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Movie Review: Song of the South (1946) [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-07-29

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SPOILER ALERT!

As we all know, Ron DeSantis has been at odds with Disney for being woke when it opposed the Don’t Say Gay legislation. At the same time, it has recently been reported that there are efforts to educate students in Florida that African Americans benefitted from slavery on account of the skills they acquired during their servitude. What better way would there be for DeSantis to bring all this together than by demanding that Disney rerelease Song of the South (1946) as a way of making amends, and at the same time showing us how African Americans benefitted by being slaves. DeSantis could then refer to the movie to illustrate various positions he has taken.

From reading the stories about Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris, we know that those stories were set in Georgia during Reconstruction. From watching the movie by itself, at least in the beginning, we might just as easily suppose it to be set before the Civil War as after it, although we gradually get indications that it is the latter. This ambiguity in turn would suggest that it doesn’t really matter, that the African Americans were just as happy and content being slaves as they were later on being servants and sharecroppers.

The white people in this movie, on the other hand, are beset with problems. In particular, at the beginning of the movie, a white married couple, John and Sally, seem to be splitting up because Sally, in this and in several other ways, is wrong-headed. They have a son Johnny (Bobby Driscoll), who is about seven years old, and after John drops him and Sally off at Grandmother’s plantation, he leaves to catch a train, unhappy that Sally refuses to go with him. That night, Johnny decides to run away to be with his father. In so doing, he comes across a bunch of African Americans happily singing “Uncle Remus Said.” None of these people seem to be having any marital difficulties, no doubt owing, at least in part, to the sexual skills they acquired during slavery from their white masters.

When Uncle Remus (James Baskett) finds out that Johnny wants to run away, he tells him a story about when Br’er Rabbit decided to leave his home in the Briar Patch, and he found himself caught in a snare set by Br’er Fox. Thanks to the stupidity of Br’er Bear, Br’er Rabbit is able to escape and return home. The moral of the story is that you can’t run away from your troubles, which Johnny takes to heart and allows Uncle Remus to take him back to his mother. Not being able to run away from your troubles is the reason why it was a mistake for slaves to try to run away from their masters.

The next morning Sally dresses Johnny up in a sissy outfit. His legs are in white tights, with his feet in pretty black shoes. Around his neck is a frilly, lace collar. We have no doubt that this wouldn’t have happened if Johnny’s father had been around. Johnny and Toby, the black boy that is his companion during the visit, pass by a rundown place where some poor white trash live. There are two boys out front, Jake and Joe, whom Toby calls the Favers boys, saying, “My maw don’t low me to play with them.” The two boys come over to the fence and start making fun of Johnny’s clothes.

“What’s your name, li’l girl?” Joe asks.

“Look at the little girlie, wearin’ a lace collar!” says Jake.

They both begin chanting, “Wearin’ a lace collar! Wearin’ a lace collar!”

Johnny walks away, dejected. He stops by a creek and tears off the lace collar. Ginny (Luana Patten), the sister of the two boys, catches up with him and offers to give him a puppy. In return, Johnny gives her the lace collar, which she puts on and is delighted. DeSantis could point out that the message is clear: little boys ought to dress like boys, and little girls ought to dress like girls.

Ginny says her brothers were going to drown the dog, so when Aunt Tempy (Hattie McDaniel) tells Johnny that his mother won’t allow him to keep the puppy, he takes him to Uncle Remus. Whereas the first story Uncle Remus told Johnny was about the futility of trying to run away from trouble, this time he tells a tale about bringing trouble upon yourself unnecessarily. It seems that Br’er Fox set another trap for Br’er Rabbit, this time by making a Tar Baby. All Br’er Rabbit had to do was pass it by, but he becomes angry when the Tar Baby doesn’t respond to his greeting. So, he hits the Tar Baby to teach him some manners, getting his hand stuck as a result. The more he tries to free himself by using his other hand and his legs, the more they get stuck too. As Uncle Remus says, Br’er Rabbit had learned too late about what “comes o’ mixin’ up wid somethin’ you got no business wid in de fust place.”

DeSantis would no doubt say that Disney itself was messing with a Tar Baby when it tried to fight back against the Don’t Say Gay legislation, and that they might have avoided that mistake had they recalled their own movie.

Anyway, Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear start arguing about how to kill Br’er Rabbit, but for everything either of them comes up with, Br’er Rabbit says he’s fine with that just as long as they don’t throw him in the Briar Patch. Because Br’er Fox wants to inflict as much pain on Br’er Rabbit as possible, he figures he will do the one thing Br’er Rabbit is pleading with him not to do. So, he throws him in the Briar Patch. That’s when Br’er Rabbit informs him, “I was born and bred in de Briar Patch,” as he goes hopping away.

In much the same way, DeSantis could point out, while slavery might sound terrible to anyone unfamiliar with it, those who were born and bred in slavery were probably comfortable with that way of life, and books that say otherwise are as misguided in this regard as Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear.

When the Jake and Joe confront Johnny, threatening to tell on him about the puppy, he uses reverse psychology, saying they can tell Aunt Tempy, they can tell his mother, and they can tell his grandmother, but he pleads with them not to tell their own mother. Needless to say, they fall for it and get themselves a whipping. When they figure out how they were tricked, they tell Sally what happened, and Uncle Remus confesses to his part about the dog. After the boys leave, Sally reprimands Uncle Remus, telling him that he is interfering with what she regards as the proper way to educate a child, and that she doesn’t want him telling Johnny any more of those stories.

Sally decides to throw a birthday party for Johnny. Only reluctantly does she agree to allow Ginny to come since she is low class. But one of Ginny’s brothers pushes her down in the mud, ruining her dress, making it impossible for her to go to the party. She and Johnny are miserable as a result, so despite Sally’s admonition, Uncle Remus tells them a third story about a Laughing Place. Like the first two, this one is also about trouble. Supposedly, each person has a Laughing Place, and the moral of the story is that each person can find a way to laugh at his troubles. But troubles you can laugh at cannot be all that bad. Coming as it does from an old black man, who must have spent most of his life as a slave, this story and its moral essentially make light of whatever troubles black people might have had during and after slavery.

Johnny and Ginny take the idea of a Laughing Place literally and start to look for it. But Sally shows up, telling Johnny the birthday party is over, and he never even said goodbye to his guests. Ginny blurts out that they had been listening to Uncle Remus tell them a story. Sally tells Uncle Remus that since he cannot resist telling stories, he is to stay away from Johnny completely.

With a broken heart, Uncle Remus decides to leave for Atlanta. When Johnny tells his mother that Uncle Remus is gone, she has regrets, admitting she’s to blame. When Johnny sees Uncle Remus leaving in a wagon, he cuts across a pasture to try to stop him. The bull that is kept in that fenced-in area chases after him and gores him.

That night Johnny’s father returns to find dozens of black folks in front of the house, deeply concerned about the little white boy inside. They are singing prayers to their Savior “to have mercy on this little child,” their Christian faith being just one of the many benefits they derived from their white masters. The white folks themselves, on the other hand, take a more secular approach. When Johnny fails to respond to the words of his mother and father, Grandma gets Uncle Remus, who tells Johnny that Br’er Rabbit has returned to his Laughing Place. This brings Johnny around.

We never found out why John and Sally were separating, but it seems they will be staying together, now that she realizes that she was wrong about things. And sometime later, we see Johnny, Ginny, and Toby running along with the dog, and with Uncle Remus right behind them.

By rereleasing Song of the South, Disney could prove to Ron DeSantis that it is forsaking its woke ways, returning to the values of its past, and in so doing, help promote the DeSantis agenda.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/29/2182815/-Movie-Review-Song-of-the-South-1946

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