CSA: Confederate States Of America
Year: 2004
Grade: C
Country: USA
Director: Willmott
Reviewintriguing idea for a film, but not well-executed. it’s a fake documentary that takes place in an alternate universe in which the confederate army beat the union army. as a result, the confederacy and jefferson davis run the what we think of as the USA. the premise is ripe with potential that isn’t fully realized here. there are some good moments which poke fun at confederate sensibilities, but i would have preferred a more academically tinged examination of the potential realities given a slave based economy. some of the commercials which are created show the racist society peddling such products/businesses as “niggerhair tobacco,” “coon chicken inn” and “sambo car grease.” some of them were over the top and, rather than being funny, made me uncomfortable. meryl and i were among the few in the theater who didn’t laugh. by the film’s end it is revealed that these same products are based upon real products which were in production as late as the 1980s. beyond the idea, this was easily the best part of the film because it’s the most surprising and thought-provoking.
Watched in theater