Ultime Grida Dalla Savana - Influence

Influence

As their former cinematographer, Climati drew influence from the Mondo films of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi. The camera work used in Ultime grida dalla savana, particularly the cinéma vérité styled shots, was previously used in Africa addio, and some scenes are directly lifted from the latter film. Also, Carlo Savina's music conducted for the film bears similarities to the music Riz Ortolani conducted for Mondo cane and Africa addio. In terms of content, Kerekes and Slater say, "Savage Man Savage Beast is a slight return to the more encyclopaedic world view of mondo cinema which was prevalent in the 60s...," which demonstrates Climati's early roots in Mondo cinema. Firsching and Goodall also note that Ultime grida dalla savana was a transitional film, as it, "...provided a vital link between the 'classic' shockumentaries of the early-mid 1960s and the much crueller mondos of the mid 1970s and beyond."

The scenes of human death, which were shot in a manner that resembled an observational documentary, became influential in exploitation cinema, as several subsequent films would use similar filming techniques to lend certain scenes a sense of increased realism. Ruggero Deodato used this style prolifically in his film Cannibal Holocaust, in which a group of filmmakers goes missing after they head into the South American rain forest to make a documentary on local cannibal tribes. In the film, only the team's footage is recovered, which is all shot in the cinéma vérité style that resembles the "amateur footage" in Ultime grida dalla savana. The footage from Cannibal Holocaust proved so realistic that Deodato was arrested for making a snuff film. Charges were ultimately dropped when he produced the supposedly slain actors for the courts.

The release of Ultime grida dalla savana initiated a rivalry between Climati and Morra and two other Italian Mondo film makers, Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni. The Castiglionis had made two previous Mondo films, Africa segreta and Africa ama, before the release of Ultime grida dalla savana. One of the Castiglionis' following films, Addio ultimo uomo, released in 1978, includes a scene of "amateur footage" that mimics the scene in which mercenaries hunt natives in Ultime grida dalla savana. This scene, in which an African bushman is captured, tortured, and castrated by a rival tribe, has also been proven staged. Again in 1978, the death film Faces of Death included fabricated "amateur footage" that is a reenactment of the death of Pit Dernitz, replacing lions with a bear.