Next on my viewing list is the exploitation classic from the 1970s, Goodbye Uncle Tom (Addio Zio Tom) from legendary filmhounds Gualtieri Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi. "Uncle Tom" is the finale of their Mondo Cane series of exploitation films, and it is one sick movie. I knew this was a good title when Pauline Kael of the New Yorker referred to them as, "the most reprehensible filmmakers ever."

Summary: Zio Tom is a shockumentary on the brutalities of the slave trade in the early 1800s. There is no disgusting tidbit unexploited here: slaves are beaten, raped and murdered at the drop of a hat. The opening sequence features a man onboard a slave ship who is unwilling to eat. The solution? His "masters" chisel a hole in his incisors and force a feeding tube into his throat. Later in the film, we witness a lovely dinner party, complete with dressed white women feeding table scraps to young African boys under the table. Would SAG ever allow that kind of casting??? Yeah, I didn't think so either.