''Goodbye Uncle Tom'' ( it, Addio Zio Tom) is a 1971 Italian Mondo

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

co-directed and co-written by

Gualtiero Jacopetti Gualtiero Jacopetti (4 September 1919 – 17 August 2011) was an Italian documentary film director. With Paolo Cavara and Franco Prosperi, he is considered the originator of mondo films, also called "shockumentaries". Early life Gualtiero Jac ...

and

Franco Prosperi Franco Prosperi (2 September 1926 – 17 October 2004) was an Italian film director and screenwriter, active between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s. Born Francesco Prosperi in Rome, Prosperi began his career as an assistant director with ...

with music by Riz Ortolani. The film is based on true events in which the filmmakers explore antebellum America, using period documents to examine in graphic detail the racist ideology and degrading conditions faced by

Africans African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

under

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. Because of the use of published documents and materials from the public record, the film labels itself a documentary, though all footage is re-staged using actors.Provocateur Gualtiero Jacopetti Dead at 91: Honoring the Man Behind the Mondo Movies.
Richard Corliss, August 21, 2011.

Production

The film was shot primarily in

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

, where directors Jacopetti and Prosperi were treated as guests of Haitian dictator

Papa Doc Duvalier Papa is a word used in many languages as an affectionate term for father. Papa or PAPA may refer to: Geography and geology *Pápa, a town in Hungary * Papa village (Samoa), on the island of Savai'i * Papa, Scotland, various islands *Papa rock ...

. Duvalier supported the filmmakers by giving them diplomatic cars, clearance to film anywhere on the island, as many extras as they required, and even a weekly dinner with Duvalier himself. Hundreds of Haitian extras participated in the film's various depictions of the cruel treatment of slaves, as well as white actors portraying historical characters (including

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel '' Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the har ...

). Scenes were also shot in the U.S. states of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

Release

The film was confiscated in Italy and re-released the following year, 1972, in a cut version bearing the different title ''Zio Tom''. In France, the film was released as ''Les Négriers'', in Germany as ''Addio, Onkel Tom!''

Alternative versions

The directors' cut of ''Addio Zio Tom'' draws parallels between the horrors of slavery and the rise of the Black Power Movement, represented by

Eldridge Cleaver Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party. In 1968, Cleaver wrote '' Soul on Ice'', a collection of essays that, at the time of i ...

LeRoi Jones Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...

Stokely Carmichael Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unite ...

, and a few others. The film ends with an unidentified man’s fantasy re-enactment of

William Styron William Clark Styron Jr. (June 11, 1925 – November 1, 2006) was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work. Styron was best known for his novels, including: * '' Lie Down in Darkness'' (1951), his acclaimed f ...

's ''

The Confessions of Nat Turner ''The Confessions of Nat Turner'' is a 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by American writer William Styron. Presented as a first-person narrative by historical figure Nat Turner, the novel concerns Nat Turner's slave rebellion in Virginia in 1 ...

.'' This man imagines

Nat Turner Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.Schwarz, Frederic D.1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion" ''American Heri ...

's revolt in the present, including the brutal murder of the whites around him, who replace the figures Turner talks about in Styron's novel as the unidentified reader speculates about Turner's motivations and ultimate efficacy in changing the conditions he rebelled against. American distributors felt that such scenes were too incendiary, and forced Jacopetti and Prosperi to remove more than thirteen minutes of footage explicitly concerned with racial politics for American and other Anglophone audiences.

Reception

The film has frequently been criticized as

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

, despite directors Jacopetti and Prosperi's claims to the contrary. In

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

's 1972 review of the shorter American version, he asserts that the directors have "Made the most disgusting, contemptuous insult to decency ever to masquerade as a documentary." He goes on to call the film "cruel exploitation", believing that the directors degraded the poor Haitian extras playing slaves by having them enact the extremely dehumanizing situations the film depicts virtually as they occurred.

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...

put the film second (behind ''

The Last House on the Left ''The Last House on the Left'' is a 1972 American exploitation horror film written, directed and edited by Wes Craven in his directorial debut. The film follows Mari Collingwood ( Sandra Peabody), a hippie teenager who is abducted, raped, and ...

'') on his year-end list of what he called the sickest films he saw in 1972. Critic

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

called the film "the most specific and rabid incitement to race war". The directors denied charges of racism; in the 2003 documentary ''Godfathers of Mondo'' they specifically note that one of their intentions in making ''Addio Zio Tom'' was to "make a new film that would be clearly anti-racist" in response to criticism by Ebert and others over perceived racism in their previous film ''

Africa Addio ''Africa Addio'' (also known as ''Africa: Blood and Guts'' in the United States and ''Farewell Africa'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1966 Italian mondo documentary film co-directed, co-edited and co-written by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Pr ...

''. The film was a commercial failure. Currently, it is considered a cult classic.Inside the Most Racially Horrifying Movie Ever
Jen Yamato, "The Daily Beast", Sep. 30, 2015 Italian film critic Marco Giusti calls it "not bad" and remembers that the numerous scenes in the nude "made a certain effect back then".

Soundtrack

The film was scored by Italian composer Riz Ortolani and is notable for the theme "Oh My Love" sung by Katyna Ranieri, which would later be used in the soundtrack to the film ''

Drive Drive or The Drive may refer to: Motoring * Driving, the act of controlling a vehicle * Road trip, a journey on roads Roadways Roadways called "drives" may include: * Driveway, a private road for local access to structures, abbreviated "drive" * ...

'' (2011). Ortolani also collaborated with directors Jacopetti and Prosperi on their previous films, '' Mondo Cane'', and ''

''.

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Online Trailer (English version)
{{Uncle Tom's Cabin 1971 films 1970s exploitation films Italian drama films 1970s Italian-language films Films about American slavery Films about race and ethnicity Mondo films Documentary films about slavery in the United States Films directed by Gualtiero Jacopetti Films shot in Haiti Films scored by Riz Ortolani Golan-Globus films 1970s Italian films