Mandingo - O Fruto da Vingança

Quentin Tarantino has called Mandingo one of the few big budget exploitation films Hollywood has ever produced, and you can definitely see a lot of this film in his Django Unchained. I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling this an exploitation film, but it's certainly startling at times and deals with the subject of slavery without backtalk or ambiguity.

The movie takes place in Deep South prior to the American Civil War. Slavery is at its highest bloom and it's just as bad as you've probably heard. First night rights are freely exercised, slaves are just one step above animals, sold like cattle and while they're not beaten daily – they still need to work, and it's not like you beat your cows daily, either – it doesn't take much for them to incur the wrath of their masters.

The movie is also notable in that it uses the term 'mandingo' somewhat correctly. The term referred to any slave of the highest quality and not just to those who fought against one another. Though even that fighting might be a myth. The movie tells the tale of one particular manor, its owners and the pair of mandingo slave that were brought there, one of them to be trained as a fighter.

It's a tough movie to sit through if you're squeamish and while it's not overly gluttonous in its depictions of violence, like Django Unchained is, it doesn't shy away from them either or pull its punches. A very good movie to check out if you liked Django and/or are looking for a darker historical piece.

This movie is a disturbing look at the realities of the antebellum South. And yes, I do believe the depictions and events in this movie are realistic. Such atrocities are well-documented. Both the movie and the book contain graphic violence, sex, and rape. The movie is sometimes difficult to watch, but it's worth watching, for anyone who ponders the evils of humanity and especially the history of the U.S. during the 1800's. The acting and film quality aren't upper echelon. The dialogue is sometimes excessively histrionic. But that's not what's so good about this movie. It's gritty, realistic, and brutally honest.

As I watched, I realized that maybe things haven't changed so much since those times. Racism and sexism are still very much alive. You can easily compare the attitudes and behaviors depicted in this film with things that go on in our society today. Some people have commented that Blanche was "oversexed". I find that a rather hilarious statement. They obviously don't get the feminist subplot of this movie. The way it depicts and breaks down racism and sexism and shows exactly why they're faulted ideologies is why I love this movie so much!

I just saw this film on the big screen (the only surviving 35mm print in the world). I had never seen it on video, so seeing it in a crowded theater was my first experience with the film. As a bonus, the director, Richard Fleischer, the star, Perry King, and Brenda Sykes, who plays King's slave "wench" in the film, spoke before the screening.

The audience alternated between gasping and roaring with immediately regretted laughter throughout the screening. Nobody laughed for a moment at Susan George's supposedly over-the-top performance. And at the climax -- there were astounded gasps all over the theater. Afterwards, once the applause had died down, the audience filed out, stunned. Everyone looked shell-shocked. I wandered around for a while listening to people murmuring: "I told you guys..." "Best I've seen..." "Totally uncompromising..." "That's how it was..." "Didn't pull any punches..." "Amazing..." "Where did you hear about it?..."

We had one big advantage over most people who see the film. Most viewers go rent the tape because they read about it in, say, Edward Margulies' and Stephen Rebello's BAD MOVIES WE LOVE (which is how I knew about it). MANDINGO has a huge reputation as a camp classic, so people seek out the video where it can be found. Then they take it home and watch it alone, or with a friend or two, pre-primed to laugh.

The audience I was sitting with at the American Cinematheque theater had, first of all, read the sober, favorable description in the Cinematheque schedule. Then we'd listened to Fleischer himself talk about how he had refused ten times when Dino de Laurentiis had asked him to film the novel, only to finally accept when he realized how he could do it: "By being totally honest and straight with it." And he was, if you view it without a laugh ready. King and Sykes also spoke calmly and soberly about how hard the shoot was, and how the cast considered it an important film but still had trouble handling the emotions it stirred up.

Fleischer is hardly a symbolic director, although there's a lot of "found" symbolism in 10 RILLINGTON PLACE, for example. But MANDINGO was an obvious statement of the inhumanity of slave-OWNing, and it constantly used the setting and characters to emphasize the moral and physical disintegration of the Deep South under the self-imposed yoke of the slave culture. That sounds pretentious, but in MANDINGO it's totally straightforward. Moral disintegration leads to moral disintegration. The crime is its own punishment. MANDINGO is an antimatter GONE WITH THE WIND.

MANDINGO, as Fleischer pointed out, was a huge hit on its initial release. It was also viciously attacked by all but two critics in the United States. (Fleischer admitted that he saved all his reviews, and pointed out mildly that those two reviewers -- who were the only critics to go into the film in depth -- pronounced the film a masterpiece. "I don't know if it's that," he said, "but those two were certainly a breath of fresh air.")

Because of all the controversy, the film was never rereleased. Nobody at the screening could think of a single time it had been screened between 1975 and August 28, 1999. Perhaps it was screened once or twice, but my point is that essentially no one since 1975 has seen this film with an audience, to feel the reactions of those around the room, to see it on the big screen.

I think it's really unfortunate that MANDINGO has gotten locked into this "camp" label. The film contains so much depravity that I can certainly see why it was selected as a "camp classic". But that wasn't the intent at all. I've heard this film compared to SHOWGIRLS. But SHOWGIRLS was directed by the bizarre Paul Verhoeven (ROBOCOP, TOTAL RECALL, BASIC INSTINCT). Of course he was going for camp; he always does camp. But Richard Fleischer? He did 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, MR. MAJESTYK, 10 RILLINGTON PLACE (a real gem), THE BOSTON STRANGLER, FANTASTIC VOYAGE, SOYLENT GREEN. He is one of the most mild-mannered directors alive. He's done bad stuff -- CONAN THE DESTROYER and RED SONJA come to mind -- but in the seventies he was doing his best work. And that would have to include MANDINGO -- to my complete amazement.

I can't believe how different my experience with this film was from its usual "cult" interpretation. Now I wonder if Otto Preminger's HURRY SUNDOWN is as bad as the Medveds said it was in 50 WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME. I'll have to try to see it for myself.

This unflinching, hard-hitting look at slavery is a severely underrated and misjudged film. That's probably because it sheds light onto a tough, painful subject that many people would prefer to ignore or forget; if you're expecting a "slaves-and-masters-are-all-a-big-happy-family" depiction of the life in the mid-19th-century Southern plantations, then this simply isn't your movie.

"Mandingo" was followed, one year later, by "Drum". They are both far better films than their reputations might make you believe, and they are also handsome, almost sumptuous productions with a far lower "sleaze" quotient than many reviews seem to indicate. They are both worth seeing - preferably as a double bill. (***)

1975's "Mandingo" earned much scorn from such highbrow critics as Roger Ebert, such was its unflinching look at slave relations in the Antebellum South, including numerous interracial couplings featuring full frontal nudity. The series of Falconhurst novels began with Kyle Onstott's original 1958 publication of "Mandingo," named for a specific type of fighter from the West African Niger region, also known for its later use by Alex Haley in his largely fictional yet compelling family history "Roots," the miniseries still two years away from its debut broadcast. Producer Dino De Laurentiis spent a number of years trying to finalize a deal, and with the relaxation of the old ratings system could never have filmed such a sordid tale until the 70s, a decade of untold exploitation where 'anything goes,' and often did. Director Richard Fleischer initially turned the assignment down but finally relented, James Mason earning top billing as plantation owner Warren Maxwell, in a role rejected by James Cagney and Charlton Heston, Perry King as son Hammond in place of Jan-Michael Vincent, Jeff Bridges, Beau Bridges, and Timothy Bottoms. Hammond is mostly portrayed as a sympathetic figure toward his slaves, often at odds with his harder edged father, his subsequent marriage to cousin Blanche (Susan George) soured on their wedding night by her less than virginal countenance under the sheets (as was so often the case, the girl was deflowered by her own brother). Hammond's purchase of new 'bed wench' Ellen (Brenda Sykes) does not go unnoticed by an increasingly irrational Blanche, eventually taking revenge on her faithless spouse by summoning Mandingo fighter Mede (Ken Norton) to her bed, producing a non white child that is quietly allowed to bleed to death, poor Blanche poisoned and defenseless Mede shot, scalded, and butchered by pitchfork. Critics were appalled by the brutality of Norton's no holds barred fight scenes, and the nihilistic climax left audiences appropriately stunned, a game cast putting forth a great effort to bring such unhappiness to vivid life. Interiors are effectively dark and gloomy, furniture sparse and guests rarely in evidence, slaves variously bought and sold to keep the rundown plantation afloat (location shooting in Louisiana). Susan George gives an uncanny rendition of Bette Davis in a part that few actresses would brave, and even at the end still earns sympathy making tearful entreaties to her unfeeling husband. James Mason and Perry King also acquit themselves well, as does Richard Ward as the intelligent Agamemnon punished for being able to read, and Ji-Tu Cumbuka, later Kunta Kinte's Wrestler on ROOTS, making the strongest impression as a runaway slave who prefers death to a life enchained. Personal preference impacts how one sees this picture, slowly gaining increased stature over the years, and certainly better than its immediate sequel "Drum," Ken Norton returning as a new character.