MANDINGO.

US, 1975, 126 minutes, Colour.
James Mason, Susan George, Perry King, Richard Ward, Brenda Sykes.
Directed by Richard Fleischer.

James Mason, Susan George, Southern plantations, action and romance. Looks good. But if you ever thought that the Deep South was a horrible world to live in, this will confirm it. Lust in the dust and sadism in the sand prevail in a film designed for popular consumption and which most audiences generally like a lot. It is said that the film lacks a lot of the flavour of the book - but it probably has more than enough flavour for most. The depressing thing is that in so many instances this is what a world (likened here to a decaying Roman Empire) of power, slavery, blatant sexuality and brutality was really like.

1. How interesting and appealing was this film? How enjoyable? It broke box office records on release. It received hostile film criticism. Did it deserve this?

2. The fact that it was based on a bestseller and a play? The thrills and flavour of the blockbuster best seller? what do audiences expect from such novels and their atmosphere? Characters, crises, melodrama?

3. Comment on the style of the film: the old South atmosphere, the sets, especially Falconhurst and New Orleans? The use of colour, locations. set pieces such as the presentation of the home, the fight in New Orleans? The style and use of colour and shadows, close ups etc? The contribution to the enclosed atmosphere of the South, its moral decay etc?

4. The focus on the title on the slaves: on the Mandingo himself, on the owners and their way of life? Did the film ask for audience judgement on the position of the slaves and their owners in the Deep South?

5. What point of view did the film take as regards slavery and this kind of society? Did it present the scene objectively for audience interest? What attitude to the 1840'sdid it take, approving or disapproving?

6. Audience reaction to the Deep South and its people: a world of aristocracy, a family loyalty and tradition and self-righteousness, the 'might is right' aspects of life, morality a law unto themselves, the use of other human beings as slaves, love and lust, power and oppression? How realistically and vividly were these aspects presented? Did the film present insight into them?

7. How symbolic was the house of Falconhurst and what it stood for?

8. The focus on Maxwell as the tyrant, his way of life, his emphasis on his son's future, his ambitions? The significance of his illness. his clinging on to power? His standards for Falconhurst? His presence at the New Orleans fight? The significance of his death and his being shot by his slave friend? What kind of man was he?

9. How like his father was Hammond? What had he inherited? How bad a character was he? The nature of his good facets? His relationship with Ellen and his love for her? His pledges? His attitudes towards children? His arrogance as owner? The nature of his plans, his fitting into his father's plans? The visit to New Orleans. the courting of Blanche, the significance of marriage for him? His taunts at her loss of virginity? His own double standards in behaviour? His demands on Blanche. his despising and neglecting her? Her attitude towards slaves and his buying of Meade? His ambitions for the fight? His being caught in this world and its cruelty? Catching Blanche? His poisoning her? The death of her child? The death of Meade and the death of his father? The overall effect on him and his future? How credible and interesting a character of this time and place?

10. Blanche and the significance of her name as 'white'? The filling in of her background, her loss of virginity, her marrying? Her attitudes of the South and ambitions for Falconhurst? The picturing of her neglect and her arrogance? Her boredom and drinking? The vindictiveness of her whipping Ellen? The vindictiveness of her seducing Meade? The pains of childbirth, the death of the child and her own death? What was the meaning of her life and its purpose?

11. The contrast with Ellen? Her being loved by Hammond? The origins of her relationship with Hammond during the trip? His support of her, yet her place because she was black?

12. How interesting a character was Meade? The first presentation at the auction, his being examined by buyers? His strength and capacity to fight? The fight in New Orleans? His subservience to his master and the attitude of the other negroes? His place in the revolt? His siring other children? His being used like an animal? Blanche's using of him? The inevitability of his death?

13. The picturing of the negroes and their plight? How much insight into the humiliation, the lack of human dignity? The place of the negroes on the plantations and their work? The significance of their song? Twentieth Century aspects of civil rights in this Nineteenth Century picture? The inevitability of revolution? The drama of the chase sequence and the hanging? The final killings? The American heritage?

14. Agamemnon as a sign of contradiction? His closeness to Maxwell and Hammond? His managing of the estate? The deep hatred inside? The final killing?

15. How much like the Roman Empire was the society of Falconhurst? The emphasis on lust, sadism, brutality? The visualizing of the fight in New Orleans? How decadent and decaying a society?

16. This kind of film as a visualizing of the American heritage? Did it have value in this regard?