Mandingo is a 1975 film, based on the novel Mandingo by Kyle Onstott and upon the play based thereon by Jack Kirkland.^[1] 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.

Synopsis[link]

On Falconhurst, a run-down plantation owned by the widowed Warren Maxwell (James Mason) and his son Hammond (Perry King), a Mandingo slave Ganymede, or Mede (Ken Norton), is trained to fight other slaves. Hammond neglects his wife Blanche (Susan George), whom he rejects on their wedding night after discovering she was not a virgin. Hammond instead ravishes his slave Ellen (Brenda Sykes), while Blanche seduces Mede. These various, conflicting affairs all eventually come together causing the film to end tragically.

Reception[link]

Upon its release in 1975, critical response was mixed although box office was strong.^[2] Roger Ebert despised the film and gave it a "zero star" rating.^[3] Richard Schickel of TIME found the film boring and cliche-ridden.^[4]The movie critic Robin Wood was enthusiastic about the film, calling it “the greatest film about race ever made in Hollywood”.^[5] 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] In Leonard Maltin's annual publication "TV Movies," the film 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 Fleischer’s "last great crime film", dealing with a "thinly veiled Holocaust" in which the Hollywood typecast role of an individual killer is played by an entire social system.^[7]

DVD release[link]

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 version without any extras.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mandingo at the Internet Movie Database
• Trailer at Trailers From Hell

Mandinka, Mandika, Mandinko or Mandingo may refer to:

• the Mandinka people of West Africa
  • the Mandingo people of Sierra Leone
  • the Mandinka language
• the Mandinka Empire
• the Mandingo Wars
• Mandingo (novel), a bestselling novel originally published in 1957
• Mandingo (film), a 1975 film based on the novel of the same name
• Mandingo (person), a male African American pornographic performer and director
• "Mandinka" (song), by Sinéad O'Connor from her 1987 album The Lion and the Cobra

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