VP Beast Butler?

[Thomas Thorne]

As Wild Bild and I agree about the historical pro Confederate inclinations of American historiography and classic Hollywood. If this goes on,we may have to split the costs of smelling salts.

The old Hollywood production code did have provisions about films which might inflame race relations. In practice this was interpreted in such a way as to permit the depiction of Blacks as buffoons or idiots. After "Birth of A Nation" movies toned down if they did not eliminate entirely Civil War subjects which might offend White Northern or White Southern amour propre or reopen old wounds. No classic film dwelt on the horrors of Andersonville or Sherman or Sheridan's depredations.

Civil War films and books had a tendency to romanticize the subject and reinforced the belief that the Civil War was the "American Iliad" populated by gallant American heroes whose beliefs should be respected by all.

Even the film version of "Gone With the Wind" dropped or muddied elements which might be too inflammatory for white audiences. We know that Union troops used Tara as their headquarters and made off with the livestock, food and even Ellen O'Hara rosary but we don't see this and can't be sure how much of this reflected Sherman's expressed desire in the film to "humble" the South. Scarlett is attacked at Tara by a deserter. Unlike the book no one in the movie joins the KKK which in the book but not the film avenges the second assault on Scarlett. In the film,vengeance consists of Ashley and friends just burning the shanties-which we don't see-which housed the ruffians who attacked her.

As GWTW producer David O Selznick was the high priest of Hollywood romanticism, he found the idea of the Old South being the romantic land of "cavaliers and cotton fields" irresistible to himself and his audience. Yet he retained one dramatic scene, Scarlett's hard slapping of Prissy, which inspired a deputation of Southern ladies to wait upon him and assure him that corporal punishment had never been administered to slaves by any
mistress of the house.
Tom