(no subject)

[wickedflea]

I'm watching Sling Blade again, and I can say that, in general, it's bullshit. There are parts of it I love, but so much of the dialogue and acting would make the pope weep. I hate supposedly realistic but ultimately overblown and false depictions of the South.

I'm curious--those Southerners out there: what movies do you think get it right?

edit: OK, it's a good and touching movie. But some of it bugs the shit out of me.

Comments

[newboro.livejournal.com]

i have a lot of family in the south. i spent many summers in tennessee as a kid. i'm not sure i found those depictions overblown and false.

that movie sounded like the south, if that makes any sense. kind of a thick silence between the words. well, you have to spend some time there to know what i mean.

in spike lee's "Crooklyn," when they visited the southern relatives... that felt dead on.

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

Heh. I lived 30 years in the South--28 in Mississippi and 2 in SW Virginia. So (and not to be argumentative) I know of what I speak. I know that not everyone you meet in a small town in the South sounds straight out of Green Acres. In fact, I knew very few people who sounded as extreme as EVERY character in Sling Blade.

[newboro.livejournal.com]

it's entirely possible the southerners of my youth (as well as my relative) only sound that extreme to my northern ears. sling blade, to me, didn't sound like hee haw the way something like Driving Miss Daisy did.

i think hollywood, in general, exaggerates regional and ethnic characteristics. the boston accents in mystic river jump to mind immediately. as does James Gandolfini's character on the sopranos.

america loves cartoon versions.