Mandingo
by Richard Fleischer
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brenda Sykes, James Mason, Perry King, Richard Ward, Susan GeorgeDirector: Richard Fleischer
Brand: LEG
Cinematographer: Richard H. Kline
Composer: Maurice Jarre
Editor: Frank Bracht
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 127 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-06-03
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: LF00200
Studio: Legend Films
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Color; DVD; NTSC; Widescreen
Movie Reviews of Mandingo
Movie Review: Harsh Realities, Warped Logic, Sexual Subjugation & Chicainery In The 1830's Deep South!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is still controversial and shocking some 34 yrs after it's first debut in theatres!
I remember hearing my parents discuss this film in shocked disbelief after they'd gone
to see it back in 1975!---And the first season of SNL did a hilarious sketch parody of it
which is still among their more legendary and cutting edge sketches of all time! (-:
The subject of slavery itself is unbelievable enough, and that white people of means
in the antebellum south deemed/justified it as god's natural order for over 300 yrs
is mind-boggling, but yes, it exsisted, and untold atrocities rivaling or perhaps even
eclipsing those of WW2 Nazi Germany abounded during this time! (It was just never chronicled!)
This film was the first to address it from the sexual dynamics;
The handsome, lustful and virile slavemaster's son, played wonderfully
by the absolutely gorgeous (when he was young!) Perry King, who is so spoiled
on having his pleasure with the most desirable of the black female slaves that
he & his father owns, that he doesn't desire nor know how to even relate to a white woman,
who the antebellum man placed on such a high & patronizing moral pedestal that the idea of
her being a sexual being was considered almost a sacrilage!
So it was deemed as a rite of passage for white fathers and sons of that time
to explore all of their most depraved, animalistic, strident and hedonistic flights
of the white male sexual imagination with their black slave women on a regular basis!
This was expected, accepted and not frowned upon by "polite" white society
(male or female) of that time, so they indulged themselves freely while keeping up appearances
and having their white wives and children, cultivating wealth, and maintaining the warped social
order of the pre-civil war south.
Perry King's character, Hammond, has a special predilection for the virgin
slave women who had yet to feel the passion of another man's embrace,
so that he could properly "break them in" to his liking!
There is an almost ritualistic approach to this practice and he has a sense of
entitlement about it, while of course, the black slave women have no say in the matter.
He is a very contridictory character...one who embodies the times he lives in perfectly.
He has unusual compassion and tolerance for his slaves, yet exacts brutal reprimand on them
when they fall outside of lines of the strict white supremist master/slave social order!
He beds black women every night, yet refrains from kissing, caressing, showing real affection
for them, only "utilizing them" for his pleasure...because to show affection with them in bed
is to consider their humanity, and that would fly in the face of all of the warped double
standard-laden idiotic backwards logic of his times! He makes ONE exception though, later in the film.
There is so much contridiction, chicainery (an old word from that time, that meant
trickery, double-dealing, etc.), racial taboos, sexuality, brutality, etc., in this
very unique film, that it amazes me that it got past the censors of that time!
Even though it was the mid 70's & in the middle of the sexual revolution, this was rad stuff!
Without going scene by scene and giving away the movie for people who have yet to see it,
it just suffices to say that this is not the typical slavery era drama in the tradition
of ROOTS, QUEEN, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN, etc.!!--This goes much deeper
and shows a much more realistic & seedier side of slavery and the antebellum
southern social morays that many may find offensive to their modern PC sensibilities!
But this film was very well done for it's time, had a great cast of credible actors,
the production and direction of Dino De Laurentis and others, as well as being well written.
There is much more going on here than a white slave owner who buys a prized
mandingo fighting stud (played by pro boxer Ken Norton) to breed with his best
female slaves like cattle, to produce a stable of super-stud fighting slaves which
he plans to sell and exploit like fighting chickens...there are the dynamics of interracial
love & sex, the explosion of the myth of the prystine lilly white princess (played by Susan George)
with no sense of her own sexuality, incest issues, and horrible racial folkloric beliefs
that have to be seen to believed!--The father of Perry King's character is played by veteran actor,
the late James Mason, who is a downright despicable racist who does/ says some terrible things
in this film, but like I said before, that's how it was then and what alot of whites believed!
You can't look at it through 2009 sensibilities, you have to go back there to the 1830's.
I first saw this movie for myself on cable late one night when I was in my teens,
then I never saw or heard of it again until it was released to DVD in 2008.
This is still an amazing piece of film history that packs a punch and pushes
buttons of racial/sexual/social dynamics which are still struggled with today!
Everybody who I have shown this movie to has been moved in every kind of way,
on every level you can imagine!-- Check it out for sure!
Summary of Mandingo
Synopsis:Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: R
Street Date: 06/03/08
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.
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