Waste of time

Thanks for the memories!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I just watched Mandingo and can't for the life of me figure out why this film would get any critical reviews. You can't criticize the truth unless you yourself are part of the lie or involved in hiding the truth or you just want to ignore the truth and live in a fantasy world. Like those freaks that refuse to acknowledge the holocaust really happened or say it wasn't that horrible. This film hits you with the truth about 1840ish slavery with a vengeance, shocking, sickening, and uncomfortable as it should be. It doesn't sugar coat the South and especially the Deep South with shades of romantic Gone with the Wind feel sorry for us we lost our culture nonsense, but shows in detail all the dehumanizing, sickening, savage racist attitudes that existed in the south at that time. The buying and selling of human beings should be as sickening and repulsive as it gets and left to me this film would be mandatory viewing by all high school students in this country to help them understand the barbarism of slavery and how it's residue still affects and infects this country to this day. If you get a chance to rent or view this film a note of advice, be prepared for the truth!

With having heard a while ago about the obviously large impact that the 1966 Sergio Corbucci Spaghetti Western Django had had on Quentin Tarantino's very own Django Unchained,I was pleased to discover,that along with the Spaghetti Western,people were also mentioning online about two connected films that looked at slavery in America called Mandingo and Drum.The plot:Having recently made a good amount of cash from selling off some of his slaves with his dad,Hammond Maxwell decides to celebrate by going with a friend to buy a slave who he can use for sexual activates (who he calls a "wench").Being initially timed in front of his new slave, (Ellen) Hammond is shock to witness his friend abuse his new slave in an extremely aggressive manner,which leads Hammond to decide to treat Ellen in a much kinder manner.With still having a huge amount of cash left on him,Hammond goes out to an auction sight,where he instantly spots a slave (called Mede) who is in incredible shape.Finding that a German woman is desperate to win Mede for use in the bedroom,Maxwell uses every penny he has left,until he wins the auction,with Mede becoming his new slave.Thrilled with the investment that his son made in Mede,Warren Maxwell feels less than happy at how close his son is getting to Ellen,which leads to Warren quickly arranging a marriage for Hammond to socialite Blanche. As the wedding guests start to celebrate (and Hammond continues to think about Ellen),Mede gets into a fight with a fellow slave who he quickly destroys in a hard knuckle battle.Astonished by Mede's fighting skills,Hammond decides that instead of punishing Mede,he could actually make back all the money that was spent on buying him,by entering Mede into brutal,fight to the death,slave v slave "mandingo" fighting..View on the film:Opening with a scene where a potential buying is checking a slave for hemorrhoids,the refreshing adaptation of the "mandingo" novels by Kyle Onstott and a failed Broadway show by Jack Kirkland, (starring Dennis Hooper!) by Norman Wexler keeps the traditional south setting of movies which look at slavery in America,whilst rooting out all of the self- rigorous smugness usually connected with historical slavery movies,to instead create a film that is raw ruthless,and also a whole lot of fun!.Giving each of the characters cracking dialogue,Wexler hits every nerve of the viewer's expectations by making the dialogue blunt and raw,with the screenplay never treating the viewer in a condescending or preaching manner,but instead showing the audience nakedly the sheer harsh attitude that the Maxwell's have towards their slaves,which goes from hitting one of them on the bottom until it is bleeding,to pushing any of them to the ground,to keep them in their place.Whilst Wexler does suggest some southern charm romance developing between Warren Maxwell's (played by a deranged Foghorn Leghorn like James Mason) son Hammond (played by an excellent Perry King) and "wench" Ellen, (played by the wonderful Brenda Sykes) he smartly keeps away from dropping the movie into melodrama clichés,by making the romance one that thrillingly goes out of the frying pan and into the fire,due to Hammond never being able to get out of the mindset,that no matter how kind and courteous Ellen is,he will always see her as someone even lower than dirt.Tragicly having to cut his original 4 hour version down to 2 due to studio demands,director Richard Fleischer still makes this deep-fried southern tale a joy to watch.Showing the eye catching real locations with long walk & talk shots,Fleischer makes crimson a the main prominent colour in the film,from the tops that the characters wear to the colour of building in the background,which help to create an intense atmosphere that is only diluted in the moments of raw,bloody violence in the movie.With the marriage between Hammond and Blanche (played by a perfectly crumbling Susan George) being forced by Hammond's dad,Fleischer places (and shoots a number of scenes between them from) a mirror to show Hammond and Blanche real reflections,which each look to have come from a Horror movie, (with a scene between Blanche and Ellen being particularly tough) as Blanche starts to plan on how to use Mede (played with the right mix of stern and good innocence by Ken Norton) for her own deadly "Mandingo" game.

To be (a nasty, mean-spirited exploitation flick) or not to be (a nasty, mean-spirited exploitation flick): that is the question! "Mandingo" is pretty much a mystery of cinema on its own. Did the prominent Hollywood crew, with names like Richard Fleischer, Norman Wexler and Maurice Jarre, intend to produce a trashy & sleazy picture … or was it really their intention to bring a harsh yet realistic portrait of the slavery business in Southern America around the year 1840? Either way it was meant, "Mandingo" is a truly impressive and unforgettable film that totally represents the 70's decade! Wexler's screenplay – adapted from a novel by Kyle Onstott – is definitely not meant for squeamish or easily offended people, as it is an honest depiction of how awful and disrespectful the wealthy white "masters" treated their black servants AND considered their behavior to the most normal and common thing in the world. The movie revolves on the plantation-owning Maxwell family, Warren and his son Hammond, and their main occupation is the "breeding" of slaves. Hammond hits the jackpot when he buys a pure Mandingo on the market. This is a physically strong black male he uses for reproducing and trains to become a bare-knuckle fighting champion. Meanwhile, father Warren insists on having a son of his own with the distantly related Blanche, but Hammond is far more sexually aroused by his collection of black "wenches". "Mandingo" is a very powerful film, despite the large amount of exploitative sex and violence, and Richard Fleischer's like-it-or-not narrative style is ultimately confronting! Particularly the harrowing yet accurate little details will have a severe impact on you. For example, the sight of rich white bastards resting their legs on black children or the endless images of obedient slaves being exhibited on markets and getting inspected like ordinary farm animals. Much rather than a sick exploitation film, I think this is a truly insightful and fundamental portrait of one of mankind darkest history pages. Naturally, this film got boycotted due to its explicit content and I can easily understand why most film-committees chose to ignore a production that deals with topics like racism & sadistic rape, but it's a great film that needs to be seen by wider audiences. Just to prove that it's more intelligent than the majority of 70's exploitation films, there's the compelling sub plot of a courageous slave (Cicero) who tries to mobilize his companions in misfortune to revolt against their masters. Richard Fleischer, one of the most underrated filmmakers ever, assures a tight directing and most of the players deliver excellent performances, which isn't so obvious seeing the insane lines they sometimes had to say. The n-word dominates pretty much every dialog and everyone talks with a heavy Southern accent. Ken Norton (as the Mandingo) isn't much of an acting talent, but physically speaking he's definitely the right man for the job. What a handsome fella, he is! The music, cinematography and use of rural filming locations are all splendid as well. In conclusion, "Mandingo" is a fabulously curious 70's highlight and recommend to open-minded lovers of cinema.* Note: this comment got deleted once after a complaint raised by another user. Can somebody please tell me what's so offensive about this write-up??

I read "Mandingo" when it first was published. I am a Southerner: I must comment that slavery was almost as prevalent in the northern parts of the USA as it was in the southern parts. After all, "The Mason-Dixon Line" isn't exactly in what we Southernerns call "The Deep South". So, the thing to keep in mind is - if you're not really well-educated about slavery in this country - that some of the states thought-of as having no slavery is simply myth. Even in the northern cities, people owned slaves.Although some users say the book isn't nearly as sexually explicit as the movie is, I don't remember it that way, at all. In fact, the movie is truly "cleaned-up". In the book, the characters aren't much more than scoundrels; the movie attempts to show them as a rather untidy society. The novel makes it perfectly clear that the plantation is not much more than a shambles, purely for breeding; the characters are ALL over-sexed, even the old man ("Warren Maxwell"), James Mason's role.A male, "Mandingo"-slave was very desirable in many ways, especially for the huge bundle of "meat" usually found in their pants. If their is any doubt that white-folk are more common to "rape" and pillage upon black-folk, then just read-up on what's gone on in Africa, among its cultures, for centuries. Darfur ring a bell? News-reports about soldiers breaking women's legs so they can't run away from rape ? I am attempting to write a autobiography, and write at-length on this subject. Indeed, there were plantations such as "Falconhurst" (?), because humans are humans. HOWEVER, the majority of plantations with a large number of slaves knew their value - $10,000 per ? Indeed, there was always miscegenation on all plantations, because there is miscegenation in all of our cities: humans are humans. That director Richard Fleischer chose to direct a lurid film depicting a inflamatory situation is admirable, but certainly can't be taken as "truth" for all plantations ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.I agree with one user who wrote that Mason must have needed to pay the rent, when he chose this role. Same for almost everyone in the film. Jack Kirckland wrote filth, and that's what the movie needed to be. My opinion is that Perry King ("Hammond Maxwell") was very convincing in his role; as for his sexual-activity, he didn't know much better. All plantations had slaves with different "degrees" of blackness - after all, the "house-servants" were a more refined breed than those who worked the fields.True, it WAS illegal to educate Blacks. Can you really believe that all slave-owners stuck to that law ? Bull ! The scenes in "Mandingo" which were supposed to have taken place in New Orleans could have been much wider in description. "Octaroons" - a very low degree of blackness - were present in every prominent family in that city, simply because they WERE beautiful, and usually accepted by the general society. As deplorable as the sexual activity is in the film, it's practiced in every country in the world, because humans are humans.I don't know which version of the film I saw, but I thought it was too short.....not because I wanted to see more degradation: I wanted the characters to be fully developed. In the version I saw, I felt that whole scenes had been cut, and the whole story wasn't told.You can find as much "documentation" The Deep South was a very genteel part of our country, just as you can find some plantations were hell-holes. You can't judge one by the other. Anyone who denies this isn't being realistic - enjoy the movie and leave it at that. I felt the cinematography could have been better, but I don't have any idea what "generation" of tape I was watching. Perhaps DVD is much clearer.That's the way it is, Guys - truth is truth. Degradatiion IS a human-trait.........