"C.S.A. - The Confederate States of America" is a very intriguing film from writer/director Kevin Willmott. In a sense it's a mockumentary, but with less of the self-conscious nature of a Christopher Guest ("Best in Show"), and more of the spot-on feel of an actual documentary previously done to perfection by Woody Allen ("Zelig"). This choice of genre is quite possibly the only manner in which this material could be presented. The film offers up the instantly jarring and highly eerie "what if" account of America for the 140 years following the Civil War (referred to here as the Conflict of North Aggression, or some such).
It is told so insistently from a parallel universe that "C.S.A." is actually a British Documentary shown on a Confederate Network TV station, complete with "present-day" commercials. There's an unsettling nature to the entire piece, most prominently the commercial breaks which have the look and feel of an SNL or Mad TV skit, but with extreme racist overtones. These moments are so over the top, they almost feel like they are playing for laughs, but the content is so upsetting that the reaction is instead sickness.
The film is very consistent, and pulls off a full ninety minute neo-history lesson, frequently to the point of inducing history class-like boredom. It was a well-made and well-intentioned piece of work that spends a lot more of it's time exposing the racial injustices throughout our actual history, as the "lecture" hits on many of the U.S.A.'s key historical moments, as if much of American history would have gone unchanged (like John F. Kennedy's presidency, and a presence in Vietnam, for example) with such a major alteration to that same history.
In the end you're left to wonder whether the real point of the movie was that all Southern whites are racist by their nature and the Civil War was the first step toward keeping that at bay. It's an uncomfortable question, but one that feels appropriate since the movie almost numbed the viewer to heavy doses of racial slurs, epithets, and exploitation.
It is told so insistently from a parallel universe that "C.S.A." is actually a British Documentary shown on a Confederate Network TV station, complete with "present-day" commercials. There's an unsettling nature to the entire piece, most prominently the commercial breaks which have the look and feel of an SNL or Mad TV skit, but with extreme racist overtones. These moments are so over the top, they almost feel like they are playing for laughs, but the content is so upsetting that the reaction is instead sickness.
The film is very consistent, and pulls off a full ninety minute neo-history lesson, frequently to the point of inducing history class-like boredom. It was a well-made and well-intentioned piece of work that spends a lot more of it's time exposing the racial injustices throughout our actual history, as the "lecture" hits on many of the U.S.A.'s key historical moments, as if much of American history would have gone unchanged (like John F. Kennedy's presidency, and a presence in Vietnam, for example) with such a major alteration to that same history.
In the end you're left to wonder whether the real point of the movie was that all Southern whites are racist by their nature and the Civil War was the first step toward keeping that at bay. It's an uncomfortable question, but one that feels appropriate since the movie almost numbed the viewer to heavy doses of racial slurs, epithets, and exploitation.