Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

The South never plays itself : a film buff's journey through the South on screen / Ben Beard.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Montgomery, AL : NewSouth Books, [2020]Description: xvii, 285 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781588384010
  • 1588384012
Subject(s):
Contents:
Preface: The children of Hitchcock -- Birth of that nation -- William Faulkner and the ghosts of tobacco road -- Tennessee Williams and the terrors of the flesh -- Deep South sleaze amidst Louisiana decay -- The Florida experiment -- Bigger than Texas -- Old-time religion and the Klan -- Night of the hunter and the southern horrors -- Winter in Dixieland, crime ans southern noir -- Nashville, country, soul, blues, gutbucket, and the king -- Good times at the '90s cafe -- President Bush and the endless wars -- Black (un)like me -- Epilogue: Other voices, other rooms.
Summary: "Many of American cinema's most defining movies have roots in the South. Be they films that excite (No Country for Old Men), amuse (My Cousin Vinny), or disturb (Deliverance), Southern movies remain some of the most evocative in modern filmmaking. The South Never Plays Itself examines the historical and cultural legacy of the South and the silver screen, a relationship as tangled and inextricable as Spanish moss. From the racist propaganda of The Birth of a Nation to the twangy romp of Altman's Nashville, the South's incongruous and complex character has been explored throughout the short but storied history of film. In The South Never Plays Itself, author Ben Beard describes the Southern myths and truths these films share with American moviegoers"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 791.4365 B368 Available 33111010454334
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Since The Birth of a Nation became the first Hollywood blockbuster in 1915, movies have struggled to reckon with the American South-as both a place and an idea, a reality and a romance, a lived experience and a bitter legacy. Nearly every major American filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter has worked on a film about the South, from Gone with the Wind to 12 Years a Slave , from Deliverance to Forrest Gump . In The South Never Plays Itself , author and film critic B. W. Beard explores the history of the Deep South on screen, beginning with silent cinema and ending in the streaming era, from President Wilson to President Trump, from musical to comedy to horror to crime to melodrama. Beard's idiosyncratic narrative-part cultural history, part film criticism, part memoir-journeys through genres and eras, issues and regions, smash blockbusters and microbudget indies to explore America's past and troubled present, seen through Hollywood's distorting lens. Opinionated, obsessive, sweeping, often combative, sometimes funny-a wild narrative tumble into culture both high and low-Beard attempts to answer the haunting question: what do movies know about the South that we don't?

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface: The children of Hitchcock -- Birth of that nation -- William Faulkner and the ghosts of tobacco road -- Tennessee Williams and the terrors of the flesh -- Deep South sleaze amidst Louisiana decay -- The Florida experiment -- Bigger than Texas -- Old-time religion and the Klan -- Night of the hunter and the southern horrors -- Winter in Dixieland, crime ans southern noir -- Nashville, country, soul, blues, gutbucket, and the king -- Good times at the '90s cafe -- President Bush and the endless wars -- Black (un)like me -- Epilogue: Other voices, other rooms.

"Many of American cinema's most defining movies have roots in the South. Be they films that excite (No Country for Old Men), amuse (My Cousin Vinny), or disturb (Deliverance), Southern movies remain some of the most evocative in modern filmmaking. The South Never Plays Itself examines the historical and cultural legacy of the South and the silver screen, a relationship as tangled and inextricable as Spanish moss. From the racist propaganda of The Birth of a Nation to the twangy romp of Altman's Nashville, the South's incongruous and complex character has been explored throughout the short but storied history of film. In The South Never Plays Itself, author Ben Beard describes the Southern myths and truths these films share with American moviegoers"-- Provided by publisher.

Powered by Koha