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Film review: C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004)
So. Pretend you’re sitting down at home to watch the must-see British documentary of the year. It’s so controversial, you’re even willing to sit through the commercials. Now pretend you live, not in the United, but the Confederate States of America. And that the documentary is about the history of your great nation.
Oh, you should probably also assume you’re white.
Because this fake-doc is an exercise in alternate universe building. The South was able to convince France and England to come into the Civil War on their side. The Confederacy won. Lincoln went into hiding, Davis became prez, the North was re-introduced to slavery, and Canada became the cultural hotspot of the western world. Leaving lots of really bad actors to play in this doc’s recreation of history, it must be said.
This fascinating idea is presented complete with commercials whose offensiveness rises with each break. Think Aunt Jemima times a million. In between a fake history of subjugation, false science, non-suffrage for women, and the inevitability of the Kennedy assassination in any timeline, we are introduced to a vision of what it would be like to live in this world. Advertising extrapolated from actual products and campaigns now deemed too politically incorrect to even mention. (If you saw Ghost World, you have a clue as to the kind of thing I’m talking about.) And that’s not even including the rampant blackface employed.
This is a tricky film, because there’s a fine line between laughing uncomfortably and turning something off. For my part, I was laughing, and then I was staring open-mouthed, and then I was frantically trying to work out how I felt about their version of history and if it jibed with what I’d extrapolate from their initial premise. Not all of it rings accurate for me; many of the extrapolations made seemed to be for the sake of creating a nation like ours in all but slavery, and that required some fudging of the likely outcomes of, say, the two world wars. And the film would have been much better served by acting that made me believe the clips of “historical films” and commercials were actually real. But its treatment of racial issues is bold in the extreme, even if, in the end, all you’ve really learned is how offensive this country can be. Some may argue that the film is too offensive itself and be made uncomfortable by the (satirically intended) humorous take on slavery; but it’s also a confrontation with our dark history, and a valiant piece of work.
Oh, you should probably also assume you’re white.
Because this fake-doc is an exercise in alternate universe building. The South was able to convince France and England to come into the Civil War on their side. The Confederacy won. Lincoln went into hiding, Davis became prez, the North was re-introduced to slavery, and Canada became the cultural hotspot of the western world. Leaving lots of really bad actors to play in this doc’s recreation of history, it must be said.
This fascinating idea is presented complete with commercials whose offensiveness rises with each break. Think Aunt Jemima times a million. In between a fake history of subjugation, false science, non-suffrage for women, and the inevitability of the Kennedy assassination in any timeline, we are introduced to a vision of what it would be like to live in this world. Advertising extrapolated from actual products and campaigns now deemed too politically incorrect to even mention. (If you saw Ghost World, you have a clue as to the kind of thing I’m talking about.) And that’s not even including the rampant blackface employed.
This is a tricky film, because there’s a fine line between laughing uncomfortably and turning something off. For my part, I was laughing, and then I was staring open-mouthed, and then I was frantically trying to work out how I felt about their version of history and if it jibed with what I’d extrapolate from their initial premise. Not all of it rings accurate for me; many of the extrapolations made seemed to be for the sake of creating a nation like ours in all but slavery, and that required some fudging of the likely outcomes of, say, the two world wars. And the film would have been much better served by acting that made me believe the clips of “historical films” and commercials were actually real. But its treatment of racial issues is bold in the extreme, even if, in the end, all you’ve really learned is how offensive this country can be. Some may argue that the film is too offensive itself and be made uncomfortable by the (satirically intended) humorous take on slavery; but it’s also a confrontation with our dark history, and a valiant piece of work.
no subject
BTW, your CD arrived today, my sister's been here so I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but shall tomorrow!
no subject
Yay! I can't believe it took this long--I'm so sorry! I sent it ages ago. Enjoy!
no subject
In the movie CSA, the problem is this. It's "cute" to show European history continuing on the same trajectory with or without the USA - cute to show WW I, and Hitler, etc. as if nothing changed. However, it's not historically plausible. A CSA as shown in the film would NOT have gotten involved in World War I. There would have been no President Woodrow Wilson to call for a constitutional amendment to enact a federal income tax and go to war.
Even if the CSA had gone to war, let's say to support England (who would have been an ally from the War of Northern Aggression), it is doubtful that the country as it was under confederate rule could have had the significant linchpin presence it would have in that war.
As I see it, a CSA on the N. American continent would have resulted in one of two options - either a Europe in which WW I was not fought (and which had no Communist revolution in Russia), or one in which WW I was fought and the Germans won.
In either event, a win or no war would have probably precluded the downfall of the Kaisers and the rise of Nazism. Without WW I, Great Britain would have retained most of her imperial holdings - as would have Germany and maybe even France.
IOW, without a clear Union victory in 1865, the face of European history would have been significantly changed.
Also, there's no reason why the CSA couldn't have categorically invaded, occupied, and subdued Canada. Unfortunately the director let his point overtake historical and military plausibility.
But the graphics and cultural satire were hysterically funny, and really well done.
no subject
At some point, I just had to sit back and watch it, mostly for the commercials and stuff (as I thought that made their point somewhat better) and not attend too much to the "historical" details. It wasn't worked out carefully enough; perhaps because the film needed a CSA that was like the USA in all but the key ways. One other thing they didn't address was the economic impact of continued slavery and what that would mean. I don't rightly know, but it would have done something.
Hmm. I need to revise my review.
no subject
Hope I'm not geeking out too much historically - but the reasons the South lost the Civil War were a tad bit overlooked in this film. The South was deliberately agrarian by policy. They chose not to build railroads. They would have rather bought their manufactured goods from Great Britain rather than build their own factories (God forbid!) or buy them from NY and MA. Consequently at the onset of the war, they were already at a serious military / infrastructure disadvantage.
They were seriously depending upon weapons and materièl help from Great Britain. But British support vanished when the English realized that American ironclads had for all practical purposes rendered the Royal Navy obsolete. There was no way Brittania was going to risk a military confrontation with the US. Thus the South found itself essentially isolated. The Atlantic and Gulf seacoasts were blockaded. St. Louis almost imediately was put under federal occupation and the Mississippi River secured for the Union. That the Confederacy managed to hang on as long as they did was incredible.
I liked the points in the film about the "brain drain." That's one reason I don't think the "CSA" in the film would have been able to make that much of an impact in a 1910s-era European war. Those things that made America a military and economic powerhouse from 1865 to 1915 (and thus capable of mobilizing for WW I) would most likely not have happened.