Despite what the "impression dujour" is on the discussion boards, about Mandingo, I didn't like it and still occasionally have unpleasant memories about it. It all began when I was loaned the VHS for this by an acquaintance a few years back. He told me that this was 1 of his favorite movies and that he watched it over & over....several times a year. He just couldn't wait to share it with me. When I asked him what this was about, he said, "oh...let's just say it's a love story, in a different place & time than today." I knew he was 1 of these kinda quirky people and I was expecting something Sci-Fi. I was intrigued when I realized it was set in the Old South.
I was shocked...shocked that people would make such a film and shocked that such a nice guy like that would love something I thought Neo- Nazis would enjoy. Raping the slaves was bad enough, but killing not 1, but 2 innocent little babies...in such a blasé' manner (the young wife beating the slave into a miscarriage & the Dr and Old Massa letting the baby bleed to death) was even more repugnant. When they were telling the "Young Massa" about his girlfriend's miscarriage...I was further disgusted. "She slipped her sucker.." At first I was wondering why the slave was playing with those little fish that hitch rides on sharks, then I realized they were referring to her pre-born child. To refer to black babies as a "suckers" was more disturbing than I can say. On 1 hand it's a crude reference to breast-feeding, but it also conveys imagery as the babies (and slaves) as non-human animals. Then the conduct of the new wife was WAY off base. While the 70's was women's lib & all that, the Old South didn't allow high born white women to behave like that. Rare occurrences apparently happened, but Women were repressed in every form & fashion imaginable. Whale bone corsets were so tightly laced that they couldn't draw deep breaths and therefore spoke in breathy little "lady-like" simpering ways. Being prone to "an attack of the vapors" was a woman's way of being excused to go out of the room to fart and or burp. Again, those whale bone corsets were at work, constricting abdominal & thoracic space...making having gas an ordeal. Who could get a burp out when you couldn't draw enough breath to do it? They were always fainting (oxygen deprivation)in moments of stress. There was a whole, elaborate set of mannerisms and euphemisms for anything that could destroy a woman's mystique & grace. Men could refer to a chamber pot, or a slop jar. The ladies had to call it a "night glass." As for her taking her husband's slave as a lover...the society just wasn't that forgiving.
I was shocked...shocked that people would make such a film and shocked that such a nice guy like that would love something I thought Neo- Nazis would enjoy. Raping the slaves was bad enough, but killing not 1, but 2 innocent little babies...in such a blasé' manner (the young wife beating the slave into a miscarriage & the Dr and Old Massa letting the baby bleed to death) was even more repugnant. When they were telling the "Young Massa" about his girlfriend's miscarriage...I was further disgusted. "She slipped her sucker.." At first I was wondering why the slave was playing with those little fish that hitch rides on sharks, then I realized they were referring to her pre-born child. To refer to black babies as a "suckers" was more disturbing than I can say. On 1 hand it's a crude reference to breast-feeding, but it also conveys imagery as the babies (and slaves) as non-human animals. Then the conduct of the new wife was WAY off base. While the 70's was women's lib & all that, the Old South didn't allow high born white women to behave like that. Rare occurrences apparently happened, but Women were repressed in every form & fashion imaginable. Whale bone corsets were so tightly laced that they couldn't draw deep breaths and therefore spoke in breathy little "lady-like" simpering ways. Being prone to "an attack of the vapors" was a woman's way of being excused to go out of the room to fart and or burp. Again, those whale bone corsets were at work, constricting abdominal & thoracic space...making having gas an ordeal. Who could get a burp out when you couldn't draw enough breath to do it? They were always fainting (oxygen deprivation)in moments of stress. There was a whole, elaborate set of mannerisms and euphemisms for anything that could destroy a woman's mystique & grace. Men could refer to a chamber pot, or a slop jar. The ladies had to call it a "night glass." As for her taking her husband's slave as a lover...the society just wasn't that forgiving.