(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

[buscemi.livejournal.com]

Don't laugh, but I thought Fried Green Tomatoes was pretty good. (And no, I'm not from the South.)

[ozmaofoz.livejournal.com]

East Texas is just like that.

[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.

[ferretsofglory.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I think it gets many parts of it right. I think The Apostle does too.

[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.

[cramped.livejournal.com]

I can't think of a movie that got the southern thing completely right, but there are a few characters I thought were great. Wooderson in Dazed in Confused was just like so many guys I grew up with. His accent was right on. And the drag queen in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ... I forget the name ... he was good too.

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

I think The Apostle was much better in terms of authenticity. And I actually like Billy Bob Thornton quite a bit. But please watch Sling Blade again and tell me it's authentic. I wouldn't make a movie about New Jersey and have everyone be a Fran Drescher soundalike.

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

I quite liked the book and enjoyed the movie later. I'd need to give it a fresh 2004 Bitter and Angry Flea reading to be able to accurately evaluate it, though. ;)

[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.

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

Yes. Dazed and Confused is a great movie to bring up. It was set in Texas, but not every situation and character screamed "I WEAR A COWBOY HAT AND CHEW TOBACCO AND PICK MY TEETH WITH BULL HORNS." It was more subdued and realistic. That's one of my very favorite movies.

[dichotomous.livejournal.com]

Steel Magnolias, mostly.

Fargo

[iltamies.livejournal.com]

The movie "Fargo" is a good example of over-doing it too. Being originally from the Mid-west, specifically Wisconsin/Minnesota, I know that it's a bunch of crap. Although it did take a couple weeks for me to stop saying "Oh Jeez" when I moved to California.

[blackhellkat.livejournal.com]

Yeah funny how movies like Donnie Darko take place in "Northern Va" white-bread suburbs and yet the freaking WALTONS toke place in SW VA and EVERYONE sounds like a hick! I grew up on a farm in SW VA and I have never had an accent--some of my family have detectable accents but not like the freaking Waltons!!

[nationofsheep.livejournal.com]

I was just talking to the WC, whose comment above says it is just like East Texas. And she should know. I have met people in her family that were straight out of the movie.

My first thought on this was exactly the same. East Texas, Texarkana, West Lousiana, most of Arkansas. I think the movie was set in Arkansas. If it wasn't, it was so authentic to Arkansas that I just assumed it was. And in my opinion, it didn't go far enough if that was the region. The people there are caricatures. It is so bizarre. I spent a good part of my life in small towns like the one depicted. And I have seen these places in recent years. Nothing fucking changed. Not one thing.

News in recent years from a couple of small towns in the region, and really these are towns that are more cosmopolitan in the region:
Vidor, Tx
Jasper, Tx
Reisal and other places, Tx

Anyway, just thought I would give a detailed account of why I think Sling Blade was actually WAY underdone. And no, this region isn't all of Texas. In fact, I really consider inner city Houston and all of Austin to be places that are not actually in Texas. Like burroughs surrounded by Texas.

[ferretsofglory.livejournal.com]

I'm probably a bad judge because I have an over extreme reverence for the Sling Blade story as a whole.

Only partially related, you should watch the french language track on the dvd. It is quite entertaining!

[carocrow.livejournal.com]

As a semi-native of Natchitoches, where it was filmed, I have to agree with you. Well, except for the faux-cajun wedding reception. I went to high school and college here, and I'm battling the wisteria off the walls here now. For a movie based on a book by a guy who spent a lot of time lurking in his mother's salon, it's pretty good, and a lot of locals were extras in the movie.

It was a nine day wonder here, you see little signs in front of just about every place they filmed a scene, and there is a Steel Magnolias tour. Surreal.

[carocrow.livejournal.com]

I thought that the modern thing, the crumbly little dead towns that were abandoned by the railroad or highways shifting to interstates... that was pretty mark on.

It's hard to tell with this movie because it spans time, but I'd like to think that murder-to-barbecue thing is actually something that a Southerner would be ballsy enough to do.

Re: Fargo

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

Heh--I've heard a lot of similar objections to that movie. People who would know have told me that Frances McDormand's accent is particularly bad. It's funny, though--with Coen brothers movies, I don't really expect authenticity, you know? Same with O, Brother. It's set in Mississippi and is totally over the top in terms of accents and such, but it doesn't really bother me.

[labrujah.livejournal.com]

You know what's dead-on? King of the Hill. Also I rented a documentary by Ross McElwee (sp?) called Sherman's March where he tries to make a historical documentary but ends up dating all these women instead. And the friends I was watching with (not from the South) were pretty much blown away by the accents (which were obviously real).

I have a huge peeve b/c there is this one voice trainer in NY who trains all the big stars to do accents, and her interpretation of a southern accent is totally wrong. I think she trained Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump etc.

Great comment, I love movies about the South and other movies with a certain sense of place.