Suppose Hollywood made a slave movie? Guess what? They did, back in 1979, in a film named Ashanti. This film, from director Richard Fleisher, starred Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, Kabir Bedi and Beverly Johnson (as the slave girl) plus just about everybody who was anybody in 1979 Hollywood - it was a big deal movie with a lot of big names.
The plot is simple enough: Dr. Anansa Linderby (Beverly Johnson) is kidnapped while on a medical mission in Africa by a slave trader. From this moment, her husband will do anything to recover her and to punish the bad guys, but that will be not an easy task. Along the way, she is featured in several slave coffles, a slave market, on and on.
At the IMDB link to this film (above) you can find a 2 minute preview of the film - standard Hollywood preview material, but it will let you know that this is mostly an 'action movie'. I also put some still pics of Ms Johnson in the Community Gallery.
Beady-eyed readers will be pleased to note that Ms Johnson gets her kit off early in this film. There are numerous links containing this video clip... for example: https://www.xvideos.com/video19787165/b ... anti_1979_ .
Despite the all-star cast and tremendous potential, this is movie was only moderately successful. It's available on DVD, but if you decide to buy a DVD version, be aware that the original film ran 118 minutes. There is a much-cut version of the film on DVD that was distributed free with the UK Daily Mail some years back... to be avoided at all costs
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The plot / setup of Ashanti is quite interesting. Michael Cane plays a doctor, and he visits Africa with his wife, who is an MD working for the UN. As the movie begins it's made quite clear that she's the veteran who knows the villages, and he's feckless old white male tagging along as she explains how the tribal system works.
After the immunizations are given and her white husband is suitably patronized, the Africans start their tribal dances (of course). Hearing those jungle drums, our black female doctor decides to go slumming. She LITERALLY goes native, and changes into tribal garb and dances. I swear Joe Doe didn't write this plot, but it reads like one of his stories. After demonstrating her intellectual superiority, our heroine doctor voluntarily surrenders her clothes to assume the identity of a local tribal women. She the metaphor here? If not, I'll get a hammer...
After bragging that her tribe is "more interesting" than the locals, she decides that her single, loose fitting robe with the scoop neck is too hot. She isn't nearly naked enough, and decides to go skinny dipping. Obviously worried that she isn't vulnerable enough, the naughty little vixen literally strips herself naked to frolic in the lake, while her idiot husband takes pictures of the local dancing like he's on assignment for the national geographic.
Apparently her husband would rather watch natives dance than watch his naked wife in the lake. Yes, he's an idiot, too.
Unfortunately, she didn't bring her medical degree into the lake with her, and from the slavers point of view one naked black girl is pretty much as good as the other. From that point on, arrogant and haughty black doctor has rather a hard time of it, as she fulfills her desire to be treated like a local.
Although the film has the ridiculous and sexist setup of a Joe Doe story (the haughty intellectual woman being punished for pretending to be a native girl) it is decidedly PG, with everyone in Africa threatening to teach her "her place", but never doing it. If this were a real Joe Doe story, of course:
1) She wouldn't be dressed, and would be put in the coffle buck naked
2) She would have her little round bottom paddled, and be trained how to perform under the whip on the auction block. She would find the entire experience incredibly hot, and the slave training would allow her to shake off her pretensions of being a haughty and well educated women to become a shameless pleasure slut.
3) She would encounter a few of her white co-workers from the UN, or the smart set. She would plead for their help, but while they would examine her freely, they would be filled with excuses about not interfering with the local ways or risking the vaccinations, all the while blaming her for her skinny dipping and noting how hot her slave girl pussy was. They would feign concern while enjoying every moment of the haughty doctor's downfall.
4) Her doctor husband would have to go to the slave market, and watch her be paraded on the block, and attempt to buy her back.
So while the subsequent reels could be improved, the first 20 minutes is perfect. The entire film is on YOUTUBE, and here is the link.
You can see the entire film on Youtube. Here's the first part:
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Not a perfect movie, but a perfect setup, to be sure.
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Imreadonly2 missed his calling as a movie critic. Thank you for jumping in.
His review and description are spot-on, and may explain why the movie wasn't particularly successful, despite the all-star cast and big budget. The female lead Beverly Johnson is quite attractive and had a long career in movies, as well as TV.
It's a shame this story/plot has not been re-done by a director with a better understanding of his audience - this really shouldn't be an 'action film'. The late Zalman King (Red Shoe Diaries, Lake Consequence, 2 Moon Junction plus a dozen other great films) would have been ideal.
I think the movie fell flat because it was trying to be an exotic action adventure move, while simultaneously being a pulp novel hiding under the guise of serious exploration/indictment of the slave trade. It pretends to be all progress and liberal, and as we meet our interracial couple in the first scene it's clear that Beverly wears the pants, as she is constantly explaining things to her feckless British husband.
This feigned feminism is quickly dumped as within 5 minutes of the movie's opening she is not wearing any pants at all, and strips down to the buff to put on the single garment the local girls wear and then dance like a native. Our well educated Western doctor voluntarily surrenders her Western clothes, status and medical degree to slum with the African girls, and dance to those jungle drums. She then voluntarily reduces her status even further as she skinny dips, and is punished as all naughty girls are punished in potboiler pulp. Feckless white husband then becomes great white hunter as he assumes the role of rescuing his slave girl wife from her naughtiness.
To say that this pile of pulp fiction cliches is a serious examination of the slave trade is insulting. It's all quite silly, and sexist, and racist, and is really the setup for a story on this forum. So let's have at it.
Doctor Linderby grimaced as the fat old Englishman squeezed and kneader her bare breasts like they were two melons in a fruit market. "I don't understand!", she protested. "Arthur...I mean... Colonel..." she said, deciding it might be better to address the older white Englishmen by his formal title, even if he was far past his prime, and had probably hadn't even been in the military. "You're both my friends! We had lunch together at the hotel! Don't you remember?"
The Colonel's wife, a matronly grandmother with a perpetual smile, responded. "Of course we remember, you silly girl. It was a charming lunch, wasn't it, my dear? Perfectly delightful. But we're not at the hotel, are we?" she said, gently chiding the naked black woman as if she were explaining table managers to a small child.
"But... But, I'm a US Citizen!" she protested. Her protest turned into an unintelligible garble as the man lifted her lip up and began examining her teeth, as if she were a goat, or a horse.
The old woman never lost her smile, even as her husband pawed the naked woman's mouth. "No, my dear, now you're just slave pussy, for sale in an African market," she replied cheerfully. "Quite amusing, really, how you decided to strip your kit off and go dancing with the natives, isn't it? But it seems like your little fantasy got out of hand, and now it's going to cost you, my dear."
"I'm a dogg-doc-terrrr", she managed to sputter, even as her mouth was prodded open wide. She could see the bulge in his pants, and she knew that the Colonel was getting off on humiliating her, and examining her like livestock. Any hopes that his wife might treat her better were quickly dashed by her reply.
"You're a dog? A slave bitch, perhaps?" the old woman said, mocking her. "Oh, you were quite full of yourself at the hotel, with your fancy clothes and your medical degree. But you don't look so smart now, do you? Just another uppity little monkey put in her place!"
"Let's see the rest of her," the husband said to the slave trader. Instantly she was spun around, and the slave monger used the business end of the whip on the back of her neck to force her to bend. Her head went lower, and her bottom went higher... higher... higher as the fat Englishman who had been so gentlemanly when he had poured her tea chuckled at her humiliation.
"Oh, my, what a nice round bottom you have!" the old woman said. "And a nice flank, too," she added, as if she were reviewing a horse at Ascot.
"Parade rest girl," the Colonel said, using his boot to roughly kick her ankles until her legs were spread far wider that military position. "Even a stupid slave girl should know what a man wants to see!"
She felt a fresh rush of humiliation engulf her as the fat man fingered her pussy. "She's slave hot, all right! Naked in the slave market, and sopping wet!"
"A slave bitch in heat!" his wife added merrily, laughing.
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