MovieChat Forums > Song of the South (1946) Discussion > Do y'all really not get it?

Do y'all really not get it?

posted 14 years ago by eminges
63 replies | jump to latest

SOTS portrays all the happy slaves/W-2 non-exempt associates/whatever and their delightful children as completely settled in and happy about the delightful life on the big plantation. THAT'S the objection. Remus takes his tongue-lashing from Ma with an almost subvocalized, "Yassum." The movie plays the tension over Remus overstepping his bounds and getting a hiding for all its worth: how far does he dare go in challenging the white-trash boys? Is he over the line for disobeying orders from the Big House not to tell the kid any more stories? Grandma gives him a kindly twinkle when he asks humbly if she's mad at him, and the movie breathes a small sigh of relief.

The cullud folk trudge home, tired from honest labor, a-singin' their hearts out, through the beautiful countryside of the Old South. That's their place. Sally has tofu for brains and the worst dress ever to appear on the Big Screen, and she runs the show, and that's HER place. At the end, rich boy, po' white girl, puppy, and the separate-but-equal boy from the shacks go off over the hill with Remus and Br'er Rabbit, and all's right with the world.

Crap.

As far as other movies being racist, GWTW was ABOUT the Civil War, for godsake. Comparing Song of the South to Gone with the Wind is like comparing Tobacco Road with Grapes of Wrath. One degrades with its stereotypes, one tries to tell the truth.

[–] Crentapa 11 years ago

So to get this straight.

Censoring the Web, Bad.
Censoring things that Offend You, Good.

[–] GunnyD 10 years ago

People love being victims. That way when they destroy their lives in many ways they can lament that "The Man" is keeping them down and nothing is their responsibility. We live in a PC America where Free Speech has been repressed by "Honor Codes" on college campuses, in workplaces, and in public life. The GOTCHA! is the 21st centuries version of discrimination. I ain't saying that any of these things are equivocal, they aren't so STFU about Nazi's already. Are we such weak minded pussies these days that we have to suppress the re release of a Disney Classic? It seems so, and it makes me sad,

[–] lou-114 10 years ago

SotS is post Civil War, but yeah, more or less what you said. Uncle Walt is to be faulted for depicting blacks as happy in their ordained servile condition; in reality, they were still suffering violence and oppression. The practice of peonage meant that blacks could easily be convicted of vagrancy and then worked to death (sometimes literally) as prison labor, so in effect, slavery still persisted after a fashion, under a different name, as late as 1943. If you, as a black man, were lucky enough to not be roped into peonage, you were still likely working as a sharecropper for bare subsistence, you were likely denied any opportunities for economic advancement, your children's schools were separate but by no means equal, and you thrived only to whatever degree your white neighbors approved of.

Some people still won't get it, so the analogy I like to use is, suppose I were to do a cartoon about Auschwitz with happy Jews who are treated well, and there are no Zyklon-B showers. Nothing wrong with that, is there?

[–] Mayesgwtw39 10 years ago

"Some people still won't get it, so the analogy I like to use is, suppose I were to do a cartoon about Auschwitz with happy Jews who are treated well, and there are no Zyklon-B showers. "

I don't think that's an accurate analogy since sharecroppers may have lived under primitive, repressed conditions, but were not being systematically killed by the millions.

But it's probably true that they never smiled, bonded with white people or had a day in their lives to look forward to, as this picture depicts.

[–] ScarletPimpernel64 10 years ago

emineges, do YOU not see the racism in The Grapes of Wrath, which did more damage to the state of Oklahoma than any other film or book? That led to many misconceptions about this state that we are STILL attempting to erase.

"Be sure you're right, then go ahead."
Davy Crockett

[–] An_Animator 9 years ago

Why do I get the feeling that people who criticize Song of the South are people who have never actually seen the movie?

At the most they've probably just seen a few clips on Youtube or, even worse, are just going off the words of what some "social justice warrior" hack (who also has never seen the movie) wrote on their blog or Tumblr.

[–] cgrill8 9 years ago

OK, it's basically a kids movie set an older time. What we're told and how things really turned our during reconstruction is really a mix bag. Yes, the plantation depicted in SotS is 'organized' and still working. But they weren't slaves. They could go if they wanted to. Each plantation was different. Not everyone was harsh with their slaves. We only hear the horror stories, but we also were told this wasn't always the norm. Many slaves were glorified to have left the South through the Underground... some weren't. When the Civil War was over... and the slaves were 'free'. Many tried to mix into society with not so great results. Many decided not to leave the farm, because there families were there, their established churches were there and they would be paid and already had a 'job' and a skill so to speak and sometimes would go to other farms for work, to not work under their previous plantation. The integration into society was the rough part which lead to the 1960s. Yeah, we get that.

As a side note... my father in law went to his uncle's farm many years ago and he tried actually picking cotton. He said it's TIRING work, and tough on the hands...and his 2 female cousins out did the work he did which hurt his pride pretty good!

But there's a reason the parents conversation was cut short at the beginning, that was NOT going to be the focus on the movie despite the era. It was probably Disney's way of saying "Yes we're doing a story in this era, but this all we're touching on... now on with the story." The focus was Uncle Remus and the cartoons and the spoiled citified "Johnny" learns some life lessons from Remus's stories. There's even a little build up to who Remus even is. And Johnny bumps into him trying to run away - enter Bre'r Rabbit. There we go.
"How DO you do?" Song of the South may be in a bit of a volatile part of our history, but we just can't take the movie too seriously. It's not history, just an old family movie dealing with an even older time period really marketed towards kids.

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

[–] jburke293 9 years ago

Regardless of the level of racism, it cannot simply be banned. In Germany they are going through a similar struggle because the state of Bavaria owns the publication rights to Hitler's Mein Kampf. They are debating whether or not they should print another edition. They worry about the number of people who will be offended if they do, but at the same time they recognize the educational value of publishing it so that future generations will be able to see inside the mind of the dictator so they can recognize when another one is rising up before their eyes. Without Mein Kampf being circulated, another Hitler could rise to power and nobody would recognize it until it's too late and millions of people end up dead. How do you expect people to learn the lessons of the past when you are so busy burying it?

[–] laura-827 8 years ago

I get your objections, and they're valid no matter if the setting is before or after the civil war. I think the offenses are even more obvious if you imagine how the telling of the stories might have been done differently. Why did the frame feature a white child hearing the stories from Uncle Remus? Why weren't Uncle Remus's nieces and nephews featured instead?

I loved having the stories of Br'er Rabbit read to me as a young child, but I would not use this film to share the stories with young children because of the offensive framing. It might find a place in a social studies or cinema history class as a case study on how dominant cultures act on minorities.

I appreciate that Disney hasn't released this film on DVD.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] liscarkat (16576) 6 years ago

OP--Do y'all really not get it? The movie is set after the war. Uncle Remus is not a slave. Put down the bong and pay attention next time you watch it. Only a moron could find anything to be offended by in this movie. (sorry, morons)

[–] liscarkat (16576) 6 years ago

Well, somebody really doesn't get it, and it isn't we'all. Watch the movie again, and pay attention. Remus isn't a slave. I'm not talking about any book, or story--I'm talking about the movie. He's a nice old man. He lives in a cabin. He makes friends with a couple of kids and tells them funny yet wise stories. That's about it. So offensive.