Mandingo (1975/Legend DVD/Paramount)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D     Film: B-

 

 

Racism has been a source of Black Slavery films for decades and even in the 1990s, more were produced and almost all of them have been bombs.  Most of them have also been failures in dealing with the pain, truths and issues surrounding one of United States history’s biggest sore spots.  Of course, there are other places to deal with slavery in general and worldwide, it and torture are on the upswing, but few have been as graphic and ambitious as Richard Fleischer’s Mandingo (1975) unfortunately written off as a joke at the time.

 

The title refers to a large black male slave who is also a fighter, breeder and “valuable property” to the trade of the time, even becoming a status symbol of ownership to vain slave owners.  At the time of course, there was the XXX hardcore sex film cycle and more than a few of the film spoofed and capitalized on this film’s release.  Maybe if it had arrived by the very early 1970s, this might be remembered better, but as it stands, the film is a pretty good approximation on how that time must have been and why slavery had to end.

 

The film opens with owner/seller James Mason presenting some of his “property” for sale to a no-nonsense buyer (Paul Benedict, better known as Mr. Bentley on the TV hit The Jeffersons) which may be to close to shades of Pasolini’s Salo (the same year) for comfort.  However, despite its hard-R rating, it is never that graphic, yet the Norman Wexler screenplay is very realistic and makes this one of the boldest films the late, great journeyman filmmaker Fleischer would ever make.

 

Perry King (The Possession Of Joel Delaney, reviewed elsewhere on this site) is Mason’s son who starts to have sympathy and respect for the slaves, even getting involved with one of them.  His new wife is soon aware that he has not stopped and decides to manipulate and seduce a prized male (Ken Norton as Mede, who serves as the main example of the title) in a way that backfires spectacularly.  In between, it is an indictment of American Slavery with no fear in Norman Wexler’s (Joe, Serpico, Saturday Night Fever) screenplay (based on Kyle Onstott’s book and Jack Kirkland’s play), including an occurrent bit about white southern gentlemen always enjoying having sex with black women!  Wexler wrote a sequel adaptation of Onstott’s book Drum, made a year later into another film.

 

However, the pace and honesty of how sick these times are and how it shows us the worst side of human nature getting carried away with power is very effective and alone is a reason for this film to get new respect and have some serious critical revisionist thinking.  If only there are enough people out there to be honest enough about the subject matter.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is a little soft, but colorful, consistent and the print is in decent shape.   Richard H. Klein (TV’s Honey West, Hang ‘Em High, The Boston Strangler, The Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green) made this a rich, dense shoot and it holds up very well.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is more of a problem, a few generations down and slightly compressed.  Maurice Jarre delivers an interesting score.  There are no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo