Southern-fried trash set on a plantation c. 1845, where the young heir (Perry King) is happiest dallying with the slave women, while his father (James Mason) tries to cure rheumatism by putting his feet on a black child. The first hour or so is entertainingly repugnant, but the second half drags badly. Susan George is wretchedly hammy as King's neglected wife; Ken Norton, as the slave Mede, tries to maintain his dignity in these surroundings, but it's a lost cause. Embarrassing for all involved.

Rubbish attempting to strike a bard-like pose.

58.500

Unflinching Southern gothic melodrama, gorgeously filmed with a sweaty, grotesque atmosphere oozing from each frame. Far more than just a "camp classic", this is an anti-Gone with the Wind that isn't afraid to stare the ridiculousness of slavery and racist hysteria straight in the face.

This is not a good/bad movie, this is a genuinely good, intelligent, and cynical deconstruction of the antebellum south. It takes apart every notion of civility and honor among the "gentlemen" and "belles."

I'm not sure why this film has such a bad reputation. And I really can't fathom Roger Ebert's initial apoplectic fit over it when it first came out. But some of its harrowing depictions of slavery, fecund with delirious gothic melodrama, make most of Django Unchained seem a little tame. Mason and King are both fine, and Norton is well, pretty fine, too. The look of the film is perhaps its best aspect: Underlit, empty interiors, decrepitude and smoke everywhere.

This films main use today is a gauge on how conservative Hollywood has become 40 years on. The calibre of films aren't dropping but the exploratory nature of the ones allowed a mainstream budget are being roped in, our taste of art is being selected for us which is alarming. Although anchored by bleak, boring & at times aimless script (learning to read sequence) the exploitation seeps through to lace Mandingo with a sometimes extreme replica of the eras race relations. Black foot pillow, really?

This is basically a big budget exploitation movie about life on a slave plantation in the deep south before the civil war. There's a bunch of soap opera family drama and sexy interracial love triangles, in addition to tons of nudity, torture, and violence. Susan George is excellent as the sweet but poisonous southern belle, and veteran British actor James Mason plays the evil plantation owner.