When ex-blues musician Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) finds the town nymphomaniac Rae (Christina Ricci) left for dead on the side of the road, he vows to nurse her back to health…and cure her of her wickedness. Until then, she’ll be chained to the immovable radiator in his home. But Lazarus has demons of his own: his wife just left him for his own brother. While Lazarus and Rae struggle to fix their broken lives, the situation threatens to explode as Rae’s boyfriend Ronnie (Justin Timberlake) — a roughneck soldier just back from Iraq — comes searching for his missing lover.The lurid scenario–a nymphomaniacal white trash nymphet (Christina Ricci) is held prisoner by a bitter bluesman (Samuel L. Jackson)–gives way to an affecting tale of redemption in Black Snake Moan, writer/director Craig Brewer’s follow-up to the acclaimed Hustle & Flow. Lazarus (Jackson, Jungle Fever, Pulp Fiction) finds Rae (Ricci, Monster, The Ice Storm) beaten unconscious on the road in front of his backwoods house. After bringing her inside, he learns of her wanton ways and decides to exorcise his own demons by curing Rae of her sexual compulsion. Black Snake Moan could have been terrible, but Brewer takes his story seriously enough to dig into the genuine emotions of such a situation (though along the way he certainly flirts with sexploitation overtones–several scenes look like they were plucked straight out of a hitherto unknown 1970s trash classic). Ricci, Jackson, and the supporting cast (including pop star Justin Timberlake, giving a surprisingly good performance as Rae’s boyfriend) treat the characters with respect, honesty, and humor. The result is off-kilter and maybe a little too fond of its sleazy cinematic forbears to truly hit the emotional notes it’s after, but Black Snake Moan has considerably more substance than its marketing would suggest. –Bret Fetzer
Beyond Black Snake Moan
 The Soundtrack |
 More Music Stars on DVD |
 More DVDs with Samuel L. Jackson |
Stills from Black Snake Moan (click for larger image)
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Buy “Black Snake Moan” For Only $9.75
March 5, 2010
#1
I never had a chance to watch this DVD due to the fact it would not play. I tried 3 different players with no luck. I returned it for a replacement. I received the replacement and it would not play either. Would love to have this DVD, but it has got to play. I think you receive a bad shipment. I’ve never had any problems with the many other DVDs I have bought from Amazon. Please check and see if you had any others returns of this DVD. Thank You
Larry Bishop
March 5, 2010
#2
First of all, this is an opinion, and we all know what opinions are like. Secondly, with a do respect, I don’t share the same conclusion, nor do I see what the other viewers saw, but what I saw was an absolute mess. This movie is not good. Don’t get me wrong, I like Christina Ricci. I think most of her movies push the envelope, and she made me fan for life with her role in “Monster”. The same goes for Sam Jackson. Sam is just Sam, what else can I say, but he always brings it. However, neither one of them could save this movie. Even Justin Timberlake’s performance was much better than expected, but he couldn’t save this either. I think this is a film where the writing just sucks with a capital S. Forgive me, but I wasn’t impressed in the least by seeing a movie about a woman in the South sleeping with any and everything with a heartbeat. Is the the best they could do? For real, this movie isn’t realistic at all. Not to mention, this movie gets so boring so fast that it’ll make your head spin. By the end, I didn’t care what happened I just wanted it to be over. Believe me, I really tried to give it a fair chance and make myself finish this movie, but I just didn’t like it at all. Christina Ricci plays Rae, a woman with an extreme sexual addiction. It’s not surprising at all that this behavior is a result of molestation. Anyway, Rae sleeps around with everyone in town, and everybody knows it. Sam Jackson plays Lazarus, a man who’s wife has left him for his younger brother. One night, after Rae has had another one of her sexual encounters and is left in the middle of nowhere practically naked, her boyfriend’s friend picks her up. After she comes on to him, he beats her down, and thinking that’s he’s killed her, he pushes her out of the front seat of his car and leaves her for dead. Lazarus finds her and nurses her back to health so to speak. It’s during this time that he’s realized that his purpose in life is to help this lost soul. Rae wakes up bound by huge chains around her waiste, so she can’t leave and give in to her sexual desires any longer. This is Laz’s way of ridding her of the inner demons that make her do these things. Anyway, that’s about it, end of story. What was good about that? I still wanna know.
March 5, 2010
#3
An incredibly stupid and unnecessary, as well as surprisingly dull, exploitation flick about a troubled white gal and the black blues guitarist who tries to save her from herself. Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci wasted themselves in this. Were they hard up for money or what? Only worth watching for Justin Timberlake.
March 5, 2010
#4
One can’t help but feel like a disappointed sideshow customer at the end of Black Snake Moan. Instead of two hours of demented sleaze as promised by the publicity (Christina Ricci chained to a radiator in her underwear!), it’s yet another Magic Negro movie, in which a wise, asexual black man solves the white folks’ problems. Despite the naughty language and the blues music on the soundtrack, Black Snake Moan is an incredibly undaring movie, the kind you go to see with your parents in order to get out of the house on Thanksgiving weekend (especially since elderly PBS viewers are the only people left who still listen to the blues).
March 5, 2010
#5
the theatrical promos show a black man with a half naked white girl at his feet in chains, sort of a reverse slavery picture only of course this black man has really GOOD intentions for the white girl in chains, one wonders if the racial roles were reversed showing a white man with a black girl in chains at his feet, of course being white he would not be so unselfishly benevolant.
i mean please, the title itself should be a give away, BLACK SNAKE? whats the movie got to do with a snake? MOAN? the sexual refrence is obvious except to the most obtuse. this is whats now called ‘playing the race card’ or black exploitation film.
besides that its a film about a man who has no training in counseling, no training, in psychology, a man who couldnt keep his own marriage together being so arrogant as to believe he could ‘help’ someone with a serious mental disorder, (or not depending on your view) by chaining her up.
his own mental issues and internal fantasy world in which he finds he must help this half naked girl to find his own personal redemption should be the real story.
so what qualifies this person to be the great saviour of wayward nymphets? well he is or was a musician, and we all know of course that musicians can accomplish what others can only dream of doing. this movie reminds me of a book variable star that promotes the near deification of musicians, but in that book which is full of ‘trained’ counselors no one thinks twice about the girl who is going to have sex with everyman on the space ship before the journeys end. our gal in chains was born too soon to be a fully accepted nymphet, in our time she’s fair game to be humiliated, chained, and her mind altered by a blues musician to get her ‘normal’ again.
how about for black snake II he chain up a ‘gay man’ to cure him of his promiscuous ways? black snake III will be lesbians, then Iv will be chronic masturbators. oh the possiblities.
this movie isnt just bad, its absurd.