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Hollywood's hateful hooey about the South (review of 'Cold Mountain')
WorldNetDaily ^ | January 2, 2004 | Ilana Mercer

Posted on 01/07/2004 12:46:10 PM PST by EveningStar

While I don't often visit the surreal cinema, I do make an exception for films about the South. The reason is simply this: The road to national sanity leads through the South. The republic, RIP, can only be revived once the central government – which voided the Constitution to invade the South and, by legal extension, the rest of the once-sovereign states – is driven back. If Hollywood – hugely influential in shaping American lore – begins to get its ducks in a row about Dixie, then there's some hope.

The latest epic about the South, sadly, leaves little confidence in such an epiphany.

Director Anthony Minghella once turned a soporific, indecipherable book called "The English Patient" into a rather good film. With "Cold Mountain," Minghella manages no such miracle. Most likely because the book on which the script is based was dead on arrival, which is also how most of the characters in the film end up.

(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: coldmountain; moviereview; movies
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1 posted on 01/07/2004 12:46:12 PM PST by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar
the central government – which voided the Constitution to invade the South and, by legal extension, the rest of the once-sovereign states

That's as far as I needed to read.

2 posted on 01/07/2004 12:48:11 PM PST by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
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To: Lurking Libertarian; mhking; will1776
One may not agree, but this is interesting. ;)
3 posted on 01/07/2004 12:50:12 PM PST by EveningStar
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To: Lurking Libertarian
That's as far as I needed to read.

It certainly tells you where she's coming from. I take it you disagreed?

4 posted on 01/07/2004 12:53:04 PM PST by Oberon (What does it take to make government shrink?)
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To: EveningStar
considering that Lincoln launched a war of aggression that killed 620,000 people, including civilians, and devastated the Southern economy. This plain fact is missing from the movie, but like all Hollywood fare, films about the South are seldom burdened by fact.

Are all movies supposed to educate the general public on all aspects of a War?

'All Quiet on the Western Front' also fails to go into the details regarding the causes of WW I, but it still made for a great movie.

I have printed out the article for future read, but right now I think Miss Mercer needs a pair of clippers for that wild hair she has in an inappropriate place.

I read the book, it was OK. Have not yet seen the movie.

5 posted on 01/07/2004 12:55:31 PM PST by Michael.SF. (Did you know that we found Sadaam faster then Hillary found the Rose Law firm billing records?)
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To: Michael.SF.
I do not have to agree with an article in order to post it. My main criteria are that it be interesting and thought provoking.
6 posted on 01/07/2004 12:58:54 PM PST by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar
Lincoln launched a war of aggression

As a resident of God's country (aka the South, with the exception of Oklahoma), I must say that it was the Confederate army that began the aggression.
7 posted on 01/07/2004 12:59:30 PM PST by WinOne4TheGipper (The Democratic Party: Without an electoral mandate for almost 28 years.)
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To: billbears; JohnGalt; sheltonmac
Ping*
8 posted on 01/07/2004 1:02:35 PM PST by Burkeman1 ("If you see ten troubles comin down the road, nine will run into the ditch before they reach you")
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To: will1776
I'm interested in seeing what flak, if any, Ms. Mercer and WND draw from this.
9 posted on 01/07/2004 1:02:45 PM PST by EveningStar
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To: will1776
Ft. Sumter, S.C. anyone???
10 posted on 01/07/2004 1:05:24 PM PST by kb2614 (".....We've done nothing and were all out of ideas!!")
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To: Michael.SF.
considering that Lincoln launched a war of aggression that killed 620,000 people, including civilians, and devastated the Southern economy. This plain fact is missing from the movie, but like all Hollywood fare, films about the South are seldom burdened by fact.

Haven't seen the movie but does anyone know if a central theme is the reasons for the war? I agree with her assessment of the conflict but am not really sure that she should be picking on this particular movie.

11 posted on 01/07/2004 1:07:22 PM PST by Texas Federalist
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To: kb2614
Ft. Sumter, S.C. anyone??? Just because you throw the first punch doesn't mean you started the fight. We attacked Iraq because we believed they represented a prospective threat. Were we the agressors?
12 posted on 01/07/2004 1:09:19 PM PST by Texas Federalist
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To: EveningStar; 4ConservativeJustices; stainlessbanner; GOPcapitalist; aomagrat; Gianni; ...
This, of course, is not an unreasonable scenario considering that Lincoln launched a war of aggression that killed 620,000 people, including civilians, and devastated the Southern economy. This plain fact is missing from the movie, but like all Hollywood fare, films about the South are seldom burdened by fact. Thus the battle to vanquish the invader had little to do with slavery – most of the men fighting for the South had never owned a slave. The same is true for those they left behind. The fight was for freedom from the Federal Frankenstein.

Bump

13 posted on 01/07/2004 1:09:56 PM PST by billbears (Deo Vindice)
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To: kb2614
Ft. Sumter, S.C. anyone???

Whatever legal and moral right the South had for separation, it was negated when Southern troops initiated hostilites by firing at the American flag. There was nothing that Jefferson Davis could have done which would have united the North more.

14 posted on 01/07/2004 1:11:22 PM PST by curmudgeonII (Cheaters always win and quitters never loose.)
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To: EveningStar
Only in America can a book in which the central character (I can't bring myself to say "hero") is a deserter hit the bestseller list. No wonder Hollywood loved it.
15 posted on 01/07/2004 1:11:54 PM PST by Viet Vet in Augusta GA
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To: EveningStar
"Most likely because the book on which the script is based was dead on arrival, which is also how most of the characters in the film end up."

Hmmm, the book was dead on arrival? It was a # 1 bestseller and winner of many awards. I read it and it is excellent. There indeed resentment from the non-slave holding soldiers that fought in the war--especially once the realities of the war set it.
16 posted on 01/07/2004 1:15:17 PM PST by rhetorica
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To: EveningStar
Thanks for the post.

The review reinforces what I was I was expecting from the movie. *sigh*

I read the book, I’m embarrassed to admit, since I have a keen interest in the Civil War. I was bored at the beginning, disgusted by the middle, and upset by the end. Fortunately it was a library book and I didn’t waste a penny on the trash.

I’m afraid the movie will be a blockbuster. –Barf.

17 posted on 01/07/2004 1:16:34 PM PST by Lurking in Kansas (No tagline here... move along)
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To: curmudgeonII
The North was given every opportunity to leave Ft. Sumter. and as a matter of fact Ft. Sumter was there to play just the part it did, The South played into Lincolns hands when they attacked.
18 posted on 01/07/2004 1:17:45 PM PST by sgtbono2002 (I aint wrong, I aint sorry , and I am probably going to do it again.)
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To: EveningStar
Sheesh. You can make a good argument that when the South was defeated, much was lost. But this woman is a moron.
19 posted on 01/07/2004 1:21:34 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Michael.SF.
Are all movies supposed to educate the general public on all aspects of a War?

No, but at least one theme of Mercer's complaint runs true: Hollywood loves to make caricatures of the south and often does so to such an extent that many who have never been here know nothing different.

A little over a year ago I drove to Louisiana to volunteer for the Terrell senate campaign in hopes of adding another GOP seat during their runoff. Mary Landrieu was facing a tough reelection so the DNC rent-a-mob machines got to work bussing in students from northeastern college campuses on Landrieu's behalf.

The Terrell volunteers, who were mostly GOP activists with campaign experience elsewhere, encountered these northeastern types all over the state. Thanks in large part to Hollywood and public schools, every last one of em thought they had walked into the real life set of Mississippi Burning upon crossing the Louisiana state line. They came convinced that they were all there on a modern day "freedom ride" to save Louisiana from white male republican klansmen who were trying to deprive women and minorities of their "vote" in the senate (aka Landrieu). Their ENTIRE concept of the region in which they were campaigning came from a Hollywood caricature that says southerners are all dumb racist white male hick klansmen who live in trailer parks and lynch black people on the weekends for fun in between a night of moonshining and beating up the wife in a drunken rage.

20 posted on 01/07/2004 1:21:59 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
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