During the early ’80s, the Italian film industry was suffering. The once thriving cinema society was ailing for two major reasons. Terrorists were active in the major cities with kidnapping actions that caused made people fear going out and becoming an innocent bystander. The second was that the TV stations of Italy were finally showing movies on a regular basis. The film lover stuck at home only had to turn on their TV set and not consider risking their life buying a ticket at the theater. Making things harder was the American market was getting tougher as the major studios put out more prints to claim more of the existing screens. American audiences weren’t down for dubbed movies anymore. A few of the directors came to America to make their brand of horror here to raise their chances of distribution. Director Alberto Cavallone found a great way to make a movie in Europe without worrying about people complaining about the dubbing. He made a cavemen movie that only featured grunts and scream. Master of The World gets primitive in its approach to prehistoric times.
It’s hard to describe the full plot of the movie since there’s no character to keep rehashing what’s been going on. Sven Kruger is the hunky caveman wrapped in furs without having any appliances put on his face to look like he’s not fully evolved. He roams through rough terrain who encounters other prehistoric tribes that worship and fight bears. He does seem to represent the future of mankind with his lack of bulging nose and eyebrows. He hooks up with a cave woman who has a bit of mud on her. They roam and fight others until he finds a second woman that ends up knocking up while his first woman is off in the woods. There’s more fighting between tribesmen and bears. The film seems written by someone who is going to let the cave people tell their story instead of Flintstoning it up.
Master of the World was created to catch a bit of Caveman fever that was hitting the box office with Quest For Fire being a massive worldwide hit. Ringo Star had a minor hit with the comedy Caveman. Clan of the Cave Bear was a massive novel that soon to be a major motion picture (came out in 1985). This was perfect opening for Italian producers looking to slide into this gap. Prehistoric films were budget savers since you needed to stick a few furs on the cast, shot the action in the woods and no need for dealing with an international cast blowing their accents.
The movie dips a little bit into one of the last major trends in Italian exploitation cinema: the Cannibal Film. After one big fight scene, cave people eat fresh brains out of the skull of an enemy. It’s a rather nasty effect that’s based on what historian believe cave people did. There are plenty of gross out effects to not sanitize the brutality of prehistoric living. The fights with the bears mix real bears wrestling with people and guys in bear suits taking the real blows so it’s not a sleazy as it could be. Most of the nature footage appears to have been taken from other documentaries. Even though this is a bit of an exploitation caveman film, everybody seems to keep their fur on. We do see birds mating. This is more about the violence than the carnality of the time. Even with the lack of true language, the movie is captivating. The fights seem to hint at the battles found in the post-apocalyptic movies that had come out of Rome after Mad Max. Except instead of the wasteland of civilization, they’re at the start of it all. Master of the World is a trip from back in history.
The video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The 1080p transfer was taken off the original 35mm camera negative so the image looks great during the bear fights. The audio is DTS-HD MA mono. There’s no real dialogue so you’re mostly hearing grunts cleanly. There’s still subtitles since there is an English narration at the start of the film and important grunts.
Quest For Survival (40:51) has Assistant Director Stefano Pomila talk about shooting the caveman epic. His father was a production manager and distributor in Italian cinema so he learned growing up. The clips from Yeti makes that a film that needs to be imported. He talks about the crisis in the Italian business that caused the money to dry up in the ’80s. The producers now wanted to do films that were hits on home video to reach the international market. Master of the World found funding because it was like Quest For Fire.
200,000 Years Ago (40:39) interviews Davide Pulici, who wrote a biography of wrier/director Alberto Cavallone. He gives the background of how an intellectual whiz got behind the camera. He started as a stage actor before working on documentaries. He goes through the feature film titles directed by Cavallone. A couple of the films are lost. As it got tougher to get funding for feature films, he found himself working in the adult film industry. Eventually he worked on a caveman project with Umberto Lenzi. This film is his script to be a touch more authentic with his primitive character.
Original Theatrical Trailer (3:34) promises a flaming prehistoric epic with plenty of German Shepherds, a bear fight and brains being eaten.
Vinegar Syndrome presents Master of The World. Directed by Alberto Cavallone. Screenplay by Alberto Cavallone. Starring: Sven Kruger, Sasha D’Arc, Viviana Maria Rispoli, Maria Vittoria Garlanda. Running Time: 105 minutes. Rated: Unrated. Release Date: February 22, 2022.
