My sons came up with the idea a few years ago i should take p n plantation mistress to hollywood and say, real housewives of the old south. You should. But the patriot, at the same time, youre sitting there and these little freshmen come in, and why are you here, whats your interest . And they saw the film. Part of it is to get people excited about the past even if its not our past, even if its nobodys past, some fantasy past. Vampire past. And this brings us a question of what constitutes a film about slavery . Would you think of ride with the devil as a film about slavery or Cold Mountain . No. There are slaves in those films, but theyre very marginal and theyre thereubidleh almost to establish Cold Mountain had no slaves, no black voices. You see a black woman being drugged, being carried. R t hahp hc nod. And i think that was a subconscious Cold Mountain view of the world. We know theyre there, but this is our film. You even see Nicole Kidman taking refreshments out to the slaves b
Television because black and white. A con cue period but not modern. Anything even in the 1990s might offend southern advertisers. That was the idea. In some ways i think television is a medium that responds so commercially and waits for, you know, like something happens in film and then five to ten years later it becomes okay. Im thinking of this, ive been oust the country for almost ten years and i notice it in the language on television what is now acceptable. Wait. They can see that on tv . That kind of thing. On the other hand it used to be to get anything made with black characters historically as the prominent characters, the center piece, had to be done on television. Thinking about maia angelos the caged bird singing. Not a feature film. Back in the 80s i guess tv was a backup where you could afford to do things like that. Roots of course. The last, i guess, the last episode of the first series of roots still had more viewership than any other mini series period in u. S. Telev
Daughter. I think that also goes with someone and how this appeals to women and obviously it draws women in as well. So where does all of this leave us . Were almost out of time. Where does all of this leave us . I think in some ways red and scarret are potentially the most historically accurate actors. They are appealing figures both j of them. In 1939, millions of americans who might think that they would be marching off to war before long as well. Scarlets rather heady mixture of flawed, passion, endurance, determination, experiences did peeled to many people. The story in review of the film pointed out one of the earliest reviewers the novel noted its one of the virtues of her book that she presents the myth of the lost cause without being taken in by it or asking us to accept it. That she makes cheer reasons for the vitality and ultimate demise. We can see this is not true of the movie. It overindulges and wallows in lost cause roamanticism. She also describes reconstruction as a
Image of a time that never really was. Its something beautiful, romantic and exciting and they can get away from how much their lives absolutely suck. Thats why the movie industry does incredibly well during the great depression. You wouldnt think it does well, but it does incredibly well for that reason. So we are to the point where we talk about what the movie does right. 12 minutes left. How does the movie measure up historically speaking when dealing with some of the elite white characters and their lives. Better or worse than how they deal with africanamericans . Hard to be worse than the treatment of africanamericans, so then better. So Laura Michael and brooke at the beginning talk about, i think, sort of overall southern white perceptions of race. And brooke makes the argument both of them make the argument that this is an accurate depiction of the way whites perceived the way things went or an accurate portrayal of the souths memory of that time at that time. So again to that
Its 150 years since the u. S. Civil war and a number of countre are under way this year and next to mark the occasion. Over the next new hours, were going to take a look at hollywoods perception of the issues. Now, a panel of history professors traces slavery as depicted in films in the 1930s. This hour and a half event is from the society from civil war historians bihandle meeting in baltimore. In the past two years, three feature filmses who focus is american slavery and emancipation have been released to positive and often glowing reviews and all of them were profitable. Django unchained made 160 milli million. Lincoln made 182 million. 12 years a slade made 26 million but only cost 26 million to make. Roughly the same. This mini upsurge has provoked a lot of debate and discussion about the depictions of slavery and freedom of film and other forms of media, visual media and television and documentary, youtube shorts and different series. We are continue iing that conversation today.