The Naked Prey

In colonial era South Africa, a professional safari guide leads two white men and their troupe on an elephant hunt through the African veldt. When the group intrudes on a local tribe's territory, some natives accost them, expecting to be bought off with gifts. Although the guide advises his client to be courteous, warning "they could give us a bad time," the client refuses to offer anything and insults the natives, sending them away empty-handed. Later, the tribe returns en masse, captures the entire party, and puts the captives to death, using various cruel and unusual methods. One man is covered in clay and roasted alive on a spit; another is tarred, feathered, and trussed, then chased and killed by all the women. The man who insulted the tribesmen is trapped in a ring of fire with a venomous snake.

The guide is spared until the last. He is stripped naked and then an arrow is fired into the air. The guide is given a head start; he runs and once he passes the arrow, he is chased by one tribesman who must reach the arrow before the next tribesman can join in the hunt. His pursuer throws a spear at him and misses, which he uses to kill his pursuer and take his supplies. The guide then flees, and a multi-day chase ensues. One by one, the pursuers fall; either killed by the guide or the ravenous wildlife. He eventually finds food and water, though initially forced to eat a snake after several failed hunts. Eventually, he comes across a village and camps nearby, only to be awoken by the gunfire of slavers of African descent.

Amidst the chaos of the melee, he meets an African girl who is hiding from the slavers. With the slavers closing in on their location, he runs out for the sake of diversion. He eventually escapes at a river, but nearly drowns in the process. Luckily, the girl from earlier finds him on the river bank and revives him. She travels with him for the next few days, and as they walk along, he sings a nineteenth-century drinking song, "Little Brown Jug". The child sings a song in her own language. and they then attempt to sing each other's songs. They part ways near a village, and some time later the guide returns to a colonial fort just seconds ahead of his pursuers. As he reaches safety, the man turns and exchanges a salute with their leader.

• Cornel Wilde as Man: The unnamed protagonist of the film and the eponymous "naked prey". He is a professional safari guide who is left as the sole survivor of his group after all other members are murdered by tribesmen.
• Gert van den Bergh as 2nd Man: A member of the safari troupe. He is killed by the tribe.
• Ken Gampu as Leader of the Warriors: The leader of the tribe who is disrespected by the safari travellers.
• Bella Randels as Little Girl: A native girl who saves the safari guide from drowning and accompanies him on his passage.
• Patrick Mynhardt as Safari Overseer/Slave Dealer/Irish Soldier: Mynhardt plays three roles.
• Sandy Nkomo, Eric Mcanyana, John Marcus, Richard Mashiya, Franklyn Mdhluli, Fusi Zazayokwe, Joe Dlamini, Jose Sithole and Horace Gilman play warriors that pursue the guide.

The Naked Prey was filmed on location in Southern Africa.[lower-alpha 1][4][5][6] The film's screenplay was only nine pages long.[7][8] The film's opening titles were accompanied by paintings illustrated by local artist Andrew Motjuoadi.[8]

The minimal dialog, richly realized African settings, and emphasis on making "the chase (and violent combat along the way) a subject unto itself, rather than the climax to a conventional story"[9] distinguish Naked Prey as an innovative and influential adventure film.[10] However, although it is considered a small classic today,[11] it received mixed reviews at the time of its release. Robert Alden of The New York Times, reacting to the brutality of some of the early scenes, dismissed the film as "poor and tasteless motion-picture entertainment", but did acknowledge its "authentic African setting" and "effective use of tribal drums and native music."[12] Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times, taking a different tack, called The Naked Prey "pure fantasy" of the "great white hunter" variety, adding disdainfully: "Sure, it's nice to think you could outrun half a dozen hand-picked African warriors simply because you'd been to college and read Thoreau, but the truth is they'd nail you before you got across the river and into the trees."[13]

Other reviewers, however, were more enthusiastic. In Time, the film was described as "a classic, single-minded epic of survival with no time out for fainthearted blondes or false heroics" where "natives are not the usual faceless blacks but human beings whose capacity for violence the hero quickly matches."[14] Variety reviewer praised the documentary-style use of nature photography to show "the pattern of repose, pursuit, sudden death and then repose" that characterises the entire chase.[15]

Retrospectively, the film's reception has grown better. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 6.93/10.[16] Metacritic gave the film a 64 out of 100 rating indicating "generally favorable reviews, based on 12 reviews.[17] In July 2016, Matthew Thrift of the British Film Institute named the film among the ten greatest "chase films" and praised its "lush widescreen lensing" that "captures all the natural beauty and brutality of the African savannah".[7]

The Naked Prey was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection in January 2008.[19]

The soundtrack consists of African tribal chants, natural sounds, and occasional dialogue, in English and otherwise. There are no subtitles, and incidental music is mostly absent. It features Nguni tribal songs specifically recorded for the film. A vinyl LP The Naked Prey was released in 1966 on Folkways Records.[20] It was re-released as Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey in CD form on Latitude/Locust Music in 2004.[21][22]

• Dell Movie Classic: The Naked Prey (December 1966)[23]

As teenagers, Joel and Ethan Coen shot their own version of The Naked Prey on a Super 8 film camera. They called it Zeimers in Zambia and cast neighbor Mark Zimering in the lead role.[24]

Mel Gibson's film Apocalypto resembles The Naked Prey in its plot and in several similar scenes. The scenario of a man being pursued by a pack of warriors who set out, one by one, after he has reached the point where a loosed arrow fell was seen also in the 1957 film Run of the Arrow.[8]

Likewise, Robert Redford's 1972 movie Jeremiah Johnson has a similar plot line where Native American tribesmen give chase often, individually, to challenge Redford's character (Jeremiah Johnson) to duel to the death. Similarly, he signs off with the chief from a distance at the end of the movie. The character Jeremiah Johnson is loosely based on famous mountain man John Colter who reported an experience of being captured, then becoming naked human prey for Blackfeet Native Americans, in 1809.

The 1924 Richard Connell short story "The Most Dangerous Game" with the theme of humans hunting humans for sport, has run through film adaptations, as early as 1932.

The progressive rock group Coheed and Cambria was originally named Shabütie after the African chant from the film. Shabütie translates to "Naked Prey".

In the first scene of the Mad Men season 5 episode, "Far Away Places," Abe coaxes a distracted and reluctant Peggy to go see the film with him. His pitch: "You're resisting a chance to see Cornel Wilde naked? I heard he wrestles a boa constrictor. Sounds pretty dirty."

The 266th episode of Cheers is titled "Bar Wars VII: The Naked Prey."

In the movie Where's Poppa?, the main character's brother (played by Ron Leibman) is regularly mugged while taking a shortcut through Central Park. In one mugging, the group of muggers refer to The Naked Prey as they strip him and then chase him. Garrett Morris plays one of the muggers.

• Survival film, about the film genre, with a list of related films

• The Naked Prey on IMDb
• The Naked Prey at AllMovie
• The Naked Prey at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Naked Prey: Into the Wild an essay by Michael Atkinson at the Criterion Collection