photo by Laura Lai
by
Laura Lai/Review
Film: ‘North and South’
Genre:
Historical Trilogy
Directors:
Richard T. Heffron (Book One, 1985)
Kevin Connor (Book Two,
1986)
Larry Peerce (Book Three,
1994)
Main
Actors: Patrick Swayze (Orry Main) and
James Read (George Hazard)
The last post on this blog was an essay on ‘Black Lives Matter. Do the Statues Matter?’ – questioning whether or not their removal would mean deleting culture and/or history. Now that it is argued that all lives matter without any discrimination of race, religion, etc., I want to tackle the movie issue – as I am a cinema lover (and a theater reading lover J) who also heard of movies being banned within the movement of ‘Black Lives Matter’.
The
‘North and South’ movie is a TV series whose plot is settled before, during and
after the Civil War (1861-1865) between the Northern American abolitionist
states (as the ‘United States’ under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln) and the
Southern American states – favoring slavery (as the ‘Confederation’ run by
Robert E. Lee). The movie follows the story of the two main protagonists: Orry
Main (Patrick Swayze) – the son of a plantation owner in South Carolina and
George Hazard (James Read) – the son of a factory owner in Pennsylvania from
the North. The movie is the story of a beautiful friendship that started when
the two were studying at West Point Military Academy and that is followed
during and after the Civil War. The clash of mentalities is well depicted in
this historical well done classical movie. The two families become relatives as
Orry’s sister married George’s brother. But it is George’s sister, Virgilia
(Kristie Alley) who plays the role of a vocal abolitionist putting his northern
family in an embarrassing situation when hosting a dinner for their southern
friends.
On another
occasion, following a visit of the Hazards to the Mains, Virgilia has an affair
with a black man from Orry’s plantation. She was despised not for the affair,
but for the black man she had the affair with. Virgilia fell in love with this
former slave on Orry’s plantation that she decides to marry despite family
opposition and people’s views. The movie follows her love story, too. She
acknowledges being the first woman (or among the very first women) to have
married a black man. Although the Civil War was won by the North run by Abraham
Lincoln and slavery was abolished on papers, Virgilia had difficult times with
the society for being married to a black man. The society could not approve
such an inter-racial relationship and her true love story is a downfall story
to getting in the streets and in jail. Virgilia is a strong willed character, a
woman with personality, with views and outspoken – a one of a kind for the 19th
century. But the society seems to have its own unwritten rules that were opposed
to those settled in the U.S. Constitution following the Civil War. Its pressure
did not break Virgilia’s love for her husband despite all hardships and
humiliations. Well, the society has definitely evolved since then, but to what extend
the mentalities have evolved is hard to say.
The first post on this blog was made on January 11th, 2019. And it was a review of the movie ‘Sun, Sand & Romance’ (directed by Mark Rosman, 2017). I ended my review as follows:
‘It is this short and secondary role of Gus, which made me write this review. It is with this short and secondary role that the movie makes a big human point.’ (to read the review click here)
This movie depicts the first vacation in a beautiful resort of a publishing executive, Kate (Tricia Helfer) and of a real estate agent, Eric (Scott Elrod). In this vacation, Eric has the ‘one-in-a-lifetime-chance’ to meet his idol in this real estate business – Gus. They spend time together learning business from each other. What I loved about this movie was the director’s decision to invite a black man to play the role of Gus, because in my turn I also share the point of view that the quality as a human being is what matters the most and not the race, the religion, the sexual orientation and so on. And the lack of human quality is transnational, trans-racial, trans-religion, trans-any kind of group one would name. It is what we miss the most and what we need the most for progress. Quality!
The movie ‘Gone with the Wind’ is already banned. Will other movies be banned? Cinema is entertainment, but when it comes of historical movies, I prefer those movies that are as close as possible to the historical truth for educational purposes. Therefore, those movies whose plot is placed in the U.S. colonial times (1607 – 1765) or anytime until slavery was abolished try to describe as well as possible those times. People need to know about those times in all their details: clothing, behavior, wording, etc. There are already many movies that for different reasons are lost forever – gone with the wind! This is already a huge waste for the history of the cinema. It is as if a part of culture is already deleted.
Banning some
historical movies for describing the way people behaved or talked in a certain
époque would mean deleting a part of history, too. Furthermore, during the
Black Lives Matter movement parallels with the nazi Germany were raised by some
people. I have no knowledge of any movie or documentary made during that époque
or about those dreadful times being banned. On the contrary, they are
displayed, in order for history not to repeat itself. It is through movies and
documentaries that people can understand better the level of violence to which
racism or what anti-Semitism led and may lead again. What should be banned –
actually one should not even waste time and money to produce from the very
beginning – are movies with a hateful language encouraging people to be violent
with other people (or animals) for whatever reason some people find justified.
Links:
‘North and South’ Movie
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBPu2cX_DJg
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RELWr8LHa8I
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFhekDaElSE
and so on…
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