Hollywood loves portraying southerners as slow and stupid. To point, Walter Brennan's character - as a preacher, he would've obviously been educated enough to at least be literate. But when reading Alvin's letter to the York family, you'd think he was a first grader stumbling through a Dick and Jane book....Us southern boys, you know, we ain't been learned much....geez, give us a break.
shareHave you ever tried reading aloud a hand-written letter in a poorly-lit room?
shareSorry OP, but deep in the Cumberland Mountains at the turn of the last century, not everybody went to Harvard, hell they didn't even go to Arizona State. This movie is very accurate in depicting it's time and place. They were rural, mostly illiterate people, they lived off the land, like our grandparents and great grandparents did, they didn't have laptops, i-pods or indoor toilets, but they had the America of old, and it was all they knew or needed.
shareYeah, I think that's probably accurate. It looks like the OP is from Texas. Though both Texas and Tennessee might be considered "southern," they're nothing alike. Appalachia has always been the poorest, least educated place in the US. Hell, I've got some relation down in West Virginia, and it's still pretty bad today. My great uncle just got running water about 15 years ago, lol. The amount of poverty in that area is very sad, actually.
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Hollywood's two favorite dumb stereotypes were Southerners and Brooklynites. People from Brooklyn (or the Bronx) were uneducated slobs only good for comic relief or menacing... much similar to Southerners.
"The good end happily, the bad unhappily, that is why it is called Fiction."
I think the image of a Brooklyn resident-- no-nonsense, feisty-- is much more positive than stereotyped Southern mountain folk.
shareJust like the silliness of trying to stereotype people from one century into the standards and perceptions of another?
Southerners from the 18th century must really drive you up the wall...
:)
Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order
Southerners are often portrayed in a bad light and it's generally undeserved. But in this particular film, I don't know what the flip you're on about! You may be from Texas, but in East Tennessee where I'm from the portrayals of the characters are spot on! And they aren't stupid or slow. They're pretty darn quick witted actually as evidenced by one of my favourite lines: When the man asks how on earth they got back in that valley and the old man says, "We was borned hyere!" Classic cheek! As for the letter, the preacher was reading a letter that was handwritten. You ever tried to read that old, spidery handwriting? I have and it's often not easy! And I can't even imagine trying to read it in a dark, candlelit cabin!
Stereotypes are a pain, but you can either preach to the choir about them or you can set about disproving them. I've always chosen to do the latter.
The bee hunts in pairs....and other fruits...
"They give it to you, Alvin. The people of the State of Tennesseee. For what you done." This is not a stereotype. It was realistic- for 1917.
shareI've said in other posts, and I'll say it again:
There's some truth in this movie, AND there's a fair amount of "artistic license."
Like the poster named "dolly" a few messages above, I too, am from East Tennessee, a couple of counties east from Fentress county - Alvin York's stomping ground. I spent lots of time in Morgan county, right next to his home county, so I know the home folk, even HIS kin!
There was/is a basic misconception about the level of literacy in the area. People weren't dumb, or stupid, there just wasn't always a need recognized by a lot of folks to go much past the eighth grade, especially in larger families, as mouths to feed was of primary concern.
You had to earn a living. So, you followed the jobs. Lots of times, in these areas, that meant lumber and coal. Basic literacy was seen as sufficient, and anything beyond that was, quite frankly, a huge blessing.
I (and others from that very area) also find it laughable that the writers thought it was correct to call cattle "beef critters," or to substitute "I'm a'thankin yuh" for "thank yeh," as neither of which were used by ANYONE in that part of East Tennessee...or ANY part of Tennessee that I've heard ever of.
Since I lived and worked in the entertainment industry in L.A., I'm quite familiar with the way both Hollywood AND Tin Pan Alley viewed the South and the way Southerners spoke and acted. They were both usually WAY off base...
Alvin York didn't let them get away with TOO much, but he didn't protest a lot, either...
I don't act...I react. John Wayne
They may not have had a lot of Education, or Book learning, but They were self-sufficient.
shareIf you want to see stereotyping, catch the movie "Tobacco Road" made around the same time.
Portrays backwoods people like lazy, stupid, sexually obsessed creatures. I wonder if that movie played in Southern movie theaters.
Absurdity: A Statement or belief inconsistent with my opinion.
Hah! The "sterotyped" white Southerners of "Tobacco Road," Sergeant York" and "Jesse James" are all Mensa candidates compared with the black characters of "Cabin in the Sky," or "Tales of Manhattan" (it's been a while, but I think de cullud sharecroppers in that one don't even know what an airplane is) I'm a middle-aged African-American who grew up around many folks who came from rural Virginia and Alabama.
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?