Netflix Streaming Rec of the Week: Drum (1976)

This sort-of sequel to "Mandingo" is yet another Dino DeLaurentis high-dollar misfire, starring The Great Warren Oates, Yaphet Kotto and Pam Grier. I saw this on cable with my best friend during a late-night unsupervised sleepover in the seventh grade. It's definitely not for kids. Similar to Caligula in some ways; an Italian-produced, big-budget historical drama, in extremely bad taste, with nudity and depravity in nearly every scene.

But it also tries to latch onto America's mid-70's zeitgeist by putting its foot firmly in the Blaxploitation genre. The slaves are the most humanized characters (there's even a boxing scene early in the film that seems inspired by Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"), but really, it's just out to exploit everything to its maximum potential. It makes for a morally ambivalent but very entertaining film.



See it HERE.