Reaction to the film was polarized. In Italy, it won the 1966 David di Donatello award for producer Angelo Rizzoli. Some conservative publications, such as Italy's "Il Tempo", praised the film. Many commentators, however, accused it of racism and misrepresentation. Film directors Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas harshly criticized the film in their manifesto "Toward a Third Cinema", calling Jacopetti a fascist, and asserting that in the film, man is "viewed as a beast," and is "turned into an extra who dies so Jacopetti can comfortably film his execution." Film critic Roger Ebert, in a scathing 1967 review of the shortened American version of the film, called it "racist" and stated that it "slanders a continent." He drew attention to the opening narration: