There's a long line of these films stretching back to "Deliverance", teaching us that all rural Americans are evil, degenerate, incestuous, Bible-thumping backwoods hillbillies who want to kill you. These films are to modern rural and Southern white Americans what 1930s German hate-propaganda movies like "Jud Suss" were to Jewish people.
share"There's a long line of these films stretching back to "Deliverance", teaching us that all rural Americans are evil, degenerate, incestuous, Bible-thumping backwoods hillbillies who want to kill you."
The other cliche is the lawyer or detective with a southern drawl who uses the above cliche to his advantage to outsmart his adversaries when they underestimate him.
Most recently done with Knives Out. Matlock. Others I'm too lazy to look up...
In an interview Walton Goggins said he initially turned down the role of Boyd Crowder in Justified several times out of a fear that it would simply reinforce the notion of southerners as dimwitted and shifty. He only accepted once he was reassured that wouldn't be the case. Boyd Crowder's silver tongue was a highlight of the show, making him one of the most memorable villains you are likely to meet.
You know, some movies are just movies. Stories. Reading propaganda into movies has become a bad and superstitious trend.
shareThat may have been true prior to 2016. Since then, there has not been a movie or TV show released by any of the Hollywood studios that has not been pushing an agenda.
shareDid you actually watch it ?
shareI read the book. That's what the book is: Anti-rural white propaganda. Much worse treatment of whites than blacks got in Gone With the Wind. About on par with "Birth of a Nation" negative stereotyping. I'm sure they didn't make it all positive and sunshiny for the movies.
This book was actually one of the first works that tweaked me to this propaganda movement. I realized that if someone wrote a book that dealt with poor rural blacks in the same way as The Devil All the Time and the author's other book, Knockemstiff, it would be banned and would trigger nation-wide protests. I then started looking at all the other movies, TV shows and novels in this vein.
If you read the book how did you mistake this for a take on reality? It’s gothic fiction.
shareLots of propaganda comes in the guise of fiction.
shareYou don’t seem to understand what propaganda actually IS and the one thing it’s NOT is fiction. If you can’t separate fiction from reality, you should seek psychiatric treatment.
shareI see. So you would have no objection to a modern version of a movie like "Birth of a Nation", I guess? That was a fictional story. You are very simple and naive if you do not see that a work of fiction can indeed be considered propaganda. A work of fiction can cause profound emotions in the viewer or reader. They can shape the perceptions of the audience. You underestimate the power of fiction at your own risk.
shareBirth of a Nation was based on Thomas Dixon's novel The Clansman which was based on a true story about the 1831 uprising of a slave community in the American south. As all ‘true’ stories, it was written by the perspective of the author.
It was not a gothic fiction.
You're quibbling with your hasty Wikipedia research. "Based on" implies fiction.
shareSo, according to you, all of films and books are propaganda.
shareOf those made within the last 4-5 years and released by major studios and publishers to a large audience, regrettably, I would have to say yes. Anything without a message that suits them does not have a chance.
shareWhat separates these 4-5 years? What makes films before that NOT propaganda?
shareWhat event that occurred 4-5 years ago triggered SJWs as never before and began their "resistance" movement? I'll give you a hint: it started in June 2015 with an orange man riding on a gold escalator. All Hollywood and the publishing and recording industries' works since then have carried a heavy-handed agenda. Hollywood has always tried to push a liberal message. It used to be presented somewhat subtly, but at that moment in time, it just exploded.
shareDo you know how long it takes to make a film start to finish?
shareYes.
shareRight, you said it : you are actively seeking confirmation of a bias you now have. You'll see it everywhere, from superhero films to donut commercials.
shareI honestly don't think that was Pollock's intention. He worked blue collar jobs in Ohio for decades so that was the world he was drawing from for his writing. The book has its villains (Carl, Sandy, Pastor Teagardin), but also its heroes (Arvin, Grandma Emma, Lenora).
Toni Morrison grew up in modest circumstances and wrote a number of books with both honorable poor black characters and villainous poor black characters. Like Pollock, she drew from the world she grew up in.
I do agree that some writers push certain agendas, but I don't think that's the case here.
Maybe not Pollock's intention, but what about the filmmakers who saw material that would suit them?
shareI still saw heroic rural characters in the film. Arvin obviously loved and defended Lenora. It broke his heart when she accidentally hung herself. And Grandma Emma was poor, but she took great pride in her cooking which everyone loved (even the villainous Pastor). For me, she was the most honorable character in the film and showed that just because someone is economically poor doesn't mean they aren't rich in talent and spirit. I guess what I took away from the movie is that there are good people and bad people in every community and sometimes you have to observe them before you know which is which.
shareI enjoyed the movie a great deal, the story telling structure and performances were excellent and the camera work was wonderful
One could claim that films like Scarface, Goodfellas or Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer depict urbanites as bloody maniacs motivated by greed, bloodlust or addiction, but most viewers take the 'rural horrors' like they take the 'Urban bloodshed' movies... it's just a trope on which to hang a story
Yeah, that irked me as well and I have spent my whole life as a city-dweller. There isn't even any truth to it. Now, incest is rampant in the Muslim world, but Hollywood won't dare mention that.
shareWell, if the shoe fits...
shareI bet they all voted for Trump
shareWell to be fair, not far from the truth, especially now most of the hillbillies are wearing MAGA hats.
shareThey're way more civilized than you freaky, drug-crazed Leftist hippies/homosexuals/commies/gang members.
shareThis is so very true...
https://archive.md/891sr
I took it more as "hardcore fictional supernatural character-worshipping dorks are evil degenerates!" propaganda... which isn't really propaganda, since it's true.
share