Really, it’s a shame that this movie never made it to DVD. It’s definitely one of Disney’s biggest mistakes. If there were a list of “Worst Mistakes Made in the History of the World,” I’d probably put this one at number 15. (Although, of course, it could be argued that nothing is a mistake, since it’s all in God’s control.) But, this movie really should be dug back up from Disney’s storage rooms. It should be digitally remastered. It’s such a beautiful film. Let me give you the history of it.
Joel Chandler Harris, a writer in the mid-to-late 1800s and very early 1900s, wrote several stories about the exploits of ‘Brer Rabbit.’ (Trivia: ‘Brer’ is a shortened version of ‘Brother.’) Brer Rabbit could be called the first Bugs Bunny. He constantly tricked his enemies, chief among them Brer Wolf and Brer Fox. The stories were told from the perspective of a Negro slave named Uncle Remus. In the ’40s, Walt Disney finally found a way to adapt the stories to film while using live actors. The film blended cartoon animation with living actors. Unfortunately, soon after it was released, it came under fire from civil rights groups who claimed that it represented Negroes in a bad light. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll wonder just what those civil rights people were smoking at the time. They couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Uncle Remus is basically an ‘Uncle Tom’ kind of character. He’s virtuous, wise, kind, and hard-working. He simply tells a little white boy some stories about Brer Rabbit. These stories have morals, and the little boy tries to follow those morals. His mother and grandmother see them in a different light however; they forbid him from going to see Uncle Remus again. They’re wrong to do so, but they boy is also wrong in that he disobeys them and goes back to Uncle Remus. Uncle Remus tells the boy another Brer Rabbit story, this time to try to induce the boy into following his mother’s instructions.
Disney has never produced such a heart warming picture before, and it probably won’t ever again, given a look at the crap they’re coming out with now. “Follow your heart,” and all that stuff. 10 out of 10 stars for the magnificent redemptive story of Song of the South.
I decided to add a new category to the posts I shall make: Director Spotlights. In these posts I will talk about a specific director. In this one, I shall (obviously) talk about Spike Lee. for those of you who aren’t familiar with him, he’s an African-American director. Most (actually, all) of his movies have African-American themes. He used to be a very respected director. Note I said ‘used’ to be. Now, I respect every director out there (save for maybe Uwe Boll) but Lee I respect the least. Why? He’s incredibly racist. Ridiculously so. Perhaps you heard of his little spat with actor-turned director Clint Eastwood. Eastwood made two World War II films: Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. These two films were centered around the raising of the flag in Iwo Jima, especially the first one. What was Lee’s trouble with it? It didn’t give African-American soldiers their due. He claimed that it showed no African-American soldiers whatsoever. First of all, the films did show African-American soldiers. Second of all, there were no Afican-American soldiers in the group that raised the flag. Lee subsequently called Eastwood racist, and Eastwood, in Western cowboy-type attitude, fired back that Lee needs to “shut his face.” Now, most recently, Lee has made a film called Miracle at St. Anna’s, which tells the story of a massacre in Italy. The only problem is, he shows African-American soldiers in the film where, historically, there were no African-American soldiers of any kind. When the modern day citizens responded (many of whom lost loved ones in the massacre) with things like “you are rewriting our history” Lee told them they “need to come to grips with their history.” So he’s making up history! He’s probably the most racist person in Hollywood. Not to mention probably one of the most arrogant. He tried to sue Spike TV because they were “capitalizing on his fame” by using his name. He also thinks that his passion for Knicks baseball has cost him Oscars before, because the Oscar voters are usually Los Angeles based. “That’s definite bias right there,” he claims. Face it, Spike. You missed Oscars because your films aren’t good enough.
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