Confederate States Of America Film Analysis

The film “Confederate States of America” is a quasi-documentary film about the history of an America. Through the eye of a British “documentary” this film takes a satirically, humorous, and sometimes frightening, look at Civil War won by the South.
First thing this work is take into consideration are advertisements. The director, Kevin Willmott, cuts the film with some commercials and with a news broadcast. Most of the ads are fake though they make the viewer thrilled, because of their racists and sexists’ overtone. The Blacks are presented as the things, pets, servants, and possessions. They have no voice, no rights, they are loyal to theirs masters and happy to be govern by a superior white race. . The commercials in which we can see the
blacks as a possessions are mostly the advertisements of an imagined insurance companies.
Such companies protect you, your family, and all things you have got, a car, a house, a nigger… Another example of the way the blacks are treated is an ad of a pill called “Contrari”. Thanks to that newest discovery of veterinarians your Niger would always be happy, and would not make any problems. What is more, for those Blacks who have tendency to run away from their cozy masters’ homes, Americans scientist invented The Shackle, the revolutionary way of servant monitoring. This commercial has its imaginary origins. The Confederate doctor Samuel A. Cartwright claimed that beloved slaves, have tendency to suffer from a disease called “Draptomania” which causes slaves to run away. Moreover, in CSA there is a Department of Commerce Office of Racial Identity. Thanks to that institution every white citizen could report a questionable racial identity of a neighbor, or someone at work and might be eligible for a cash reward for reporting it. This institution has got its origins in the fact that back to the early 1890s there were many mixed raced men and women, and then they were harder to recognized, and they often tried to act as whites. Commercials also presents some
stereotypical blacks’ representations, like: the fat black woman servant, who is always making a fuss, do some cooking and cleaning around the masters’ house. Moreover, she is presented as a silly person who can only brag about in an uneducated manner.
That is enough of a frightening fiction. There were commercials of a products or places which were real. Firstly the “The Gold Dust Twins”, the black and blackfaced white children were casted as Goldie and Dustie in liked by a lot of people advertisement of a washing powder from 1880s-1930s. Sambo Axle Grease , an oil(1870s-1920s), Sambo was also a restaurant chain that finally closed in the 1980s(!)Second a very popular restaurant chain was Coon Chicken Inn. There were successful restaurants in Salt Lake City, Seattle and Portland with an entrance in a shape of a mouth of a smiling black porter. Through the 80 years Darkie Toothpaste which was primarily sold overseas is still sells in Asia as a “Black Man Toothpaste” in US, the named was changed to Charlie, however.
Second things are the crucial “historical” facts in the white history of a Confederate States of America. The movie assumes that the South won the Civil War, which is first non-historical argument presented in a movie. Because in fact the North had won the Civil War. Thanks to the Yankees there is a country known as United States of America with a flag with red and white stripes and 50 white stars on a blue rectangle on it. But there is no place to describe such issue, especially when the main theme in more than 90 minutes’ film, is the assumption that the Civil War and slavery was the best thing that could ever happened to this country, because of economic reasons and white superiority.
The cause of a War and Rebellion, in the movie and in the real history, was a problem of slavery. In the CSA, economy was based on the cotton and work of Possessions, and in the time of Civil War the reality is not as far from the fiction in this field. The movie and history shows that Abraham Lincoln was given an opportunity to create an revolutionary proclamation, known as The Emancipation Proclamation published on January 1, 1863 as a war measure during the Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the executive branch(including the Army and Navy) of the United States. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion, excluding areas controlled by the Union and thus applying to 3 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at the time. The Proclamation was based on the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces; it was not a law passed by Congress.
In the movie, we can see in the short dramatization dated on 1915 in which Abraham Lincoln is presented as a blackfaced man, in the scene when he was captured by the Confederates Army. This satiric and racist remark is a way how the men associated with the Abolishioner’s Movement were presented. Lincoln looks like a coon. He is skinny, tall and is found in the tall grass. After the capturing the president and shorty after a quick trail “the great emancipator” was convicted with war crimes against the Southern nation, he was imprisoned in Virginia. After serving two years in prison the former president was exiled to Canada, after years of living outside his beloved country, in June 1905 shortly before his death, he gave an interview in which he apologies, and showed his regret of what he has done. Of course history that we all know stated that the Abraham Lincoln never had a chance to life as long as 1905. President was assassinated during the play, in the Ford’s Theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland.
In the history of a Confederate States of America, the 16th president was President Davis, who established the confederate’s flag as a national one. The symbols of an old government was removed, Dixie a popular, written by a Yankee Dan Emmett song became a national anthem, which was the beginning of the CSA.
The very important persona in the history of a CSA was a congressman John Ambrose Fauntroy who was selected by a president Davis to diminish the plan of rebuilding the North from the taxes paid only by the former unionists. What is interesting, they could choose how they pay this tax, in cash or in Possessions. Nowadays (in the year 2002), John Ambrose Fauntroy V is a democratic nominee for a president, and thanks to the Confederates he still is an owner of a black servant.
Another interesting factor presented in the movie is a great migration of a 20000 of white northerners to the Canada. Interestingly enough among those who left was Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Emerson and Weldon Philips.
During the late 20s of the XX century, USA was touched by a Big Depression as the CSA. The solution to those hard times presented in the movie is slightly different from the original one, however. John Ambrose Fauntroy the 2nd in association with The American Confederate International News introduced the “Slave Trade Renewed”. The idea was simple. The government relocates the Slaves to the Mexico, and thanks to that sale strategy the market in the CSA would be functional, workable again. What is more, the African leader Momboso was grateful to the government. He said the CSA takes care of his poor black fellows. “The captivity is good for the Africans, and world need to understand it”, he said. The fact that the Africa sent a Momboso, one person, as a spokesperson for the entire continent is a bit ridiculous. Nonetheless, this crucial speech delivered by the African leader let the CSA used as many human resources and trade them as the Whites want.
Meanwhile in Europe, Hitler was already gained the power. The Nazi nation, Reich was about to conquer the Old Continent. Many Confederates pollutants visited Germany. Congress officially supported the Nazi isolationists’ foreign policy, calling it biologically correct. Of course the real history does not prove such policy during the late 1930s. Interestingly enough this fragment of the movie put special emphasis on the racial problem.
It actually shows that slavery and treating black community as a servants, pets or property is similar to the Nazi’s propaganda of a pure race. Another “fact” presented in the movie is a Hitler’s returned visit in the spring 1935. In Washington Hitler proposed that America join with him into final solution to the problem of inferior races. Secretary of State John Ambrose Fauntroy the 3rd introduced to Hitler an idea of using the Jews as productive free labor force. No agreement was reached, however. In fact, German leader was extremely busy in that time. On the 16 march, 1935, Adolf Hitler announces Germany rearmament in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Nearly 5 weeks later he ordered 12 submarines in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles.
“On December 8, 1941 the United States Congress declared war upon the Empire of Japan in response to that country's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the prior day. It was formulated an hour after the Infamy Speech presidential address of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” (Wikipedia) The war against Japan had started. As many confederated soldiers were killed, the government turned to their slaves asked for the assistance. First who responded was the “yellow” community, who yearned to prove their loyalty to the CSA and perhaps gain their freedom. Although, congress decided they were sneaky and banned them from service. However the owners of black slaves, in the patriotic vocation, let their slaves to fight for their country. The movie tells us, that the CSA used the tremendous weapon – the atomic bomb, to end the war with the Japanese Empire.
After the war The Happy times have come, but unfortunately for the CSA citizens they not remain too long. John Brown Underground ( JBU) started to threat the States with the vision of a war against slavery. The Canadian abolitionism at now became the major threat to the Confederate way of life, they had to be stopped. That is why CS Army published a propaganda film, but not only were a propaganda movies display but also a featured films were shown to draw special attention to the problem of Canadian abolitionism movement. Instead of stating another war, the CSA decided to build so called Cotton Curtain – a safeguard against red Canada aggression. Shortly after the II WW and the Canadian Aggression, Europeans countries put an embargo and sanctions on the CSA, many other countries did not understand the CS’ policy. Only the Republic of South Africa remains loyal to the beloved American nation.
Next step in the history of the USA and the CSA was the time of the president election in 1960. Two candidates had chances to become next leader of the American nation. On September 26th 1960 “Kennedy appeared with Republican candidate Richard Nixon, then vice president, in the first televised U.S. presidential debates in U.S. history. During these programs, Nixon, with a sore injured leg and his "five o'clock shadow", was perspiring and looked tense and uncomfortable, while Kennedy, choosing to avail himself of makeup services, appeared relaxed, leading the huge television audience to favor Kennedy as the winner. Radio listeners either thought Nixon had won or that the debates were a draw. The debates are now considered a milestone in American political history—the point at which the medium of television began to play a dominant role in politics.” Of course the in movie historians’ and critics claimed that J.F.Kennedy was a “black republican” who would emancipate if there had been an opportunity. John Kennedy was the first president from the North since the War of Northern Aggression (Civil War).. Fortunately for the slavery supporters (only 29% of Americans, acc. to the movie) President had more urgent issue to take care of. During that time not only more and more citizen demands emancipation, but also women started to rise their voice for freedom. They wanted control over their lives. In the late 60s, through 70s the rock n roll music was blooming. Politicians claimed that such singers as Elvis Presley who imitated black artists should be banned because it encourage young generation to express themselves in the way which is not politically correct.
The most important political issue during the time of a Cold War was a Cold War against not USSR but Canada. The military race, competing in sports, conquer of the space…ale these factors had its reflections in the movie, but the fundament of such political moves was obviously different. In Canada blacks had rights, they were not property, they were men. In the CSA Slavocracy had its time.
The mid 70s crisis linked with the slaves revolt has crushed due to war in Vietnam, and Cold War against Canada. To sum up, manifestoes, protests, peaceful and violent ones against the unfair treatment, racial segregation, all efforts of such important people in history of the United States of America as Malcolm X or Martin Luther King were replaced by a ridiculously showed so called war against the democracy and human right movement in “Red Canada”.
The film ends with a false accusation of a Democratic nominee for 2002 President Elections John Fauntroy the V of being partially black. That was the breaking news broadcast, mentioned at the very beginning of this essay. The personal Fauntroy servant revealed that he is related to him. In the shadow of such accusation Fauntroy held the conference to respond to the charges of negroness. A few weeks after the election on December 12th, his body was found in his car. John Fauntroy shot himself to death. The very last minutes of the movies shows children proudly standing with left hands on their hearts and declaiming the vow to the Confederate States of America.
All things considered the film shows a history of a prosperous country, the history of a great wealth nation… built on in the most humiliating way, by usage of slavery in the civilized world, in the place where nowadays, in the real world, everyone is free, and have rights to behave, claim, say and think the way he or she, white, black, yellow or mulats want. Thank God CSA is not a real country. Words: 2 420.