Mandingo
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Movie Reviews of Mandingo
Movie Review: Educational Excellence
Summary: 5 Stars
Good News/Bad News. The good news is this movie is so far removed from present life for people of both colors that it's character is not a necessary teaching tool today. The bad news is that this movie is so far removed from present life for people of both colors that it's character and subject matter are not taught,learned or sought after today. This was an excellent period piece movie that could not even be made today because of political correctness. Instead of using the "N-word", can you imagine James Mason's character at the end calling the slave with the gun a stupid "African American?" This movie has character, depth, realism, while entertaining as much as any other major movie. I just saw this movie for the first time this year, 2009. All of the actors and actresses captured the fear, hatred, resentment, lust and ignorance as much as slavery could be captured on film. Ken Norton was excellent as Mede, not just another athlete ,with no acting skills(Hulk Hogan) thrown into a movie. He did a good job. Susan George evoked all kinds of emotions from every end of the spectrum, from the neglected wife, to slave abuser and baby killer to seducer of Mede to spoiled daughter, to victim of a racist husband , shamed by the fact that the first child of his wife is by a big, black, slave. Perry King did an excellent job and the son of rich plantation owner, played by James Mason's character. Just when the subject matter became secondary, and one might start to like King's character, since he is the most likable of the racist , violent slave owners in the movie, we are educated once again by the nature of slavery and the viciousness that defined the era.
For all who have an uneducated automatic reaction based solely on the word "slavery", I would recommend this movie. Or , if one just want to be entertained and educated by a movie unafraid to tell the truth,using graphic language, torture and sexual cohersion and violence of the day, this is the period piece movie for you. My only complaint is the ending. I wanted more, but I was left satisified. You will be too.
Movie Review: Hot Southern Sleaze...But Riveting!
Summary: 5 Stars
Part Harold Robbins and part Euripedes, this film has brutal depictions of slavery, abhorrent language, and extraordinary cinematography by Richard Kline. The imagery of Falconhurst, the huge but decrepit plantation of a cruel and vicious man (James Mason in a strange and brilliant performance) is fantastic; with peeling paint and filthy mosquito nets, winding staircases of gleaming wood, dark steamy rooms, and lush exteriors with drooping wisteria. The score by Maurice Jarre also adds much to the atmosphere, with Muddy Waters singing "Born in This Time".
Perry King is excellent as Mason's son, broken in body, weak in spirit, knowing what is right and often doing what is wrong; as his wife, Susan George is appropriately annoying and trashy, and as his "wench", Brenda Sykes is lovely. Heavyweight boxer Ken Norton, who won over Mohammed Ali (and broke his jaw) in 1973, made his impressive screen debut as Mede the Mandingo.
This film is a mass of contradictions, which is probably what keeps one glued to the screen, and makes it memorable years after seeing it. It is manipulative yet unpredictable, gratuitous and raw but thought-provoking; some of it might be absurd, but many of the situations shown did happen.
With all the brutality, nudity, incest, and most of all, the repellent language, this is not a film for the young, or anyone squeamish about violence.
Movie Review: Traumatizing Saga of Antebellum Dehumanization
Summary: 5 Stars
Yeah sure there's exploitative elements here but don't go in expecting mindless trash. More than any other film I've seen it kicks you in the stomach with clear-eyed depictions of how the slavery system demeans and destroys everyone--white or black--who participates. An air of suffocating doom hangs over everything and if you've got sleazy penchants for "rough" play you may come away from this ashen and ashamed, realizing the horrific underlying roots of our current penchant for mixing sex and violence. Well-acted and intelligent, and Susan George is amazing in an unappreciated role. She's supposed to seem shrill and unbearable as a Southern gentlewoman, it's a role her character is clearly not comfortable with and she plays it with a bug-eyed sense of fear, as if desperately trying to pass for genteel in a family that only values surface and is stuck in a mire of double standards and evil. I was devastated for three weeks after watching it. You can understand critics at the time trying to weasel out of the moral obligation the film imposes by branding it sleazy trash. To take it as the serious work of art it really is might destroy you, and will certainly make you think of this country in a different way.Movie Review: A Fetish film - Black sexual prowess - White degrneracy.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing film - How on earth did they dare? The myth of black sexual superority is exploited by Ken Norton's extrordinary body - He's simply a black "thing" to be lusted after by degenerate crackers. And a beautiful thing it is too. Norton is beautiful naked - No actor, but the demands are not great on him, just keep your shirt off and strut that stuff. This is GONE WITH THE WIND gone to hell. It's highly watchable and has a following for outrageous bad movies that you can't believe they made, and you can't take your eyes off of. A "so bad it's good" guilty pleasure. And what is the great James Mason doing in such a sleezy black sexploitation film? The lines he has! This is not a low budget film either, just morally low, appealling to our lowest senses. It must have made a profit though, for DRUM (a sequal of sorts) is even worse. This time around poor Norton is lusted after by a gay meany who can't keep his hands off of Norton's greased "bod-ee"!
The DVD quality is good (the film itself was muddy - looking sleezy & cheap to begin with). There are no extras.
Movie Review: Not just a taboo...
Summary: 5 Stars
The film is not as "shocking" as it probably was back in the 70s but it is a rather interesting look at the Old South and sexual mores. It is perfectly acceptable for the white male to engage in sexual affairs with black women (just so long as there is no kissing on the lips) while the idea of the white female making love to a black male is punishable by an excrutiatingly painful death (boiling). In reagrds to exploitation, I think the only part of this film that really shocked me was the medical idea that arthritis could be passed into a small black child by pressing your feet against his belly at night. Really twisted logic there and it was a bit bizarre to see the child forced to do this act with a smile on his face.