Customer Reviews

Drum

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Blax Films is a totally illegitimate bootlegging operation and their product is 'mastered' from inferior VHS tapes of films to which they have no legal rights to (for example, "Drum" is currently in the MGM library). Thus the bottom-of-the-barrel picture quality of their discs. Note, too, their laughably bad screen capture cover art. Puh-leaze! Could you be any more lame? Amazon should be ashamed for even carrying garbage like this, and the legitimate rights owners for the movies that Blax Films rips off should sic their lawyers on them, hunt them down and sue them into the poorhouse!

I enjoyed this film to an extent. Now, the only reason why I bought this disc was because my girl Pam Grier was in it. However, its not "Roots" but it's actually decent flick. Although Warren Oates receives top billing, you may wonder where he is for the first half hour, as most of this is taken up with Drum's unpleasant encounters with DeMarigny (Colicos way over the top and in possession of an offensive accent). When Drum wins the fight with Blaise he is awarded his own woman, but he shouldn't get too comfortable because the aggressively homosexual DeMarigny has designs on him, and when spurned vows revenge. This means Drum, appropriately played by wooden boxer Norton as if he'd much rather be somewhere else, has to be relocated by Marianna to work for Oates' plantation owner Hammond Maxwell, especially after Rachel has been murdered by the Frenchman.

The highlight of the movie is the dialogue of Warren Oates who plays the Ignorant Country Hick Plantation Owner. He is hilarious and would say things like "I found you in a Ho house and you aint even a Hoe". One thing about the film is that at least you couldn't say it was exploiting the African Americans in the cast, who are portrayed as sympathetic in the main - a pity you couldn't say the same for the women in the cast, who are treated as if the best they can offer the story is to take their clothes off. Over half the actresses disrobe for the camera, which exposes the true intentions of the filmmakers, and the most thankless role goes to Cheryl Rainbeaux Smith, as the daughter of Maxwell who is determined to get one of the slaves into bed. But even Fiona Lewis, as the prospective next Mrs Maxwell, has a gratuitous bath scene and of course the naked view of Pam Grier in her master's bedroom.

So basically, if you're looking for an examination of the last years of the slave trade in America, you will be disappointed, but if you're after sexploitation, then that's what Drum is really all about.

I should have read the reviews here before purchasing this DVD. I suppose I should have also questioned the fact that I just bought the recent official DVD of "Mandingo", released by Legend Films and to which "Drum" is a sequel. Legend has apparently made a deal to release a library of films from Paramount Pictures. I should have asked myself why "Drum" is released by Blax Film instead of Legend Films; now I know why.

One side of this DVD contains a basic conversion transfer from videotape in pan-and-scan format. The print quality is horrendous. On the same side is also a menu item, simply labeled "Extras". When you select this option, you're treated to a string of extras, including preview trailers and an animated short, but they are not selectable independently via chapters; the bootlegger merely recorded these extras as a single bonus feature.

Although I was initially pleasantly surprised to discover that this DVD contained both full screen and widescreen versions of the film, my excitement was short-lived when I discovered that the letterboxed version, located on the other side of the DVD, includes embedded Japanese subtitles! This version was obviously transferred from a Japanese laserdisc. I do give the Japanese laserdisc industry much credit because it released so many American-made movies, and many in widescreen format, that were never made available (in any format) domestically. I certainly purchased my share of imported Japanese laserdiscs before the advent of DVDs. But if I wanted to buy the Japanese laserdisc release of this film, I would have done just that. I'm willing to put up with hard subtitles for movies that I know will never see the light of day in any other format; however, I'm hoping the previous release of "Mandingo" indicates the future release of "Drum" in an official remastered version.

At any rate, caveat emptor!

All though this book did not follow the book exactly, it still was pretty good. I didn't really like the character they had for Hammond Maxwell but I saw Mandingo first and liked that actor better. Ken Norton played a tremedous role as Drum and as Mede in Mandingo---hats off to him. Anyone interested in the Falconhurst Series this is a must see movie!!!

Blax films released this DVD. It is a poor reproduction, apparently made overseas from a VHS tape. The wide screen version comes with subtitles in an Oriental language that cannot be switched off: They are always turned on. The picture quality and shading are extremely poor. In places, it exhibited picture rolling consistent with a VHS tape. A recording made from a film would not do this. The movie would not play for more than ten minutes in the wide screen mode without stopping and reverting back to the title screen.

I bought this movie because I wanted a wide screen, high quality reproduction. I already own this movie on VHS tape (full screen), which I bought MANY years ago. My old tape has better quality than the DVD.

Don't waste your money.

when i first saw this movie i knew that i would want to own it 5 stars to the cast of this very fine movie

the review i read under this dvd said there was a widescreen version in the extras, well there isn't. this is one of the worst pan and scans i've ever seen...murky, dark, faded, over cropped...skip it

This was the product I ordered however the copy I received is of poor quality. Seems to be a copy burned or copied
and not from the factory. Not sure I would order again from this person. I sent an email but never heard back from him.
We have purchased even used DVD's from Blockbuster's when they went out off business in our area. We never had any
problems before when purchasing from Amazon or ebay.

I had read the book by Kyle Onstott years ago and years before Roots! Kyle Onstott came out with this book around 1958, some 18 years before roots. And, although I loved roots, both the book and movie, this book was ahead of its time and the movie, to me was just as great, starring a first-time actor, former heavyweight boxing champion Ken Norton.

It really portrayed the shameful piece of American History.

I got a copy of this through Ebay and was surprised to find out that it was a bootleg with hard japanese subtitles. Not only that, but twice within the movie, it popped me back to the main menu and I had to fast forward past the glitch so that it wouldn't happen again. I eventually ended up ripping the files off the disc and creating a new DVD with them. Main menu glitch solved, but I wasn't happy at having to spend my own time to correct something so basic. So 1 star for the physical product.

As for the movie itself, I loved it and thought the audio was pretty good for being a VHS transfer. Warren Oates is definitely the highlight, his performance so endearingly rich white trash that I had a grin on my face whenever he was on screen. Ken Norton's non-acting performance was also a highlight, in an MST3K manner. When it was over, I rewatched parts of it all over again and I rarely do that with movies. It's definitely a 1970s exploitation museum piece and I hope that eventually an official DVD release is on the market.