MovieChat Forums > Savages (1974) Discussion > Another Great Movie of the Week!

Another Great Movie of the Week!

posted 18 years ago by ijonesiii
8 replies | jump to latest

Andy Griffith shattered his good ole boy image forever with his chilling performance in this ABC movie of the week playing a hunter who decides to actual hunt down his young guide, played by Sam Bottoms. Griffith's performance here is quite effective, playing against type as he never had up to this point and Bottoms matches him as his unwilling prey in this unflinching game of cat and mouse that kept me riveted to my seat for 90 minutes. If you can find this one, definitely worth catching.

[–] capablecarl 17 years ago

I remember this movie when it came out on ABC. I was watching this thing just terrified as a 10 year old. I caught "Duel" on cable the other day and it jogged my memory about those stand out "Movies of the Week" and I immediately recalled this movie.

I for the life of me thought Dennis Weaver played the role of the Hunter but I'll be danged, it was Andy Griffith. I looked at Weaver's filmography knowing that the title contained the word savages, but couldn't locate it. A little more searching and cross referencing and...there ya go.

Some of these TV movies were the best ever. Maybe because I was a kid and got caught up in the drama I don't know, but I'd love to see some of these again, starting with "Savages".

For the record, I always thought Weaver was one hell of an actor and he starred in a lot of these...

[–] lav_34 17 years ago

I am trying to find this movie to rent and none of the major video places seems to have it! HELP!! I am a teacher and we are reading the book Deathwatch in class, and I would like to show the movie!

[–] skasporty60 16 years ago

i'd last seen this on U.K TV when i was 13 - even wrote about the whole plot of the movie for my English Essay-writing assignment whilst at school....looking forward in seeing this again...somewhere!

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Isaac5855 16 years ago

I wish I could help you, but it's very difficult to find these Movies of the Week that ABC made between '70 and '74...it's a shame because they came up with a few gems along the way and this was one of them.

[–] ClassiqFanatiq 11 years ago

You can watch it on Youtube along with a bunch of other made for TV movies...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1d5BI_mDA&list=PL9F16134937749910

[–] hackraytex 9 years ago

Andy Griffith definitely reinvented himself with this one and a few others from that time. I think he was in another where he and three other guys went motorcycling in the desert and they worked for him. He turned it into a survivor of the fittest test to decide who would get a promotion in his company only no one bothered to tell the others. I think it had William Shatner, Robert Reed, and Angie Dickenson in it. I am a bit sketchy on the details but think this is how it went. As mentioned, Murder in Coweta County was good and also he played a US President in a miniseries who was said to be patterned after LBJ about the Watergate affair in novel form with Cliff Robertson.

[–] ObscureAuteur 8 years ago

"playing against type as he never had up to this point"

You desperately need to see Griffith's FIRST movie, A Face in the Crowd(1957). It is an A-picture with a script by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan (the same writer and director as On The Waterfront in 1954) that came out three years before The Andy Griffith Show.

Savages and Pray for the Wildcats both in 1974 mark a return to serious acting outside the rural stereotypes Griffith had played so successfully. (And I am sure a very deliberate attempt to destroy the Mayberry stereotype before it destroyed Griffith's career.) I also recommend you find the DVD (in is at Netflix) of Six Characters in Search of an Author (1976) for more work a great distance from Mayberry.

CB

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