Sheena: Queen of the Jungle

What I love about pre-multiculturalism movies (mostly black and white) is there was still some uncharted territory, still some room for Other.

With the internet, free trade, and psychology talk shows, no one's inexplicable anymore. Where have all the cannibals gone?

WOLF: Those [white American hunter/explorer] guys are the bad guys.
They're making all the animals extinct.
LISA: Are the voodoo guys good or bad?
WOLF: They're bad too.
LISA: Why?
WOLF: Well, they're kind of like gods, and the devil was a god, and he's a bad one — all fiery and red. Good gods are usually blue. These voodoo guys use fire, so they must be bad gods.
SADIE: What is that drumming?
LISA: That's part of the voodoo ceremony.
SADIE: Because they live in the wild, their church is outdoors?
LISA: Yup. Looks like they're going to sacrifice that man tied to the pole.
SADIE: Why are they all saying "zoogoola"?
LISA: That's their language. Maybe it means "amen."
SADIE: Maybe it means: "Go, man! Burn him up!" Since they like to sacrifice people. We don't sacrifice people, though.
LISA: Future societies might consider us sending young, poor boys to the front lines in wars human sacrifice.
SADIE: Why are they making a clay doll of [the captive]?
LISA: The witch doctor thinks if he destroys the doll, the guy will die. Since the guys in the tribe believe it, it probably works on them — they really die, from a heart attack.
WOLF: Here comes Sheena on a vine to rescue him.
SADIE: Why does she talk like a little kid?
LISA: I suppose she never finished school and doesn't hang around with educated people. She lives alone with a chimp in her little tree hut.
SADIE: How come Sheena's taking the witch doctor's picture?
LISA: He thinks it will kill him if she rips the picture of him in half.
SADIE: That's why he let the American go? He has superstition!
LISA: I think all our lives are ruled partly by objective, biological reality and partly by our beliefs about those realities. I think that's what makes a civilization. Sheena stands outside both tribes: the voodoo guys and the American explorers.
SADIE: You mean she doesn't have any civilization? She just lives?
LISA: Exactly.
WOLF: I think she's made a pack with the animals. She calls them with her horn. Probably because her mom died a long time ago.
LISA: What's your tribe, Wolf?
WOLF: The tribe that I have now is frogs and caterpillars and the cat. And the hermit crabs.
SADIE: My tribe is Mommy. And Wolfgang.

Lisa Carver, Sadie (six), Wolf (thirteen)
 

Discuss this article   |   PRINT THIS ARTICLE  |   EMAIL TO A FRIEND  |     RATE THIS NOW!
+ DIGG  |   + STUMBLE  |     |   + MY YAHOO  |   + GOOGLE  |   RSS
 

New This Week