Has Anybody Else Seen "C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America"?

[Paladin]

What a brilliant, painful, funny and valuable movie, now available on DVD. It's a British-made mock documentary---a perfect rip-off of Ken Burns' PBS Civil War series---depicting the history of this country as if the Confederates won the "War of Northern Aggression." You get to witness the Stars and Bars being hoisted by Marines over Mt. Suribachi; the erection of the "Cotton Curtain" to stop the influence of abolitionists in Canada; and the assassination of JFK because of his emancipation plans. And a whole bunch of glossy TV ads for things like The Slave Shopping Network and Big Coon Fried Chicken restaurants. Oh, yeah: in keeping with historical accuracy, it's the Democratic Party that favors slavery.

And check out the denouement, where it's made clear how many of the outrageous events and advertised products actually existed.

Great stuff, worthy of your time and consideration. And a perfect Christmas gift for any pain-in-the-ass Neo-Confederates you might know.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

1. I really want to see this

It just opened theatrically (although in very limited release) here so I'm hoping the DVD won't be too far behind.

Have you seen Lars Von Trier's last film, Manderlay? Highly recommended if not.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342735/

[Paladin]

2. I Don't Know If It Even Played Here In The Houston Area

If it did, it was at an art house theater, for just a few days. The reviews of it were excellent. Definitely worth renting at Blockbuster, if you don't get to see it on the big screen.

And I'll check out "Manderlay." Thanks for the tip.....

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

6. I just checked & it's getting a UK DVD release in November!

From what I gather it's hardly had any theatrical release outside of film festivals, althoguh it's the sort of film that should be served well on DVD through word of mouth (& especially with online rentals).

[CrushTheDLC]

12. I doubt Blockbuster would touch a movie like that.

Unless they censored the Hell out of it first.

[tularetom]

3. Sounds like something G. Felix Allen would watch and

jerk off to.

[chat_noir]

4. it's on my reserve list at the library

Either they have only one copy, or the demand is great, because it's taking forever for it to come up in my queue.

[WolverineDG]

5. it's now in my netflix queue

I noticed it there last week when I did some random looking around for new titles.

dg

[Kickoutthejams23]

7. Threw it on my queue as well

Looks like lots of fun. Always had a soft spot for Mockumentries

[pepperbear]

8. I saw it and thought it was excellent, very plausible timeline. n/t

[Paladin]

9. Hope All Of You Enjoy It

I think it serves as a terrific cautionary tale, given all the Neo-Confederates running around these days and proclaiming the supposed glories of Southern "heritage."

[Scout1071]

10. British made? Nope. Kansas made.

Written and directed by Kevin Willmott, Professor from The University of Kansas.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0932551 /

[Pab Sungenis]

11. Completely implausible.

Any "alternate history" story needs a somewhat plausible premise, and this one lacks one.

The South didn't set out to conquer the North and impose slavery on them. They were seeking their independence. Had they won at Gettysburg and been recognized by England and France, they would have sought an armistice along the lines of the Treaty of Paris (1783), recognizing their independence. They would not have sought to subjugate the North.

[fishwax]

15. it is implausible, but the movie is still worthwhile

it certainly isn't an alternate history in rigorous and exacting detail, but rather playing more on the broad strokes. It certainly requires some suspension of disbelief: the filmmakers chose to have the south rolling into washington d.c. after securing support from european powers--they made this choice, I presume, because they wanted to compare more of a parallel history rather than an alternate history, and having the south expand only southward by subjugating central and south american states would have prevented them from making various points that they wished to make.

Certainly the south had no immediate plans to try to conquer the north, but I don't think an independent peace would last for long. Many of the same disagreements that festered in the leadup to the civil war, such as northern state's treatment of runaway slaves or the rights to expansion, etc., would not have gone away, and another conflict would have been all but inevitable. (After all, despite the oft-cited "state's rights" justification, southern states actually wanted the federal government to exercise greater authority in northern states with respect to the fugitive slave act, for instance.)

[Yupster]

16. Should the Confederacy get its independance, I

don't know why there would be more warfare.

On the contrary, I'd expect more of a US-Canada relationship. Instead of two democracies in N America in 1900, there'd be three. Otherwise I wouldn't anticipate too much difference.

As far as expansion, I wouldn't be surprised to see Cuba, or Hispaniola or Panama as Confederate states or territories. Why push against the much stronger USA for a bunch of desert when you can pluck much better lands to the south at much lower cost.
lands to the south.

I'd expect the two countries would work pretty closely together in foreign policy since it would be in both their interest's to keep the Europeans out of their hemisphere.

The idea that slavery would still be alive in the year 2000 is just a laugh. Hell, even Brazil eventually ended slavery. I would expect a gradual manumission based on the Jamaica model and financed in part by private groups in the USA.

For a different viewpoint, Harry Turtledove wrote a series on the topic where he projects constant warfare which I find unlikely. Why in the heck would either the USA or CSA get involved in European wars, especially on opposite sides. I don't see what would be in it for them. More likely they either work together to make one side or the other win, or work together to keep the war away from their shores.

There have been hundreds of stories based on this premise though.

[fishwax]

17. But there would be two powers in this hemisphere

instead of one, and I don't think our interests would necessarily align. I agree that the U.S. would have a vastly different relationship (though there could be sources of contention there as well).

Confederate leaders had plans to expand into Cuba, Mexico, and Central America. It wouldn't be in our interests to allow that to happen, and so the U.S. would have to compete with the C.S. over influence in Central America, which would naturally be a source of tension. I agree with you about Europe and getting involved in European Wars, but we'd have enough intracontinental cause for conflict. For the U.S., control of the Panama Canal would certainly be worth going to war for.

Fugitive slaves would continue to be a huge problem between USA and CSA, and could also be a source of contention with respect to the territories as well. Abolitionists would likely continue in their efforts to free slaves through various means, and this too would be a source of conflict. Again, the south wasn't merely upset at the federal government meddling in their affairs, they were also upset that the feds didn't meddle enough (in their view) in northern states. That kind of tension wouldn't just disappear.

Although I'm sure slavery would have changed form, I don't think it at all absurd to posit that the institution would have continued through the year 2000. (The truth, of course, is that there are people in slavery today.) What form that would take is certainly an open question. Perhaps it would have been peacably abolished. But then again, if the reigning power in the hemisphere still embraced slavery, would Brazil have abolished it in 1888? Doubtful. (Incidentally, the royal decree that abolished slavery in Brazil led to the overthrow of the monarchy one year later.)

Really, however interesting alternate histories may be, there's really no way to tell what would have happened--with slavery, with nroth america, with the nuclear bomb ...

[annabanana]

13. DVD available at Amazon. . . .n/t

[tinfoil tiaras]

14. I wanna see it

Because I just know when I see it, it'll be like my favorite movie everrrrr