I thought I would highlight some films that I have seen and enjoyed, movies that give a glimpse of some real life southern traditions, customs and characters. These are all great movies, please feel free to comment on them and let me know the Southern themed movie (s) I may have overlooked and the movie you consider your favorite. . They are in no particular order. Kudos to Wikipedia for helping with some of the movie notes.
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
This may be the ultimate iconic movie of the South.
The title is taken from the first line of the third stanza of the poem Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson: "I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind." The novel's protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara, also uses the title phrase in a line in the book: when her home area is overtaken by the Yankees, she wonders to herself if her home on a plantation called "Tara," is still standing, or if it was "also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia." More generally, the title refers to the entire way of life of the antebellum South as having "gone with the wind."
Stella.....STELLA..... S T E L L A !
The film presents Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), a fading, but nevertheless attractive Southern belle, whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask her alcoholism and delusions of grandeur. Her poise is an illusion she presents to shield others, and most of all herself, from her reality in an attempt to make herself still attractive to new male suitors. Blanche arrives from her hometown of Laurel, Mississippi (changed from Laurel in the play) at the apartment of her sister, Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter), in the French Quarter of New Orleans, on Elysian Fields Avenue; the local transportation she takes to arrive there includes a streetcar route named "Desire." The steamy, urban ambiance is a shock to Blanche's nerves.
One of my all time favorites, love the plot and the feel of this movie.
The story takes place during three years of the Great Depression in the fictional "tired old town" of Maycomb, Alabama. The narrator, six-year-old Scout Finch, lives with her older brother Jem and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt for the summer. The three children are terrified of, and fascinated by, their neighbor, the reclusive "Boo" Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo and, for many years, few have seen him.The movie touches on many racial themes of the times.
DELIVERANCE(1972)
Needed to put this one on the list!
Four Atlanta businessmen, Lewis (Reynolds), Ed (Voight), Bobby (Beatty) and Drew (Cox), decide to canoe down the Cahulawassee River in the remote Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and see the glory of nature before the river valley is flooded by the construction of a dam. Lewis, an experienced outdoorsman, is the leader. Ed is also a veteran of several trips but lacks Lewis' machismo. Bobby and Drew are novices.
From the start, it is clear the four are aliens in this unknown location.
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES (1991)
A good Southern "Chick Flick" Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates), a timid, unhappy housewife in her forties, meets elderly Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy) in a Birmingham, Alabama, nursing home. Ninny, over several encounters with Evelyn, tells her the story of the now-abandoned town of Whistle Stop, Alabama, and the people who lived there.
If you thought us Yankees were the only ones who have driving and parking issues, watch this scene.
The soundtrack to this movie is awesome as well.
SONG OF THE SOUTH (1946)
An early Animation and live action flick
The setting is the Deep South, at some indeterminate point during the latter half of the 19th century (it is not clearly indicated when in relation to the American Civil War the story takes place: whether during the Antebellum or Reconstruction periods). Seven-year-old Johnny is excited about what he believes to be a vacation at his grandmother's Georgia plantation with his parents.
STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989)
Another good Southern Chick Flick
On a spring day in the Chinquapin Parish, a fictional suburb of Natchitoches, Louisiana, a young woman is seen walking down a residential street. She goes into a home-basedbeauty salon owned by Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton). A recent beauty school graduate, Annelle Dupuy Desoto (Daryl Hannah) has come to answer Truvy's request to the college for a new employee.
ALL THE KINGS MEN (1949)
A chicken in every pot - Huey Long
The main story is a thinly disguised version of the rise and assassination of real-life 1930s Louisiana Governor, Huey Long. Also included is a series of complex relationships between a journalist friend who slowly sours to his ways, the journalist's girlfriend (who has an affair with Stark), her brother (a top surgeon), her uncle (a top judge who is appointed to AG then resigns).
When his son kills a female passenger in a drunk driving incident (and paralyses himself) Stark's world starts to unravel and he discovers that not everyone can be bought off.OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000)
A fun movie, love the soggy bottom boys!
In 1937, Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), Pete Hogwallop (John Turturro), and Delmar O'Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson) escape from a chain gang at Parchman Farm and set out to retrieve the $1.2 million in treasure that Everett claims to have stolen from an armored car and buried before his incarceration. They have only four days to find it before the valley in which it is hidden will be flooded to create Arkabutla Lake as part of a new hydroelectric project. Early on in their escape, they try to jump onto a moving train with some hobos, but fall off due to Pete's inability to get on. They then encounter a blind man(Lee Weaver) traveling on a manual railroad car. They hitch a ride, and he foretells their futures.
DRIVING MISS DAISY(1989)
I drive like this all the time....
Mrs. ("Miss") Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy), a 72-year-old Jewish widow, lives inAtlanta, Georgia, alone except for an African American housemaid named Idella (Esther Rolle). In 1948, after a driving mishap where her automobile is demolished, Miss Daisy’s son, Boolie (Dan Aykroyd), tells her she will have to get a chauffeur because no insurance company will insure her. She refuses, but Boolie is determined to find her one. Meanwhile, she is stuck at home and is unable to run errands or visit friends.
THE COLOR PURPLE (1985)
Hello Oprah and Whoopi!
Taking place in the Southern United States during the early-1900s to mid-1930s, the movie tells the life of a poor black woman, Celie Harris (Whoopi Goldberg), whose abuse begins when she is young. By the time she is fourteen, she has already had two children by her father (Leonard Jackson). He takes them away from her at childbirth and forces Celie (Desreta Jackson) to marry a local widower Albert Johnson
I am sure I have missed many, can you name some not here? What is your favorite Southern themed film of all time?
