Images courtesy Paramount Pictures. Click images to enlarge
Mandingo, directed by Richard Fleischer, is an extreme example of the Black Exploitation genre of film of the 1960s and 70s. The film does not feature a single robot or thinking machine, unless one wishes to pursue the interpretation of slave as unwilling African automaton, but is relevant to the genre for a number of reasons, which will be explored later. The film was based on a novel by a gentleman born and raised in Alabama in the 1880s, Kyle Onstott; Onstott would have been poised to see and hear first hand the type of language and behavior typical of the Deep South in the 1800s. This film is not for the faint of heart and someone that has not seen it (or this type of film) before, will spend a significant amount of time picking their jaw up from the floor because of the language, beliefs, and events portrayed in the film. Essentially, the film depicts the lives of a family on an isolated plantation in Alabama or Mississippi, a family that is immediately established as being so unnatural and inhumane as to immediately declare to the viewer that this movie is not for fans of Gone with the Wind and that the white characters should not be viewed with any sympathy whatsoever. The Maxwell family spends most of their time raping wenches (slave women for breeding), beating their slaves to a pulp, and even going as far as damning their slaves to death by forcing them to step into huge vats of boiling water. The film is so extreme, at least when viewed the first time, that its value as a work of filmmaking is obscured by the viewer's emotional reaction to the events depicted and the confusion about whether or not certain plantations actually functioned in this way. Mandingo stars James Mason, Perry King, Ken Norton (the boxer) as Mede, and Susan George. Interestingly, the film was produced by Dino de Laurentiis.
The German widow inspects the Mandingo Mede
The film begins with Mr. Maxwell, the owner of the plantation, selling three slaves to a local slave trader, including a strong slave called Cicero who eventually runs away and is hanged. Afterward, the family's attentions shift to a sick young wench called Pearl. The local veterinarian is called over to examine the slave [jaw drops to the floor] and he declares that the teenager is in heat and that the solution is for her to be raped by Hammond, the son of the plantation owner [jaw drops to the floor again]. Later, the veterinarian gives his opinion that the solution for Mr. Maxwell's rheumatism is for him to sleep with his feet against the belly of a slave child and occasionally kick the child during the night so that his rheumatism will "drain out" of him and into the child [jaw drops to the floor]. That evening, Hammond catches the butler Agamemnon reading and he is sentenced to a whooping (reading is against the law for a slave). Mr. Maxwell tells his son to rub salt, lemon, and red pepper into the wound after he whips him [jaw drops to the floor]. The next day, the Maxwells's cousin Charles arrives and Mr. Maxwell announces his intention for Hammond to marry Charles's sister Blanche and have a child with "human blood" rather than the children that he breeds with slaves that are not human [jaw drops to the floor]. On the way to Charles's plantation, they stop at a neighboring plantation where the owner gives the two young men wenches to breed. Charles whips his wench before he rapes her [jaw drops to the floor].
Hammond sleeps with a wench
Hammond falls in love with his wench, Ellen, and buys her when he returns to his plantation with his new wife Blanche. On his way to meet Blanche, Hammond stops at a slave auction and buys Mede (short for Ganymede) as a Mandingo for slave fights and for breeding the women on the plantation. During their wedding night, Hammond discovers that Blanche is not a virgin and the rest of their marriage is soured because of this. After buying Ellen, she becomes Hammond's "bed wench" and Blanche begins to hate her intensely. Ellen becomes pregnant with a child and eventually Hammond agrees to free the child when he grows up. Meanwhile, Mede the Mandingo has won his first match. While the family is away attending Mede's next match, Blanche, in a drunken stupor, asks for Ellen and when she comes, whips her, causing the bed wench to fall down the stairs and lose her baby. This is concealed from Hammond, whose love for Ellen grows. In retaliation, Blanche sleeps with Mede the Mandingo and becomes impregnated with his child. When the child is born black nine months later, the husband of the midwife kills the baby [jaw drops to the floor] and then Hammond goes looking for Mede with a shotgun. He orders Mede to get into a huge vat of boiling water. When he refuses, Hammond shoots him and Mede falls into the water. When the butler Memnon protests, Mr. Maxwell says angrily "shut up you dumb, n*****!" Memnon grabs the shotgun and shoots dead Mr. Maxwell. When Hammond tries to fight back, Memnon shoots him dead as well. Meanwhile, Mede has been boiled to death and the film ends.
Mr. Maxwell sits with his feet on a slave child so the rheumatism will go into him.
The power of the film lay in its extremely disturbing imagery. It has been said by other reviewers of Mandingo that it is clear that the effects of slavery were more malign on the white man than on the slave (hearkening back to words spoken by Robert E. Lee), but that is a very irritating viewpoint and does not do justice to the millions of Blacks that died enslaved in America. The film goes out of its way to portray the whites in the film as uneducated, brutal, and slow, which is exaggerated but not entirely inaccurate considering the isolated locales of plantations like the Maxwells's. The whites in Mandingo are depicted as being barbaric, incredibly cruel, and even simple-minded. Keep in mind that this is a Black Exploitation film (although that designation is an oversimplification) The slaves are almost more complex than their masters in their silence and subtle understanding of events. Fascinatingly, it is the whites that become the automatons (falling prey to the cycle of cruelty that the system necessitates) while the slaves themselves fight for a right to keep independence in thought and speech, eventually winning out in the end when Mr. Maxwell and his son are killed by Agamemnon. I have to be honest, the film is so disturbing that it is impossible not to keep watching (like a train wreck) and is actually full of symbolism, which is too extensive to be discussed here and which becomes more apparent when the film is viewed a second time. Again, the film is not for the faint of heart, but otherwise is highly recommended for everyone. A film like this could not be made in 2011, at least not in the United States.
Charles whips his bed wench.
Mede's first fight opponent.
Hammond and Blanche on their way to the Maxwells's plantation.
Mede before his last fight with "Topaz" whom he kills by biting into his jugular vein in their fight to the death.
