The 10th Victim

The 10th Victim (Italian: La decima vittima) is a 1965 science fiction film directed and co-written by Elio Petri, starring Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress, Elsa Martinelli, and Salvo Randone. An international co-production between Italy and France, it is based on Robert Sheckley's 1953 short story "Seventh Victim".

The 10th Victim
Italian film poster
La Decima vittima
Directed byElio Petri
Screenplay by
Based on"Seventh Victim"
by Robert Sheckley[1]
Produced byCarlo Ponti[1]
Starring
CinematographyGianni Di Venanzo[1]
Edited byRuggero Mastroianni[1]
Music byPiero Piccioni[1]
Production
companies
  • C.C. Champion
  • Les Films Concordia[1]
Distributed byInterfilm[2]
Release date
December 3, 1965
Running time
92 minutes
Countries
  • Italy
  • France[1]
Languages
  • Italian
  • English[3]
Budget₤632 million[4]
Box office₤620 million[5]

Taking place in the year 2079 in the aftermath of World War III, the film's focus is on a government-endorsed program known as "The Big Hunt", whereby contestants from around the world act as "hunters" and "victims" in two-person battles to the death as a means of avoiding mass warfare. The plot follows veteran Big Hunt contestants Caroline Meredith (Andress) and Marcello Poletti (Mastroianni), who are respectively assigned the roles of hunter and victim for one such confrontation, which is complicated by their budding romance. Like Petri's other films, The 10th Victim is a work of socio-political satire, while also combining science fiction themes with conventions of the commedia all'italiana genre.[6]

An avid reader of science fiction, Petri began work on an adaptation of Sheckley's story in 1961; producer Carlo Ponti came onboard the project due to the involvement of Mastroianni. A variety of screenwriters worked on the script to varying degrees without receiving an onscreen credit, including Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Nate Monaster and Ernesto Gastaldi. Ponti's lack of interest in the science fiction genre led to his mandating of more comedic elements in the story against Petri's wishes, including altering its original, pessimistic ending. Backed by financial support from Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures, filming took place primarily on location in Rome and New York City from June to September 1964; produced at the height of the pop art movement in Italy, Petri sought to create a vision of the future that juxtaposes that style's imagery with Rome's ancient and modern architectural structures, such as the Colosseum and the EUR district.[6]

Upon release, The 10th Victim performed below Ponti's expectations in Italy and received mixed reviews from critics.[6] In the decades since its initial release, the film has garnered a cult following, and its imagery has been referenced or parodied in other films, notably the Austin Powers franchise; it is also considered to be a forerunner to works depicting televised fights to the death, such as The Hunger Games. A novelization of the film, written by Sheckley, was published in 1966,[7] this was followed by two sequels, Victim Prime and Hunter/Victim in 1987 and 1988, respectively.[8] Although several attempts to produce a remake of The 10th Victim have been announced, none have entered production.[9]

Plot

In the 21st century, World War III has recently ended. To prevent a fourth war, individuals with violent tendencies get a chance to kill in "The Big Hunt", the most popular form of entertainment in the world, which also attracts participants who are looking for fame and fortune. It includes ten rounds for each competitor, five as the hunters and five as the victims. The survivor of ten rounds becomes extremely wealthy and retires.

Caroline Meredith is a huntress who has just killed her ninth victim and is looking for a tenth. To maximize financial gain, Meredith wants to get a perfect kill in front of the cameras as she has negotiated a major sponsorship from the Ming Tea Company. Marcello Poletti is assigned as the victim; his winnings from six kills have already been spent by his mistress, Olga, and his ex-wife, Lidia.

Caroline goes to Rome and impersonates a reporter whose assignment is to study the sexual preoccupations of Italian men. She requests an interview with Marcello at the Temple of Venus. Suspicious, Marcello arranges for Caroline to be eaten by a crocodile before the cameras of a competing television company, but she escapes. Caroline lures Marcello to the beach and convinces him that she is in love with him. She drugs Marcello and hauls him back to the Temple of Venus.

Caroline shoots Marcello in front of the television cameras, but Marcello survives because he has loaded the gun with blanks. He then shoots her but she is saved by her bulletproof armor plate. Marcello and Caroline decide to escape from the Big Hunt and go on a plane, where they decide to get married. The movie ends with the pilot shooting flowers to the two.

Differences from the original story

The original short story was written from the point of view of a man hunting his seventh target, a woman, whereas in the movie she is the hunter. He finds her apparently defenceless sitting in a café. Talking to her, she tells him how she is new to the game but could not bear to kill her own target, and now expects to die. The hunter falls in love with his victim, as in the movie, and eventually reveals who he is. She has tricked him; she shoots him, joining the ranks of the "Tens".

The story was adapted for radio on X Minus One in 1957.[10]

Cast
Elsa Martinelli as Olga.

Source:[2]

Release

The 10th Victim was released in Italy on December 3, 1965.[11] The film grossed a little over 620 million lire in Italy upon its theatrical release.[5] The film was distributed abroad, including in the United States and Canada by Embassy Pictures in late December 1965.[5][12]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 80% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 7.35/10.[13] In contemporary reviews, the Monthly Film Bulletin praised the visuals of the film, but stated that "the film is never quite as much fun as it should be, possibly because of rather ponderous dubbing and possibly because imaginative camera angles cannot totally make up for lapses in narrative."[1] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times noted a "wildly imaginative plot" but declared the film overall to be "a clever but patently self-conscious exercise ... The cleverness is so insistent that it soon becomes excessive and absurd, and the gamesmanship of the satire becomes too cute, too much a bore."[14] Variety found the film superior to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville, praising both Mastroianni and Andress, as well as Elsa Martinelli and Massimo Serato.[15] The review also noted the cinematography of Gianni di Venanzo.[15] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote that the film is "not handled so crisply as the material promises", finding that director Elio Petri "did not find quite the exact, cohesive tone such material demands. The result is curiously pedestrian."[16] Algis Budrys of Galaxy Science Fiction described Sheckley's novelization as "a reasonably good chase novel" which would, nonetheless, disappoint readers, whether they wanted a literary version of the film's Italian satire and symbolism or the 'chilling futurama of legalized manslaughter' the cover promised.[17]

US film poster

The movie is an international cult classic whose wild action and sexy style has influenced a generation of movies, from Death Race 2000 (1975 film) to The Running Man and the Austin Powers series. It was also the first movie to feature the reality TV death game theme, which was later used in other works such as Battle Royale, Series 7: The Contenders, and The Hunger Games.[18]

In the early 1990s, comedian and actor Mike Myers, along with musicians Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet, started a faux British 1960s band whose members adopted personas from that era. The band named itself Ming Tea, after the company that sponsored Andress' character in the film.

See also

References

Footnotes
  1. P.J.S. (1968). "Decima vittima, La (The 10th Victim), Italy/France, 1965". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 35, no. 408. British Film Institute. p. 4. ISSN 0027-0407.
  2. "La decima vittima (1965)". Archivio del Cinema Italiano On-Line.
  3. "Cinema Club La Decima vittima". RAI. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
  4. Curti 2021, p. 84.
  5. Curti 2021, p. 99.
  6. Curti 2021, pp. 77–102.
  7. Di Filippo, Paul. "The 10th Victim". Science Fiction Weekly. Archived from the original on November 15, 2007. Retrieved January 6, 2007.
  8. Frelik, Paweł; Mead, David G. (2007). Playing the Universe: Games and Gaming in Science Fiction. Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-83-227-2656-3.
  9. Goodridge, Mike (May 13, 2004). "Morgan Creek tackles Tenth Victim". ScreenDaily. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  10. "ON RADIO". New York Times. March 6, 1957. ProQuest 114061707.
  11. Curti 2021, p. 98.
  12. Bosley Crowther. "Screen: Mastroianni vs. Miss Andress:Futuristic '10th Victim' Opens at 2 Theaters". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 30, 2014.
  13. "The 10th Victim (La Decima vittima) (The Tenth Victim)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  14. Crowther, Bosley (December 21, 1965). "Screen: Mastroianni vs. Miss Andress". The New York Times: 46.
  15. Willis 1985, pp. 194–195: "Review is of 92 minute version reviewed on December 15, 1965"
  16. Coe, Richard L. (December 22, 1965). "'Tenth Victim' At the Embassy". The Washington Post. p. B10.
  17. Budrys, Algis (June 1966). "Galaxy Bookshelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 141–152.
  18. Ricky (November 16, 2013). "Essential Viewing for Fans of 'The Hunger Games': Part One". PopOptic. Retrieved May 16, 2016.

Sources
  • Curti, Roberto (2021). Eltio Petri: Investigation of a Filmmaker. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476642833.
  • Willis, Donald, ed. (1985). Variety's Complete Science Fiction Reviews. Garland Publishing Inc. ISBN 978-0-8240-6263-7.

Further reading
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