DVD Review HTF DVD REVIEW: Mandingo (1 Viewer)

[Richard--W]

"I don't know if it's art, but I like it." Seriously, MANDINGO is a solid historical melodrama. It cannot be easily dismissed as fodder, exploitation, or bad filmmaking. It is actually quite good filmmaking, and very deliberate filmmaking. Dave Kehr, cited above, expresses it well in the N.Y. Times:

"MANDINGO can hardly be accused of taking a sober, dignified approach to its subject, but when the historical context is itself obscene, transgressions are justified. That the film is still a hot potato more than three decades after it was made is a tribute to its undiminished power to provoke."

 

[John Sullmeyer]

Found it over at Deep Discount. Hope that Drum gets a DVD release as well. It is a great film and I like it much more than Mandingo.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Still up in the air on this one. Saw this at the age of 10 in the theater and it left a long lasting impression in my mind for years. From the video captures it looks like soft porn to me. Man wouldn't mind seeing Brenda Sykes nude again.

 

[tim cat]

According to there website "Mandingo" is currently out of stock.

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

Amazon has it

 

[Powser2]

I know nothing of Matt H. and I'm not trying to suggest anything about his personal beliefs-- I am assuming his is an antiracist point of view, regardless of whether aappreciates MANDINGO or not. But I have to admit my eyebrows did raise when I read this:

"As was the custom of the times, the white owners often took one of their slaves as a “bed wench,” and Hammond’s virginal choice Ellen (Brenda Sykes) becomes almost like a wife to him. When he chooses an actual woman to be his wife, however, he picks Susan George’s Blanche whom he learns on his wedding night is not a virgin..."

Bed wench vs. actual woman. I'm sure Matt did not mean to insinuate anything; I guess this is just another example of the power of the words we choose.

 

[Matt Hough]

You are SO right, and I will change it post haste. I don't know where my mind was when writing such an insulting and wholly horrible thing.

 

[Steve Armbrust]

When I was in college in the early 70's, a girlfriend introduced me to Mandingo and the rest of the Falconhurst novels. Maybe they were serious historical fiction, but I thought of them as sexy potboilers and was vaguely uncomfortable about them being exploitive. But that didn't stop me from devouring them all. I liked the movie, when it came out, for the same reasons --shocking, sexual, racial. It certainly made a statement about racism, but I never thought it was any sort of well-researched depiction of what actually went on.

 

[Richard--W]

It is in fact well-researched. The author, Kyle Onstat (spelling?) drew on the personal narratives of former slaves gathered by the Library of Congress in the 1930s:

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938

among other sources. Earlier accounts by former slaves are also available. The slave narratives are voluminous and have informed many historical novels as well as academic histories. Folklorists have also published many studies of the narratives. But Onstat (spelling?) was writing a novel for entertainment and dramatic involvement, not a dry history. He doesn't waste a page citing sources or explaining or defending his prose. He just tells the story, like a good writer is supposed to. So when you read about the plantation owner resting his feet on the back of a slave to draw out the rheumatism, you are reading about an actual belief held at the time and practiced by slave owners. Is it offensive? Absolutely, and that's just the tip of the ice burg. The real thing is so ugly it will make your hair stand up. The fact that it is objectionable is no reason not to tell a factual and legitimate story which communicates an historical reality more effectively, and to a wider audience, than any dry academic book can. I read the first book around the time the film came out, never read the sequels.

 

[Bob Cashill]

Kyle Onstott wrote three "Falconhurst" books; the last, MASTER OF FALCONHURST, was never filmed. Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and Franchot Tone starred in a short-lived Broadway play of MANDINGO in 1961. "The result may not be boring, but it is everywhere bad and, in more than one place, backfiringly ludicrous," wrote Time magazine.

 

[Michael Elliott]

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.

 

[Richard--W]

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.

 

[Charles Ellis]

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!

 

[onecent]

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.

 

[walter o]

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

 

[Matt Hough]

Oh, yes, I remember it, especially the final clinch with Garrett Morris and O.J.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

walter o wrote (post #35):


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 skithttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0694870/ 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.

 

[Richard--W]

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.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Richard--W wrote (#38):


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

 

[Richard--W]

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.