MovieChat Forums > Song of the South (1946) Discussion > Fun fact: This movie has never been bann...

Fun fact: This movie has never been banned.


Its funny how so many people think this was banned in the us when it is simply not true. It was released on vhs and when disney was re-rleasing their films on dvd THEY decided not to release this one.


Never, ever was this film banned on a national, or state level.

Also, subtle racism exist, and this is a prime example of it. Black people happily serving their masters post civil war isn't racist??? yes it is. Just because nobody is lynched or uses the n word in the movie, doesn't mean its not racist.

Yes, nothing overtly racist happens, but the racial implications are very clear.

Regardless, this movie is boring as hell. Even if you can't see the racism, its a dull watch and I can see three reasons why an adult would defend it.


1. Its a film from their childhood that they would like to watch from a nostalgic view.

2. They are hyper sensitive to censorship and have some paranoid, wild notion that it is compromising their freedom. Even though they have experienced little adversity in their life, have benefited from racial hierarchies and have the highest possible social status.

3. They are racist.

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It was certainly never "banned". (Is that even possible?). However, it was never released on VHS or any other home video format IN THE USA. There were VHS releases in countries such as England. There were Laser Disc releases in Asia. No official DVD releases anywhere.

More info can be found here http://www.songofthesouth.net/faq/index.html

 Excuse me for talking while you're interrupting.

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(Is that even possible?)
No, at least not in the US with its First Amendment.

My name is Colin Creevey
and I’m a photoholic.

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Yeah, it's super *beep* up to make a film in the forties which in the context of the time very progressively shows a black man being kind to a bunch of kids regardless of their color, white people not being afraid of said black man, and in the meantime, educating a whole country of white kids about Gullah folklore.

Oh yeah--the white trash kids are the villains and scumbags of the piece.

It also erases James Baskett's accomplishment in his winning a special Oscar--in 1946, no less. You can let that sink in for a minute or three and then tell me how long it took Hollywood to consider black actors for Oscars after this one.

You're the racist here.

P.S. It's very easily viewed and also bought. Not as an official Disney release no, but it is frankly everywhere online.

-------------------------
"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch

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[deleted]

We were taught in school that not all plantation owners were 'evil' or bad to their slaves... so once the War was over... the people that considered the plantation their homes... where their family/church... were had a hard time leaving too. I mean have you seen how MUCH a slave cost back in those days!? I don't have that kind of money NOW! The owner would try to get the whole family, but would sometimes runs out of money, and that's when some of the families would become separated some what. But they really would try to 'buy' the lot so to speak... that sounds bad I know... but it's somewhat true. So when there is an area of workers all together, they were allowed to worship together in their own churches! Even before the War ended. What we hear the most are the farm owners with the MOST money that were terrible to their workers... not ALL of them were. And that's the rub, no one wants to hear, and what isn't really told in all this... I am not defending slavery by ANY means, but most of the stories that have been passed down were all the negatives... good things happened to good people to, but that's never news... so we rarely hear about the good from that era, only the bad, because that's all they want us to know.


3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!

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I remember in school that if a slave picked 5 pounds of cotton one day and then six the next, he/she would be whipped because the day before they were slacking off and should have pick 6 pounds. If they picked 4 pounds the following day they would get whipped because the day before they picked 5 pounds so they must have been slacking off the day they picked 4 pounds. Years later I realized that the human body cou,d not take that much whipping and even if it could, would you want to damage it so much it can't do anything?

The impression I got in school was that slavery was widespread in the South, now I know that only 1% of the population owned slaves and the vast majority owned less than five. The large "bullwhip cracking" plantations were rare.

Slavaery was a horrible thing, I don't know why my teachers had to lie to make it seem even worse.

'Truth is like poetry. And most people *beep* hate poetry.

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We were taught in school that not all plantation owners were 'evil' or bad to their slaves... so once the War was over... the people that considered the plantation their homes... where their family/church... were had a hard time leaving too. I mean have you seen how MUCH a slave cost back in those days!? I don't have that kind of money NOW! The owner would try to get the whole family, but would sometimes runs out of money, and that's when some of the families would become separated some what. But they really would try to 'buy' the lot so to speak... that sounds bad I know... but it's somewhat true. So when there is an area of workers all together, they were allowed to worship together in their own churches! Even before the War ended. What we hear the most are the farm owners with the MOST money that were terrible to their workers... not ALL of them were. And that's the rub, no one wants to hear, and what isn't really told in all this... I am not defending slavery by ANY means, but most of the stories that have been passed down were all the negatives... good things happened to good people to, but that's never news... so we rarely hear about the good from that era, only the bad, because that's all they want us to know.

Maybe your not trying to defend slavery but you are putting some kind of spin on it that in some ways it wasn't all bad.
There is not one good thing at all ever about slavery.
I also want the truth but to suggest that somehow a slave owner being good to them is a good thing is like suggesting that taking cyanide is better than rat poison.
There just cannot be anything at all good anywhere or anytime of buying, selling and making another human being work against his or her will for zero pay.

Humans are not the only species on earth.
We just act like it.

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I heard they were going to digitally alter the film and wherever any blacks appear in a servile nature, they're going to use CGI to make the black characters flip people off. Also, the scene where Hattie McDaniel is making a pie and singing, the song will be replaced with a cover of Menace Clan's Kill Whitey.

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