Posted on 12/30/2004 11:00:21 AM PST by Ellesu
The cast member on the Dukes of Hazard movie that had the filmmakers scratching their heads has not been publicity-drenched Jessica Simpson or her rabble-rousing smart-ass co-star, Johnny Knoxville.
It's the General Lee, the bright orange 1969 Dodge Charger central to all Duke boys escapades. More specifically, it's the Confederate Flag emblazoned on the General's roof, a symbol that has become quite the object of controversy since the original TV series' seven-season run starting in 1979.
The filmmakers didn't want to alienate modern audiences, the Wall Street Journal reported recently in a story headlined "Flag wavering." Nor did the moviemakers want to anger long-time fans by tinkering with the Warner Bros show. "So they struck a compromise with the studio."
Quoting a source involved with making the film, the Journal says the film includes scenes where the flag is "derided as an inappropriate symbol of the dark past."
For example, Bo and Luke ask a group of African-American college students for directions. "Is this a joke? Some kind of reality show?" one of them asks. Bo, the dimmer of the Dukes, explains the flag is cool and that their friend Cooter, a Civil War buff, painted it when he fixed the car. But Luke understands, and explains to Bo that some people find the flag offensive and a "symbol of slavery." That Luke, he always was perty' smart.
They take offense at Southerners but they never take offense at liberal stupidity. Talk about a double standard!
Isnt that banjo player Bela Fleck?
I reckon if your kidding, then I'll just shut it, but if your serious, i wonder why you feel that way?
"There's a black guy around here that has a Confederate Flag plate on the front of his car. I've not asked him why. But I will one day just out of curiosity....."
Maybe he's just a proud southern boy.
I think we have next years best picture winner.
see thats what Im talking about. Nice pic
does anyoe remember the re-make of PEARL HARBOR??
Notice anything odd? Not a single person in the entire movie was seen smoking a cigarette. Now back then, probably the majority of sailers and regular folks smoked.
Grant was a drunk - prior to the War. He developed a drinking problem when he was posted out West many years earlier, which cost him (directly or indirectly) his commission and his civilian business. He quit drinking before rejoining the Army for the War.
That is a neo-confederate myth.
Actually, that was anti-Grant propaganda at the time. I have seen both Union and Confederate broadsides calling him a drunk. I suppose the ones from up north were from his political enemies, who tended to be better at politics than generalship.
Most still don't find it offensive. Rather, most are probably indifferent.
My guess is that the PC folks have to look long and hard for someone who is truly offended and then they make that person's voice representative of everyone in that particular group.
Who did they have playing Luke and Bo? They should get Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson to play the roles, because their previous role together they had the same basic hairdos. Just get rid of the Bay City cool smoothness and go all countryfied.....
I'm a Damn Yankee and as far as I am concerned the CSA gave up too early.
Boy, she looks to be half jackrabbit.
That is really a distortion of the facts.
Grant drank when he was lonely & depressed. It started in California, yes, but he was not a "drunk". He was a man who DRANK on OCCASION and could not handle his liquor well - he got drunk easily.
The common "Grant was a Drunk!" comments care nothing for the distinction and are designed to imply that he was incompetent, immoral, intemperate, or worse, drunk on the field. That is not true. Read any one of the reputable Grant historians (Simpson, Sampson, Perret, McPherson) and they all agree on this.
I will agree with you that many of his Northern political allies also had a hand in this myth, but it was always necessary for Grant's star to fall in order for Lee's to rise in the years between 1890 and 1930 when the "Lost Cause Myth" hit full stride.
Maybe, But he looks to be in his 50's........And I definately would not use the term "boy"......
You could look right through that boy's eyes like there was nothing on the other side.
"Maybe, But he looks to be in his 50's........And I definately would not use the term "boy"......"
LOL. Didn't mean it that way, but you have a point.
Yep, crack houses, meth labs, Mary Jane back yards...
I'm with you! I had a great-grandfather, his father, several of their brothers fight and die under that flag. They didn't own slaves. They were fighting for what they believed were states rights and against the opression of the northern states. I am sick of it too.
The US constitution may not have died when Lee surrendered to Grant, but it certainly fell onto it's death bed.
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