The Savage Is Loose
The Savage Is Loose
| 15 November 1974 (USA)
The Savage Is Loose Trailers

A husband, wife and their son are stranded on a remote island with no way off; as the son grows older, sexual tensions emerge.

Reviews
ada the leading man is my tpye
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
iton-67578 I watched this film when I was very young -- maybe 12; it was either a TV or cable movie then. Taped it, and had it for years. I sympathize with the other reviewer who said he showed it to his Taiwanese date -- my wife is Taiwanese, and somehow, I don't think she would like it either, though not due to prudishness. She's just not into savages, Tarzan-like figures, or Christianity. I did like this film when I was a kid -- and well into my 20s, but have not seen it since then (now in my later 40s). Yet, I still remember most of it vividly. Kudos to George C. Scott -- and I am very sorry for him that the film did not do better, but also I am in no way surprised. Many out-on-a-limb worthy efforts fail to win over the majority of viewers. (I recall my grandmother saying she walked out of A Clockwork Orange when she somehow went to see it in the theater in the early '70s -- and I loved that film too; still do.) I wonder how Savage would do now, if it were released on DVD in good quality. I would advise seeing it, especially to younger people with imagination, curiosity, and a capacity for deep thought. (I could not watch Scott in Day of the Dolphin, however -- not due to any acting problem, but because that film struck me as terribly heartrending -- I felt badly for the dolphins.) This one didn't trouble me a bit, except I wondered what would come next at the end.
I-Am-The-Movie-Addict very rare you have films that go beyond the normal and the monotonous way of telling a story that cannot be told in a formal filmy way but still some crosses over and makes us think otherwise. so, is this film starring George C. Scott, who is also starring in the lead role as the man of a family of three that gets stranded on a island where tensions of different kind attacks them ultimately driving to an unexpected conclusion.i think this one will makes others think it's a crossover between The Blue Lagoon (1980), Predator (1987), Alien (1979), Cast Away (2000) and Interstellar (2014) but if that makes your mind tick to watch this, let it be that way. but overall, it's a film that uses more of what happens if this occurs and foretold by Sigmund Freud through Freudian methods of what goes between a male child and his mother or vice-versa. everyone acts normal as the story demands but still if we leave incongruities out, we have a film that needs a revival and re- visitation because if this one gets made today, chances are a franchise will arise. but unfortunately, you are having nothing of this film out in the market where its wiki page and other sources are telling that it is out of print since it was condemned and could made it to halls to get noticed. if you are looking, then go to those who keep rare films, they might have it somewhere un-dusted.at last, this one is a good one to watch not bringing fallacies of stretching a story too long but also not going new anywhere.
Starbanker Going through the movie listings for a good flick to bring a date to I saw George C. Scott...wow! My date was a very conservative young lady from Taiwan, that took nearly a month to get permission to date. I was stunned at the subject material of this film, Incest, Masturbation, Murdering a father to have sex with his mother. The plot takes off at that awkward point in Swiss Family Robinson where Mrs. Robinson brings up the fact they have three sons on an island with no other women, then goes straight for a pervert fantasy plot line. This movie should have been rated X at that time. This was truly a "car crash" spectacle, no one could look elsewhere. We couldn't believe what we were seeing. I read somewhere that Scott was embarrassed of this film, I might add that he had better have been. This was not what I expected in my wildest nightmares. First date-Last date...period.
parkerr86302 An ugly little film with no reason to be ugly. Let's use some logic here. In circumstances such as these, if there were absolutely no other women around except his mother, it is quite likely, perhaps even understandable, that a young man would start to develop sexual feelings for her. Instead of truly examining this, the film opts instead for completely unsympathetic characters, including portraying the young man as a wild animal (the "savage" of the title) who plots to kill his father and rape his mother. Nice, eh? The filmmakers might have made their point better (assuming they were trying to make a point at all) by adding a little sympathy to everyone's plight. Maybe they could have had the young man feel some horror over his desire for his mother? Maybe mom could have agonized over whether or not she owes something to her son under these extreme conditions? Any of this would have made for a better movie. Instead, the boy is a stalking predator while mom runs around the movie shrieking about how fearful she is of him. Too bad; there was promising subject matter here, boldly ignored by George C. Scott and writers Max Ehrlich and Frank De Felitta. A real waste.