Mandingo (movie)
| Mandingo | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Richard Fleischer |
| Screenplay by | Norman Wexler |
| Based on | Mandingo by Kyle Onstott |
| Produced by | Dino De Laurentiis |
| Starring | James Mason Susan George Perry King Lillian Hayman Richard Ward Brenda Sykes Ken Norton |
| Cinematography | Richard H. Kline |
| Music by | Maurice Jarre Hi Tide Harris Muddy Waters |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Mandingo is a 1975 movie based on the book Mandingo by Kyle Onstott and upon the play based thereon by Jack Kirkland. The movie was directed by Richard Fleischer. The movie tells the story of a plantation family and their slaves. The movie was a box office hit, but critical reviews were mixed.
Main cast
[change | change source]- Warren Maxwell, a plantation owner - James Mason
- Hammond Maxwell, his son - Perry King
- Blanche, Hammond's wife - Susan George
- Mede, Hammond's slave - Ken Norton
- Ellen, Hammond's slave - Brenda Sykes
Story
[change | change source]The movie is set on Falconhurst, a run-down plantation owned by widower Warren Maxwell and his son Hammond. Hammond's Mandingo slave Ganymede, or Mede is trained to fight other slaves. Hammond neglects his wife Blanche whom he rejects on their wedding night after discovering she was not a virgin. Hammond instead rapes his slave Ellen while Blanche forces Mede to lay with her. These various, conflicting infidelities all eventually come together causing the movie to end tragically with the deaths of most of the main characters.
Response
[change | change source]Upon its release in 1975, critical response was mixed although box office was strong.[1] Roger Ebert despised the film and gave it a "zero star" rating.[2] Richard Schickel of TIME found the film boring and cliché-ridden.[3] Movie critic Robin Wood was enthusiastic about the movie, calling it “the greatest film about race ever made in Hollywood”.[4] In Leonard Maltin's annual publication Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide the movie is ranked as a "BOMB" and dismissed with the word "Stinko!"
Some prominent critics hail the film, including the New York Times columnist Dave Kehr, who called it "a thinly veiled Holocaust film that spares none of its protagonists," further describing it as "Fleischer’s last great crime film, in which the role of the faceless killer is played by an entire social system."[5] Director Quentin Tarantino has cited Mandingo as one of only two instances "in the last twenty years [that] a major studio made a full-on, gigantic, big-budget exploitation movie", comparing it to Showgirls.[6]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "Mandingo Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
- ↑ "Mandingo :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
- ↑ Schickel, Richard."Cinema: Cold, Cold Ground" Archived 2013-05-13 at the Wayback Machine, TIME, May 12, 1975.
- ↑ Wood, Robin (1998). Sexual Politics and Narrative Film: Hollywood and Beyond. Columbia University Press. p. 256. ISBN 0-231-07605-3.
- ↑ Kehr, Dave (February 17, 2008). "In a Corrupt World Where the Violent Bear It Away". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-06-10.
- ↑ Udovitch, Mim (1998). "Mim Udovitch/1996". In Peary, Gerald (ed.). Quentin Tarantino: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. pp. 172–173. ISBN 1-57806-051-6.
Other websites
[change | change source]- Mandingo on IMDb
- Trailer[permanent dead link] at Trailers From Hell
- 1975 movies
- English-language movies
- American drama movies
- 1975 drama movies
- 1970s historical movies
- Movies about slavery
- Movies about racism
- Movies based on books
- Movies based on plays
- Exploitation movies
- Movies set in the 1840s
- Movies set in New Orleans
- Paramount Pictures movies
- Movies directed by Richard Fleischer
- Movies composed by Maurice Jarre