebuffs the tribesmen against the advice of Cornel Wilde. These tribesmen come back later to attack and take prisoners. The entire safari is tortured and killed in suitably horrible fashion except for Cornel Wilde, who is given the chance to die a lion’s death—which is being hunted down in the bush. He is stripped of all clothing, tools and resources (this is where the title of the film comes from), and is allowed a head start, which makes up the majority of the movie. He runs, eludes his pursuers and various wild animals, kills his enemies, and tries to make it back to the fort that he started out from at the beginning of the movie.
Ignoring a few lapses in logic (like why this white man could outrun and outfight these tribesmen in their own natural environment using unfamiliar weapons), “The Naked Prey” is a straightforward, linear story told mostly without dialog. The tribesmen speak in their own language without subtitles. The film is intensely physical and is as lean and muscular as the film’s star and director, Cornel Wilde (he was 54 years old when he made this movie). There’s little or no back story to any of the characters and the location and time period is left intentionally vague. What is left is pure story—a journey of the protagonist through the African bush trying to make his way to safety. While not over the top, like most of today’s action movies are, this is still a movie that grabs your attention and never lets go. There’s little time for relaxation or reflection—its driving momentum carries you along from the beginning to the end (which honestly felt a little abrupt). The Naked Prey is a textbook example of showing and not telling.
Being a Criterion Collection offering, The Naked Prey includes a nice package. The commentary by Stephen Prince is insightful and interesting. The true story of “John Colter’s Escape”—read by actor Paul Giamatti—shows the inspiration for the movie. It concerns a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition who was captured by Blackfoot Indians and allowed to run for his life through the wilderness. And like most Criterion DVDs, it comes with a thorough and engrossing booklet on the movie and Cornel Wilde. While The Naked Prey doesn’t rate as one the best movies ever made, it is still a solid and intriguing movie to watch from an underrated director and actor. Recommended.
– Hermon Joyner
