PRO SOUTHERN RACISM!!!!

Just saw this movie and was immediately taken by how it's themes mirror those of today. Terrorism in the name of religion is ever present. There are many people who oppose abortion who use terrorist tactics and are appaluded by as many (not to the mention zealots flying jet planes into populated buildings being called martyrs by those who share their views).

I know that there are many historical inaccuracies in this movie, but this picture really takes it on with it's 'in-you-face' methods. Expecting a John Ford-type western, II found myself wondering whom to root for. It really left me thinking.

Massey's John Brown was unforgettable (Almost as good as his "Abe inoln in Illinois).

"What do you want me to do, draw a picture? Spell it out!"

It is a Warner Borthers movie, the were know back then for their revisionist history. You would of thought John Brown was the devil himself. And what is bad is that in most movies John Brown is played by Raymond Massey so his portrayal makes it seem more realistic. I swear I do not know why I look at this movie every time it comes on. I guess I can't really believe what I am seeing and hearing I have to give it another look. Not only that they got Custer and all of these folks graduating from the same class at West Point. And the villain is not only John Brown but Radar who believed slavery was so evil he was ostracized by his classmates.

I absolutely lost all respect for anyone who had anything to do with this deplorable movie!

Of course Reagan's in it. It fits perfectly with his "values." So, that is no surprise. But, Flynn?! After this, I can't watch anything else he's in without being repelled. And, Michael Curtiz actually directed this? Lord! Only "Casablanca" could partially redeem him for this. But, only partially!

"I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! [slurp!] I DRINK IT UP!" - Daniel Plainview - "There Will Be Blood"

The movie is inaccurate in most details of it's story. It would not have been unusual in the 1930s, though. If you look into almost any history textbook of that era, slavery was depicted as benign. They presented abolitionists as wrongheaded, and John Brown as a raving lunatic. The Civil War was brought on by bumbling politicians. Reconstruction was a crime perpetrated by vengeful radical Republicans against a suffering South. You see much of this in Gone with the Wind, the novel published in 1936 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

This historical view was challenged by some liberals (these interpretations would be substantially revised from the 1950s to the present), but I think it is safe to assume that Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ronald Reagan (then a Roosevelt Democrat), didn't question the politics of their script.