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?

The South never plays itself America's South through Hollywood movies

Beard, Ben

NewSouth, Incorporated

Court Street Press

NewSouth Books

United States, United States of America

Montgomery, 2019

Since 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 Ben 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?

Intro -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Birth Of That Nation -- 2. William Faulkner And The Ghosts Of Tobacco Road -- 3. Tennessee Williams And The Terrors Of The Flesh -- 4. Deep South Sleaze And Louisiana Decay -- 5. The Florida Experiment -- 6. Bigger Than Texas -- 7. Old Time Religion And The Klan -- 8. Night Of The Hunter And The Southern Horrors -- 9. Winter In Dixieland, Crime And Southern Noir -- 10. Nashville, Country, Soul, Blues, Gutbucket, And The King -- 11. Good Times At The '90s Cafe 12. President Bush And The Endless Wars -- 13. Black (un)like Me -- Epilogue: Other Voices, Other Rooms -- Sources -- Notes -- Index. Ben Beard. Electronic Reproduction. Ann Arbor, Mi Available Via World Wide Web.

2025-06-04