February 3, 2022
MY CORNER by Boyd
Cathey
Adventures in
Southern and Confederate Cinema
Friends,
Recently
a friend of mine asked me to list my ten favorite films about the South and the
War Between the States, and to discuss the reasons I would choose them. I had
written several columns in the past about cinema that favorably portrayed the
Southland and had dealt fairly with the War Between the States, including, most
recently, the delightful early color Bing Crosby vehicle about Dan Emmett and his
composition of the unofficial Southern national anthem, “Dixie”
(1943), and also about “Firetrail,”
on Sherman’s march through the Carolinas. Before that I authored an essay about
the classic 1946 title, “Song
of the South,” and where to find good DVD copies here in the United
States, and, back in 2014, a piece for the Abbeville Institute on “Classic
Confederate Hollywood.”
Earlier
(July/August 2013) I reviewed a Blu-Ray copy of one of director John Ford’s
finest classics, “The Sun Shines Bright” (1953) in Confederate Veteran magazine.
In each
of those review essays I cautioned readers to snatch up copies before our
modern totalitarian censors got round to interdicting them and locking them up
in some inaccessible vault, away from the eyes and ears of viewers. For in
contemporary America “cancel culture” has stretched its long tentacles into
almost everything that in any way affects us. In a real sense it is the advance
phalanx of the Revolution that seeks to completely and radically change our
society and simply destroy the very memory of our past. This is true not only
in how we examine and study our history, what we read and esteem as great
literature, but especially in what is permitted (and what is banned) in our cultural
accoutrements—in music, sports, and film.
The controversies
over such classic films as “Gone With the Wind” and Disney’s “Song of South”
(1946) as racist and examples of “white supremacy” continue to generate
discussion and fierce debate. But in many ways, the forces of progressive
“wokism” have already been successful. Of course, “Gone With the Wind” is far
too significant a film to ban outright, but cautionary messages now surround
it, and when it is screened (now uniquely) on TCM, there is always an
introduction to let viewers know of its supposedly explicit and contextual
racism. For “Song of the South,” once a crown jewel in the Disney film library,
it was last dusted off and re-released to theaters in 1986. Disney’s executive chairman
and former CEO Bob Iger recently affirmed (2020) during a
shareholders meeting that the film would not be released officially in the
United States in any format, even with an "outdated cultural
depictions" label. The film was, he declared, "not appropriate in
today's world." “Song of the South,” he added was “antiquated” and
“offensive.”
It is available in
some foreign DVD transfers, but most of those in a non-American format. But as
I wrote in my Abbeville piece (July 25, 2019) “Song of the South” still can be had here in the United States in a
good transfer and in
the American DVD format.
There are a number
of other films which treat the historic South fairly, even favorably, and which
our modern-day cultural totalitarians have either not gotten round to or
perhaps don’t realize exist...yet. But they do exist, for the time being, in
the DVD format.
To begin
our chosen ten, any list of films specifically about the Southern War for
Independence must include special mention of director Ronald Maxwell’s two
blockbuster extravaganzas: “Gettysburg”
(1993) and “Gods and Generals”
(2003). Both run in excess of four hours, and both pay minute attention to historical
detail, seamlessly weaving in personal vignettes and narratives that might well
have occurred at the time. “Gettysburg” is based on Michael Shaara’s historical
novel, The Killer Angels, and “Gods
and Generals,” on his son Jeff Shaara’s novel of the same name. The younger Shaara’s novel The Last Full Measure was intended to be
the basis
for the third film in a trilogy, one leading to Appomattox, but
never made it to the screen due to lack of funding and faltering interest from
Ted Turner and Warner Brothers.
Both
films attempt to portray well-known events with comparative fairness, with a
degree of objectivity, even sympathy, for the various historical players and
their actions. In particular, the character of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, played
memorably by Stephen Lang, becomes the central personage in “Gods and
Generals,” around which much of its action takes place. “Gettysburg,” despite
its length, is a much tighter-knit film, the action and events leading up to
the third day of that momentous battle; “Gods and Generals” is more episodic
and was criticized for that very reason—it becomes almost a docu-drama in its treatment
of the beginning years of the War. Yet, Robert Duvall’s General Lee (preferable
to Martin Sheen in “Gettysburg”) and the moving scenes involving the death of
“Stonewall” Jackson are not to be missed.
Both
films are available singly on Warner DVDs, but my advice is to snatch up the
beautiful commemorative
box containing both, in director’s cut editions, expensive, yes, but
a genuine keepsake.
I’ve always been a
fan of the classic American Western film genre, basically from the beginning of
the “talkie” era (around 1929) until the early 1970s (with a few exceptions
since then). In fact I have written about the classic Western on various
occasions, most recently for Chronicles magazine (December 2021) and
for the Abbeville
Institute, LewRockwell.com, and Reckonin.com.
Over the years I’ve
discussed my passion for old Westerns and films about the South with my friend
Dr. Clyde Wilson, who is, without doubt, the country’s leading expert on
Southern and Confederate-themed films. Some time ago in our discussions of a
“Southern canon of best films,” he made an observation that the classic Western
in many ways was a “Southern,” in that so many Westerns from even before the
advent of the sound era to more contemporary times essentially treat the War or
post-War periods with a western twist. Former Confederates go west and fight
new battles to open the plains and uplands to settlers and prospectors, fend
off rustlers and crooked bank presidents, bring law and order to areas beset by
disorder, and sometimes, as in the case of the numerous films about Jesse James
and the Youngers, continue fighting the War as guerillas and Border
Bushwhackers. Randolph Scott, Audie Murphy, Joel McCrea, and others made dozens
of such “Southern Westerns.” And who can forget John Wayne in “The Searchers”?
So a list of good
films treating the Confederacy will need to also consider the “Confederacy out
West.” Indeed, some the finest movies on
the War and its aftermath are set beyond the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers,
in Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, and even California.
Two of the finest
are: “Jesse James,” in Technicolor,
released in 1939 by 20th Century Fox, and starring some the most
notable actors of the period: Tyrone Power as Jesse James, Henry Fonda as his
brother Frank, Southerner Randolph Scott as Will Wright, John Carradine as Bob
Ford, and the inimitable Henry Hull as Major Rufus Cobb, CSA. Very successful at the box office, 20th
Century Fox followed it in 1940 with “The
Return of Frank James,” with Fonda, Hull, and Carradine reprising their
earlier roles, and directed by Fritz Lang. I must admit that I like “The Return
of Frank James” even more than “Jesse James.” There is one scene—it takes place
in a court room when Frank goes on trial—where War veteran Colonel Jackson is
called to testify. Played by legendary actor, Edward McWade (1865-1943), the
unreconstructed colonel humorously taunts the Yankee attorney.
Both “Jesse James”
and “The Return of Jesse James” are on 20th Century Fox DVDs.
After their success
with the James movies, Fox followed in 1941 with another major Technicolor
adventure set in the border Missouri-Kansas region, “Belle Starr – The Bandit Queen.” Featuring Randolph Scott as
guerilla leader Sam Starr, Dana Andrews as Yankee Major Thomas Crall, and with
Gene Tierney as Belle Starr, it is perhaps the most unabashedly pro-Confederate
film of the period. Of course, its depiction of contented slaves and evil
carpetbaggers is not acceptable to our “woke” cultural censors these days.
Copies can be had in non-USA DVD formats from Great Britain, Spain, and France,
but these require a universal or PAL DVD player. But a good American format
copy may be obtained from Vermont
Movie Store; the DVD print is fine. If you desire a rousing good story,
“Belle Starr” fits the bill. Criticized for romanticizing events and distorting
history, in the movie’s defense I would reply as did the freedmen at the end of
the film: Belle Starr may be largely mythic, but as they explain: “It’s what
the white folks call a legend…[and] a legend is the best part of the truth.”
Two fine films are
set in the east during the War, and are based on actual—and remarkable—events:
“Alvarez Kelly” (1966), starring
William Holden and Richard Widmark, and based on General Wade Hampton’s famous
“Beefsteak Raid” in September 1864 around Union lines at Petersburg to capture
some 2,000 cattle intended for eventual Yankee consumption. Completely
successful, even Lincoln remarked that the feat was “the slickest piece of
cattle-stealing” he had ever heard of. “Alvarez Kelly” is available on Sony DVDs.
“The Raid,” from 1954 and directed by Hugo Fregonese, is a
largely underrated film, portraying the famous and incredibly daring
Confederate raid on St. Albans, Vermont, in October 1864. With a solid cast
headed by Van Heflin (as Confederate Major Neal Benton, the leader of the
twenty-one raiders), Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone (as the hard-nosed and
suspicious Yankee Captain Lionel Foster), and a wonderfully expansive Lee
Marvin, whose character hates all Yankees but can’t keep silent when he
has a few too many drinks, “The Raid” illustrates the nobility of Major Benton
at the end, despite his orders to burn public buildings in the town. “The Raid”
is available on a 20th
Century Fox DVD.
In the aftermath of
Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, reaction from the Federals was swift and
merciless, and often involved overriding constitutional protections and
flagrantly violating settled legal procedure. Such was the case with Mary
Surratt. A devout Maryland Catholic and Southern sympathizer, Surratt was
caught up in the frenzy to find and severely punish anyone even vaguely
associated with the assassins. The story of her arrest, mockery of a trial and
execution is told with unfolding intensity in “The Conspirator” (2010), starring Robin Wright (as Surratt), James
McAvoy (as Surratt’s attorney, Captain Frederick Aiden), and the fine character
actor, Tom Wilkinson, as Senator Reverdy Johnson, who advises Aiken. The Socialist journal, Jacobin, accused the film of promoting the “neo-Confederate Lost
Cause.” Nevertheless, the vehemence of the film and its enveloping narrative
held me spellbound when I first viewed it. It is available on a Lionsgate
DVD.
My two favorite
films about the War and the post-War South are both incredibly rich in
storylines, plot and finely-etched acting. First, there is the John Ford
classic, “The Sun Shines Bright” from
1953. In some ways it is a remake of Ford’s earlier classic, “Judge Priest”
from 1934 (starring Will Rogers). Some critics prefer that earlier filmed
version of the Irvin S. Cobb short story, but the later version with Charles
Winninger’s inimitable portrayal as the judge for me is supreme.
Of all his great
films—including “Stagecoach,” “Grapes of Wrath,” “My Darling Clementine,” “She
Wore A Yellow Ribbon,” and “The Searchers”—Ford cited this one as his favorite.
It combines all his classic traits—humor, pathos, well-developed
characterization, an ensemble cast that worked effortlessly together, and
something of Ford’s almost spiritual understanding of Americana, in this case
the South after the War. The scene of the UCV veterans trooping past at the end
is always memorable.
A marvelous,
restored Blu-Ray version of “The Sun Shines Bright” was issued
by Olive Films in 2013, and I would urge anyone interested in great-filmmaking
and the post-War South to get this film.
And, lastly, an
unheralded and unjustly neglected film in the Errol Flynn filmography: “Rocky Mountain,” from 1950. Of all the
films I’ve cited, this one may be the most straightforward, major
pro-Confederate cinematic release available. Set in the mountains of California
in the waning days of the War, the story recounts the history and fate of a
small eight-member band of Confederate soldiers sent west to raise Confederate
supporters in that Pacific state. From the start it becomes a forlorn mission,
supremely heroic but destined to fail. Starring Flynn (as CSA Captain Lafe
Barstow) and Patrice Wymore (as Johanna Carter), the film also stars Slim
Pickens, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, and other actors from Warner Brothers’
stable. During the movie, each of the Confederates, who were specially chosen
for this impossible task, relates his history and background. Young Dickie
Jones’ story of serving a meal for General Lee and about his little dog Spot, who
came with him from Virginia, steal the show. And at the end, those eight Confederates, beset by hundreds of Shoshone Indians make one final,
death-defying charge…so impressive and so moving, that even the approaching
Yankee detachment salutes their fallen sacrifice, as the swelling strains of
“Dixie” echo. And Spot? At the very end that little canine literally has tears
in his eyes!
The first time I saw
it was with a friend, and we both had drunk a couple of shots of Tennessee
Bourbon. I will admit that by the end of the movie we both had tears
streaming down our faces.
“Rocky Mountain”
(it’s in black and white) is available
on Warner Archive DVD.
That’s actually
eleven films, but there are many more out there, and many more that I could
list. But for the moment, this will have to do. My hope is that good
Southerners interested in their history and great cinema will purchase these
and other such films. In our present age, there is no telling if they will be
around tomorrow. Share them with your family and your friends, and by so doing
keep our rich cultural heritage alive.
Another good one fairly recent is "The Last Confederate" available on Amazon--
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