Anssi Vartiainen 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.

thekyrose Despite what the "impression dujour" is on the discussion boards, about Mandingo, I didn't like it and still occasionally have unpleasant memories about it. It all began when I was loaned the VHS for this by an acquaintance a few years back. He told me that this was 1 of his favorite movies and that he watched it over & over....several times a year. He just couldn't wait to share it with me. When I asked him what this was about, he said, "oh...let's just say it's a love story, in a different place & time than today." I knew he was 1 of these kinda quirky people and I was expecting something Sci-Fi. I was intrigued when I realized it was set in the Old South. I was shocked...shocked that people would make such a film and shocked that such a nice guy like that would love something I thought Neo- Nazis would enjoy. Raping the slaves was bad enough, but killing not 1, but 2 innocent little babies...in such a blasé' manner (the young wife beating the slave into a miscarriage & the Dr and Old Massa letting the baby bleed to death) was even more repugnant. When they were telling the "Young Massa" about his girlfriend's miscarriage...I was further disgusted. "She slipped her sucker.." At first I was wondering why the slave was playing with those little fish that hitch rides on sharks, then I realized they were referring to her pre-born child. To refer to black babies as a "suckers" was more disturbing than I can say. On 1 hand it's a crude reference to breast-feeding, but it also conveys imagery as the babies (and slaves) as non-human animals. Then the conduct of the new wife was WAY off base. While the 70's was women's lib & all that, the Old South didn't allow high born white women to behave like that. Rare occurrences apparently happened, but Women were repressed in every form & fashion imaginable. Whale bone corsets were so tightly laced that they couldn't draw deep breaths and therefore spoke in breathy little "lady-like" simpering ways. Being prone to "an attack of the vapors" was a woman's way of being excused to go out of the room to fart and or burp. Again, those whale bone corsets were at work, constricting abdominal & thoracic space...making having gas an ordeal. Who could get a burp out when you couldn't draw enough breath to do it? They were always fainting (oxygen deprivation)in moments of stress. There was a whole, elaborate set of mannerisms and euphemisms for anything that could destroy a woman's mystique & grace. Men could refer to a chamber pot, or a slop jar. The ladies had to call it a "night glass." As for her taking her husband's slave as a lover...the society just wasn't that forgiving.

MartinHafer This film is supposedly set in the 1840s South. In it, white men spend all of their time raping and torturing slaves. And, when they are not doing this, they are talking about raping and torturing slaves! They seem to have almost no life apart from this--no jobs, no family life, no hobbies...nothing. There is a plot where Perry King wants to exploit a black slave (Ken Norton) as a bare-knuckle fighter. But it's really all about the raping and beatings and it's very one-dimensional and stupid. Now I am NOT defending slavery or saying slaves weren't molested. But this came off like a cartoon or a film about the days of slavery if it were written by Bob Guccione. While a superficial level it looks a bit like a historical film, it soon becomes apparent that it's much, much more focused on offending and titillating instead educating or enlightening. In many ways, it comes off more like a porno movie laced with LOTS of sadism than anything else. And I wonder about the sort of folks who would LIKE to see this sort of crap. Who wants to see men and women being savagely beaten?! And, while many might want to see the sex and nudity, since it isn't consensual, who wants to watch a long series of rapes?! No wonder this film caused a stir when it debuted--it's terrible history, salacious and just plain nasty.Now it could be argued that although the film is very offensive, slavery WAS offensive or that at least the film was well-made. Sadly, however, the film is chock full 'o rotten over-acting. Bad accents (James Mason's was just awful), goofy smiles and leers as well as absolutely no subtlety are the best ways to describe the acting and you can't help but wonder if the director was insane or a chipmunk. In fact, any episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies" was acted and written MUCH more subtlety and believably! It's just bad on every level and apart from some nice costumes, there isn't anything positive I could see in it. It's definitely one of the worst movies of the 1970s--made worse by its big budget which was totally wasted.Some dumb scenes (apart from the rapings and beatings) include seeing Mason's rheumatism treated by sleeping with his feet on a naked black kid's belly(?!?!), the "...never, never, never, never done it!!!!" tirade as well as every love scene between Perry King and Susan George...every last one of them.Needless to say, there is LOTS of nudity (including full-frontal) in the film and I am actually surprised that it was only rated R. It's probably NOT a good film to rent to see with your kids or mother or anyone with taste. Perhaps bad movie buffs might find it all funny--but even bad movie buffs will probably be too offended to care.

poe426 When heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier was preparing for his first fight with Muhammad Ali, one of his sparring partners was an up-and-coming contender named Ken Norton. Norton gave Frazier fits. One observer at the time suggested that Frazier's braintrust(s) might want to consider getting behind Norton as a title contender. In March, 1973, Norton was selected as another stepping stone in Ali's return march to the throne. By the time of this fight, Ali had been mercilessly hammered in a loss to Frazier (in March, 1971) and Frazier had, in turn, been dethroned after sitting on the title for two years by George Foreman (in January, 1973). Norton had been knocked out by unknown Jose Luis Garcia, so he wasn't considered much of a roadblock on Ali's way back up the ladder. Not only did Norton break Ali's jaw, he pitched a shutout. Norton won 12 out of 12 rounds. In the rematch 6 months later, Ali eked out a narrow win (I gave him the fight by a single point).It was because of his shocking win over the self-professed "Greatest" that many of us queued up to see MANDINGO (and the sequel, DRUM). While Norton had proved himself capable enough in the ring, it was clear that he wasn't exactly a natural when it came to acting (not that his role in either film stretched the boundaries of the craft in any way, shape or form). The sordid storyline, with its roots in Reality, was likewise less than compelling, but we were there to see Norton, after all (those of us who followed The Sweet Science, anyway). The highly-touted fisticuffs the promoters had promised were too few and much too far between for some of us.What prompts all this? Just last night, on MSNBC's COUNTDOWN with Keith Olberman, Right Wing Racist Rush Limbo referred to the current President of the United $tate$ as "a Halfrican." Thus far having proved himself a politician of uncommon Common Sense, Barack Obama labors to set right what the Republican Reich has undone over the past 45 years (today's jobless rate stands at a whopping 15%). For Limbo to take the same old road tred by so many lacking even marginal Common Sense in this country, it points up just how far we've really come, after all these years. Which is not very far at all.