I still don’t know what the Hell I watched.
What I can say is it is very striking visually. Throughout its short running time--it’s a little bit over an hour--it looks like it was done in watercolors or soft pencils. There are some strange moments where director Renee LaLoux stops the narrative (for what it is) to dwell on some bizarre bit of wildlife on the planet ‘Ygam’ going about their business. It’s obvious he’s interested as much about the environment he’s creating than the story he wants to tell....and I’d be good with that if I understood what was going on.
I shudder to think of how the American public reacted to this back in 1973...probably better than I imagine, given that Ralph Bashki had already released Fritz The Cat . But the trailer makes no hint of how adult this tale is, and I envision parents reacting in horror to the brutality and nudity on display and the frankness of the story amidst all the ‘battle animals’ and blue aliens playing with guys dressed as...well, chickens is my guess.
The plot evokes a number of things--Jonathan Swift, the French Occupation during WWII, the Holocaust, the history of slavery, even the Exodus. The narrator is Terr, an ‘Om’ who was apparently hijacked, along with loads of others to become pets, from Earth by the Draags, blue humanoids with red eyes and fins for ears who spend most of their time in ‘meditation’ for unknown reasons. We watch as Terr grows up as a pampered--and tortured--pet, learns about Draagian culture and science through the lessons of his owner, escapes to join up with a tribe of ‘wild’ (i.e. unowned) Oms, evades the Draags attempt to ‘De-Om’ their living spaces, and escapes to the so-called ‘Savage Planet’ that serves as Ygam’s moon to discover their oppressors’ secret. It takes a while to go through all this, so much so that the wrap-up seems abrupt and, well (especially in light of current events) kind of naive.
While I wasn’t engaged by the story very much, it’s made up for by the strange and wild visuals of this movie. Say what you will about the simile LaLoux is making about human interactions, Ygam always feels like an alien place...and there are some set pieces, like our observation of the wild Om colony’s religious ceremony or the bizarre moment where the Draags are using their imagination to physically change their forms, that are unique to this film. While I do think that this is a case where LaLoux’s story is muddled to the point of opaqueness by this weirdness, I think it’s also a case that that weirdness is strong enough in and of itself that I...
Well, I’m going to recommend this. It’s a singular experience, and it’s something you might enjoy.
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