HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo - Page 2

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

I think this is incredibly awful but there are a lot of black people who see this as one of the greatest movies ever made. I was dating a woman and she said this was her favorite film, which is the reason I originally watched it a few years ago. We had a strong disagreement over it but what one films campy someone else might view as something heartfelt and serious.

I personally understand why some might really love this film. One has to remember that this film had protesters even before it was made and controversy followed all through the production. This just throws fuel on the fire and often times critic attack the film fearing attacks will come back to them if they praise a film that is being attacked by certain groups. WHITE DOG is another controversial film that was attacked before it was released and it eventually never got released here.

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

The behavior of the slave owners is so outrageous many people have a hard time believing that any of it is true. It's much easier to laugh at the film and say, "aw, they're making that up!" But the film makers aren't making it up, and neither did Kyle Onstott. These things really happened. That's the whole point. The film is completely sincere, but I completely understand the audience's reaction.

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

I'm black, and there's nothing you can take seriously about this campfest- if Ed Wood had directed GWTW, this may have been the result!

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

I'll never forget watching this movie with my dad when it first came out on HBO, nor will I forget the embarrassment I had when I saw the two different sized feet during one of the sex scenes. Throughout the years I never forgot that movie and was so thrilled when I found it on VHS some years back. I was so disappointed when I watched it that time. I agree with Matt H., the quality of the film was horrible, as well as the actor's southern accents. I doubt I try to find the DVD.

Matt, thanks for another great review.

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

Anyone remember the take off on MANDINGO on SNL? I believe it was the episode hosted by OJ Simposn?

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

walter o wrote (post #35):


MattH. (post #36):


As I remember it, the "final clinch", as you put it, was (to take place) between Bill Murray (as the young slavemaster) and a cow (or was it a horse?)! Then the camera cut away once again to the model plantation house burning down, as it had between each hilarious prior pairing (the Laraine Newman/Bill Murray pairing; the Laraine Newman/O.J. pairing; the Bill Murray/Garrett Morris (as slave girl) pairing; the Laraine Newman/Garrett Morris (as slave girl) pairing; and the Bill Murray/O.J. pairing) (coda: "Gimme som' o' yo' hot luvin', Mandingo!").

Too bad that skit wasn't included on the present DVD. It should be on the upcoming 3rd-season DVD set, though.

I've read (and have somewhere in storage) two of the Onstott novels. I believe the movie is pretty faithful to the first of these. (I've never seen Drum.)

But, truth to tell, I have a pretty hard time believing in the "historical authenticity" of all that sex stuff in any of those novels or the movie(s). In particular, there's a significant homoërotic element to the novels that barely seeps through to the film Mandingo (in the character of the "inspective" slave trader Brownlee (played by Paul Benedict of The Jeffersons-fame)) that I find hard to believe is anywhere near as explicit in any preserved slave narrative (although I admit to the possibility).

Not to deny that such things as are depicted there didn't ever happen, but, if you believe in the "historical authenticity" of any Hollywood production, I think you are seriously naïve.

Those novels are potboilers, pure and simple, and so is this film, as horribly fascinating as parts of it may be.

P.S.: The Southern accents (especially from the Brits) are terrible! Pure Hollywood hokum.

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

Who's being naïve? You obviously have a lot to learn about history. Why is it so hard to believe that a professional writer like Onstott does his research so that his fictitious novel is underpinned with a factual basis? Writers do that all that time. As outrageous as the film version seems, it is fairly mild compared to the historical reality, but it is not wrong. As for authenticity in Hollywood films in general, their track record is not good, to say the least, although there have been many admirable attempts at authenticity. I will name three: Glory, Gettysburg, and Gods and Generals. The authenticity factor in these films is more sophisticated than the average film buff realizes.

Getting back to MANDINGO, it is historically well-informed and there is a factual basis for every outrage committed on screen. I just find it ironic that the very thing the film does right comes across as unintentionally funny.

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

Richard--W wrote (#38):


You are---or anyone else for that matter---, if you swallow whole-hog ANYTHING any Hollywood production presents as "true history".


I didn't say it was "wrong". I said it was to be doubted, like the sensationalistic events presented in any other potboiler. I hold to that.


Oh, I don't at all doubt the brutality parts---there's plenty of independent historical evidence for that---, and I agree with you that, if anything, the violence is almost surely underplayed here (at times). However, it's the kinky sex stuff---and the novels are full of it---that raises the eyebrow.


Show me the verifiable historical sources for the rampant kinky sex in both book and film and I'll have no problem believing it. Otherwise, as you say (and I said) rightly


and, therefore, one has every right to be (and remain) plenty skeptical. And I will, till I see that evidence for myself.

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

As a rule this is good policy, but some historical films need to be taken on an individual basis. MANDINGO operates on a level of historical intelligence that very few films possess, and I speak of what I know, or I wouldn't say it here. Today, the reality of slavery is so far removed from how we live that it is impossible for people to imagine or believe in. So they laugh at it instead.

Try watching Gillo Pontecorvo's BURN! (aka QUEIMADA, France, 1969) starring Marlon Brando, and Mel Gibson's BRAVEHEART (1995).

To answer the question you propound would take an education, and I doubt if that would convince you, either. I've already started you off with the link below. The sexual violence and domination, the physical violence of slavery, the superstitions of that time and place, are a matter of historical record and have been fully documented in a vast body of scholarship published over the last 100 years. Try reading a book.

"All that sex stuff" is accurately represented in the film, although considerably toned down, and well-documented in the histories of slavery in the USA. History books are easily accessible in any college-level library, or at amazon.com .

So, you want an explicit slave narrative as sensational as the film? A kind of slave porn? Go look it up for yourself. But let's be clear on this point: there is NO homoerotic element in MANDINGO. None whatsoever. It's not there. You are mis-interpreting.

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

Richard, are there any books you would recommend?

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

Richard--W wrote (post #40):



Wild claims with not a shred of evidence will do that to me. And I've got more "education" than you can ever know.


For a sensationalistic film that you claim is "completely accurate", yeah. Yeah, I do.


It's unclear at this point whether you are speaking of the source novel or the film, but there certainly is such in the film.

I haven't seen the film for over a decade, but even I remember the close-up scenes of the slaves' disgusted faces when the slavetrader Brownlee is "feelin' 'em up", he claims to make sure they aren't damaged goods, but which he does a little too often just for it to be "just business".

One of us hasn't been paying attention, apparently, and it's not me. The second Onstott novel is very explicit in its homoërotic aspects. You need to do some reading.


It's the kinky stuff, as I said before, that I'm in doubt about. Your answer is merely to deny it's there, but Dino made sure to put it in his "accurate" movie.



Of which you can apparently not name a single relevant (informative) title.


No you haven't. I find no links.


Try naming one.

Actually, American history was one of my best subjects in high school and one on which I did (unexpectedly) superior SATs. I don't need any education from you on the topic.

Re: HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo

Not to defend MANDINGO, but there are certainly first-person slave narratives that relate tales of sexual abuse aplenty. See e.g., Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, reprinted in the Library of America volume "Slave Narratives" and described briefly in Harriet Ann Jacobs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

It's been far too long since I've seen Mandingo to recall any particular kinks to do further checking, though. I feel like I need to wash now.