Who are the Real Savages?

 

I do remember this was rephrased in Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (1980) as a professor wondering who the real cannibals were, emphasizing that the missing doc crew who went off into the jungle turned out to be far worse than any of those people they were supposedly more civilized than. In Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (1957), Cushing's Dr. Rollason proposes that perhaps the Yeti showman/explorer, Friend (Forrest Tucker) so desperately wants to catch and exploit for profit could very well be far more civilized than man. I think Rollason's on to something there. If anything seems to be proven from the last few years is that man can be quite savage...I'm just waiting for the savagery to explode in a widespread violence. 

I'm now a nihilist, not an optimist. I have seen the last few years that behind our keyboards the savage beast that still seems to keep somewhat at bay surfaces online...and as violence becomes more and more tolerable, and all this hate and anger among the populace builds and builds, it isn't too extreme to see a future that is most bleak and grim. I wait for it, actually. I won't surprise me when wars just break out and the savage beast goes about to play.

Anyway, in Snowman, Dr. Rollason doesn't realize until on the expedition that Friend's intentions are to hunt down the creature and take it back with him to market as a public curiosity. For Dr. Rollason, that is repulsive because his field is herbs, flowers, and medicinal plants in the region. He studies and researches, has a mind of interest in what can benefit humankind, not mock it, hurt it, or exploit it for gain. So it is no surprise who survives by the end of the film. The scene where Friend's trapper, Ed Shelley (Robert Brown), is scared to death, having a heart attack because his gun had dummy shells in in it because Friend didn't want one of the Yeti harmed, that said a lot about how far he would go...Rollason is spared because he meant the Yeti no harm. And because of that he could return to where he belonged, leaving them to live in peace. The Buddhist monks in their village knew to be of no problem towards the Yeti, to live in peace is the key to co-existing together. To be different from each other and leave each other be, co-existence seems quite possible. That isn't the norm today, but they were the outlier, remaining separate but respectful to each other. The Yeti didn't invite trouble in their midst...but saw just what intruders brought with them for the most part. Thankfully Dr. Rollason had different intentions than Friend.