BEFORE: Continuing with the loose theme of the U.S. South, and race relations therein, I move to tonight's film, which I've tried to watch twice before. It played at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004, the last time I was there, and I either couldn't get tickets to it or couldn't work it into my schedule. Since I missed it there, I tried a couple years later to watch it, but just couldn't get through it. I'm determined to try again.
THE PLOT: Through the eyes of a british "documentary", this film takes a satirically humorous, and sometimes frightening, look at the history of an America where the South won the Civil War.
AFTER: Ah, now I remember why I couldn't get through this film before - it's flat-out BORING. With a capital B. It SHOULD be an interesting premise - if the South had won the Civil War, what would America (AmeriKKKa?) look like today? But it's presented in such a flat, droning, info-based style that they didn't really emphasize any exciting aspects of that premise.
To recap: in this alt-timeline, the Confederacy called on England and France's help to win the Civil War, New York City and Boston are burned to the ground instead of Atlanta, and General Grant surrenders to General Lee. Harriet Tubman tries to help Abe Lincoln escape to Canada, but they are captured. Lincoln is exiled from the U.S. and dies in Canada in 1905.
Thanks to the beneficial (!) economic aspects of slavery, the C.S.A. expands to take over Mexico, the Caribbean and parts of South America, but for some reason Alaska still belongs to Russia. A wall is built on the border with Canada, all non-Christian religions are abolished in the CSA, and Jews are forced to live on reservations.
Time moves on, and the CSA is friendly with Nazi Germany, but remains neutral in the European part of World War II. War breaks out with Japan, however, but instead of the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, the CSA bombs Kyoto on Dec. 7, 1941. Some things still remain the same in this timeline - the use of atomic bombs to win the war in Japan, JFK getting assassinated (though I don't see how a Yankee like Kennedy got elected president in this timeline...) and the Vietnam War was still a problem.
The rest of the film is set in the alt-present day, and interviews with a Senator, a conservative Southerner and a black Canadian woman are supposed to highlight how different this society would be from the one that we know. But again, boring boring boring. Nothing was done to make these interviews rise above what they are - just talkie talkie talkie. I kept falling asleep AGAIN, and when that happens, this is my general rule - after rewinding several times to the point I nodded off, I gave up and went to sleep for real. I would have made one last attempt to finish the film last night, but I was out at a beer dinner so I came home fairly wasted, and I don't think I could have lasted for the final half hour of the film.
But it does raise one interesting question - when is it OK to show white actors in blackface. Umm, how about NEVER? Oh, but this is being done to highlight how insensitive society used to be about racial issues.... Nope, still never. Ah, but this is an alternate timeline, where the racism of the Old South was maintained into the late 20th Century. Yes, but you made the film in THIS timeline, in THIS century, so I'm sticking with never.
It might be interesting to think that "Gone With the Wind" would be titled "A Northern Wind" in this scenario, and a 50's sitcom titled "Leave It to Beulah", featuring a bumbling black maid - OK, I'll let that one slide. But a "Cops"-type reality show where fugitive slaves are tracked down? Fake commercials for Coon Chicken Inn, Darkie Toothpaste and Niggerhair cigarettes? These are just plain indefensible.
But in addition to being boring, the film is also ultimately pointless - even if you assume that America COULD look like this had the Civil War ended differently, what does that even prove? Not a thing.
Starring Rupert Pate, Evamarii Johnson, Larry Peterson
RATING: 1 out of 10 abolitionists
You just didn't see it in an ideal environment. I promise you that if you watch it at home, on the sofa, while surfing the web and occasionally changing the channel when things drag, it's not a dull movie at all.
ReplyDeleteThere's just no story here. This is fan fiction, full of half-realized ideas and self-distraction. And even putting aside how lame these concepts are, they're poorly executed.
One note, though: I think "Nigger Hair" was an actual brand of tobacco. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the product names you mentioned were taken from reality. You look at how casual this kind of racism once was and you're all agog.
Of course, there's still Aunt Jemima pancake syrup, isn't there? Though you could make the case that the brand has lost all connection to its racist origins in the mind of modern consumers. I remember being a kid and looking at the picture of the nice middle-class mom on the package and thinking "Isn't it a nice sign of progress that a company doesn't automatically pick a white person as the fake spokesperson for a home foods brand?" I thought the same thing about Uncle Ben. Why would a little kid look at a picture of a nice, normal-looking man in a bowtie and think "Oh, well, that's a racist figure"?
I concur with Andy, Nigger Hair and a lot of the brands used were actually brands, some of which I believed were used in other countries until fairly recently.
ReplyDeleteI actually thought this film was worthwhile, as it always interesting to see an alternative present.