Mandingo is a 1975 film, based on the book Mandingo by Kyle Onstott. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer and featured James Mason, Susan George, Perry King, Lillian Hayman, boxer-turned-actor Ken Norton and bodybuilder and pro wrestler-turned-actor Earl Maynard. Perry King's frontal nude scene earned him considerable attention, but did not appear to help or hurt his career.citation needed
Premise
The film is about a slave in the 1840s in the United States. The owner neglects his wife while training his slave as a prize fighter. In revenge, the wife forces the fighter slave into letting her rape him by threatening to make a false rape accusation against him if he refuses. This eventually leads to the film's tragic conclusion. The film is controversial for its depictions of racism, nudity, incest, sadism and infanticide, and challenging the 1975 American society with motifs such as miscegenation.
Critique
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.[1] Many of those movie fans who actually admitted to seeing this bombastic pot boiler said they were drawn by the curious juxtaposition of James Mason playing a broken down slave plantation owner along with boxer Ken Norton.
DVD Release
Paramount Pictures licensed the film to Legend Films for its first official DVD release. The DVD was released on June 3, 2008, in 1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen without any extras.
Many prominent critics hailed the release of the DVD, including New York Times columnist Dave Kehr.
References
- ^ (1998) in Peary, Gerald: Quentin Tarantino: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi, pages 172—173. ISBN 1578060516.
External links
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