Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 22, 1993 TAG: 9301220266
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chris Gladden
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HOLLYWOOD SERVES UP A LAST TABOO
Let us improvise on that gastronomical skit from "Hee Haw," when Grandpa Jones extolls in rhyme the pleasures of Southern cooking."Hey, Grandpa! What's fer supper?"
"Why roasted toes and a fricasseed nose.
"Fingers with peas and barbecued knees.
"Pan-fried feet and pickled ears that can't be beat.
"Yuuuum, yuuuum."
The movie business is quickly running out of sexual taboos. If you don't believe it, just take a look at "Lovers" or Madonna's latest movie.
So cannibalism seems to be the trendy way to push the old audience shock buzzer these days. Anthony Hopkins won the coveted Academy Award for his portrayal of "Hannibal the Cannibal," a hungry sociopathic genius, in "The Silence of the Lambs." This commercial and critical success made Hopkins cannibalism's poster boy.
The newest movie involving cannibalism is "Alive," a well-intentioned movie that strives mightily to be inspirational. It details the incredible, real-life ordeal of a South American rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes. The survivors voted to eat the dead to stave off starvation. In the hands of director Frank Marshall, cannibalism is supposed to give you a warm and fuzzy feeling.
At least five movies in the past year involved cannibalism. In "Fried Green Tomatoes," the "Driving Miss Daisy" wannabe, barbecued redneck was the blue plate special down at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
In Ridley Scott's "1492: Conquest of Paradise," natives found that Columbus' crew made a handy protein supplement. "Delicatessen," an enjoyably bizarre French movie, depicted a post-apocalyptic France where you could buy human flesh down at the neighborhood deli.
And the evil Indian chief in "The Last of the Mohicans" vowed to eat the heart of his enemy. The movie strongly suggests that he made good on his promise.
It hasn't been that long ago that "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" had viewers' tummies churning. In this strikingly visual but repellent Jacobean revenge drama, a woman has her murdered lover cooked and presented to her guilty husband. Incredibly, cannibalism is the least nauseating aspect of this Peter Greenaway movie.
Then there is "Eating Raoul," a 1982 black comedy about a couple who murders the sexually adventurous and disposes of the bodies through you know what.
And of course, cannibalism is a mainstay of such horror flicks as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Night of the Living Dead." Indeed, there seems to be a whole sub-genre of cannibalism movies out there. Alferd Packer, the 19th-century frontiersman who ate most of the Democrats in his county, would be proud.