What would have happened if France and Britain had intervened on the part of the South in the battle of Gettysburg? According to this fantasy, the South would have taken Washington, Lincoln would have tried to escape to Canada in blackface with the help of Harriet Tubman, abolitionists would likewise have moved north, slavery would have become perfectly legal in the North and the South, and then things would have gotten REALLY twisted.
The movie purports to be a history of the Confederate States of America and, whimsical and funny as it often is, has enough resonance with history and current events to take some of the wind out of that laughter. In 1960, Nixon is the Democratic candidate and John F. Kennedy the Republican who is looking for a reason to free the slaves. JFK is assassinated anyway. The current president, John Ambrose Fauntroy, is accused of having Negro blood because one of his ancestors of mixed race was adopted into his family. Fauntroy argues, "I tell you, my great-great-granddaddy did not have relations with that woman!"
Hitler becomes the conqueror of Europe and a close family friend of the Fauntroys, although the CSA did not manage to talk him out of his attempt to exterminate Jews in Europe because they would be more valuable as live slaves. Japan was a different matter because they were small, treacherous, and non-white, so the CSA Pearl Harbored them.
There are satires of historical movies, showing the sentimental Northern attachment to "the lost cause." And an excerpt from a movie during the CSA's war to conquer the continent of "Southern America" and convert the countries into vast slave plantations. The featured character here is "Sergeant Striker," the name of John Wayne's character in "Sands of Iwo Jima." In this scene, the CSA is losing the war for Southern America because there are so many enemies. Amost weeping with frustration, Striker shouts, "Is everybody black, brown, red, or yellow? Let's kill 'em all and let God sort them out!" Canada, with its multitude of anti-slavery people, becomes an enemy during the Cold War and a Cotton Curtain is built across the CSA's northern border.
There are phony "commercials" interpolated, advertising such products as The Slave Shopping Network, Better Homes and Plantations, Jigaboo Toothpaste, and others that had better not be mentioned.
It's an inexpensive film. Much of the effort seems to have gone into the writing because there are times when the script is hilarious. But the hilarity has a sharp and angry edge to it. The film is about one half-step away from being anti-American. The USA has often been a subject of some ridicule and a source of a good many jokes, but the jibes have almost always been good-natured, with the USA pictured as bumbling perhaps, naive, vulgar, puritanical, but fundamentally decent and well-intentioned. This is a different kind of joke. It's unfortunate that at this late stage of the game, it may be as much educational as entertaining.
The movie purports to be a history of the Confederate States of America and, whimsical and funny as it often is, has enough resonance with history and current events to take some of the wind out of that laughter. In 1960, Nixon is the Democratic candidate and John F. Kennedy the Republican who is looking for a reason to free the slaves. JFK is assassinated anyway. The current president, John Ambrose Fauntroy, is accused of having Negro blood because one of his ancestors of mixed race was adopted into his family. Fauntroy argues, "I tell you, my great-great-granddaddy did not have relations with that woman!"
Hitler becomes the conqueror of Europe and a close family friend of the Fauntroys, although the CSA did not manage to talk him out of his attempt to exterminate Jews in Europe because they would be more valuable as live slaves. Japan was a different matter because they were small, treacherous, and non-white, so the CSA Pearl Harbored them.
There are satires of historical movies, showing the sentimental Northern attachment to "the lost cause." And an excerpt from a movie during the CSA's war to conquer the continent of "Southern America" and convert the countries into vast slave plantations. The featured character here is "Sergeant Striker," the name of John Wayne's character in "Sands of Iwo Jima." In this scene, the CSA is losing the war for Southern America because there are so many enemies. Amost weeping with frustration, Striker shouts, "Is everybody black, brown, red, or yellow? Let's kill 'em all and let God sort them out!" Canada, with its multitude of anti-slavery people, becomes an enemy during the Cold War and a Cotton Curtain is built across the CSA's northern border.
There are phony "commercials" interpolated, advertising such products as The Slave Shopping Network, Better Homes and Plantations, Jigaboo Toothpaste, and others that had better not be mentioned.
It's an inexpensive film. Much of the effort seems to have gone into the writing because there are times when the script is hilarious. But the hilarity has a sharp and angry edge to it. The film is about one half-step away from being anti-American. The USA has often been a subject of some ridicule and a source of a good many jokes, but the jibes have almost always been good-natured, with the USA pictured as bumbling perhaps, naive, vulgar, puritanical, but fundamentally decent and well-intentioned. This is a different kind of joke. It's unfortunate that at this late stage of the game, it may be as much educational as entertaining.