Plumbing The Depths Of "America's Heart And Soul" - Brilliant!

[hatrack]

"On the afternoon of my Independence Day vacation, I sat in an empty movie theatre watching America's Heart and Soul, a new pseudo-documentary from Walt Disney Pictures, that portrays the extraordinary lives of "ordinary" Americans. After reading a half-dozen reviews that presented the movie as a "patriotic" counterpoint to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, I wanted to see what the fuss was all about for myself.

While I was prepared for a blatant whitewash of America's complex cultural tableau, I was nearly shaken out of my seat by what I witnessed: a right-wing anti-government commercial insiduously cloaked in a "Morning in America" aesthetic that is calculated to deceive the viewer into believing that George W. Bush's "era of personal responsibility" has been enthusiastically ushered in – and that it's working.

America's Heart and Soul opens with a portrait of rugged individualism unfettered by government tyranny. It's "Roudy" Roudebush, the gruff cowboy from Telluride, Colorado, who loves his freedom and rides a horse that trusts him. As the camera zooms out for a shot of Roudy galloping across the Continental Divide to a score of lilting strings, he explains in a voice-over what makes him free: "There's not a lot of government out here." Roudy is followed by George Woodard, a quirky Vermont dairy farmer who milks cows day and night with his son by his side. In a non-sequitur remark, Woodard says that the best thing about working with your son is that "you don't need any daycare." After him comes the Appalachian rug-weaver who explains that even though she's always been broke, "Poverty is not a word to a true Appalachian." And then there's the California vintner who loves his job so much he says he doesn't need a retirement plan.

EDIT

While (ed. - ice cream magnate Ben) Cohen gets lost in a dizzying scattershot of entrepreneur profiles, the sanitized Williams still manages to distinguish himself from the crowd. After all, he is the only black character in America's Heart and Soul who is not a musician or an athlete and the only minority character not seemingly lifted from the white imagination. Take Mosie Burks, an aging gospel singer from an unnamed part of Missippippi who, before breaking into a rendition of Swing Low Sweet Chariot, tells the camera that she praises God every time someone gives her chicken and bread. Is her worldview not affected by living in the Jim Crow south? What happened in her town when the civil rights struggle roiled Mississippi in 1950's and 1960's? The movie doesn't say, casting Burks as a complacent Dixieland stereotype. Then there's Michael Bennett, the ex-con who had such a meaningful experience in prison that he emerged to become the captain of the U.S. Olympic boxing team. Is the movie saying that prison is a useful tool for rehabilitating wayward black men? Apparently, yes."

EDIT

Much, much more at:

http://www.alternet.org/movies/19184/

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Plumbing The Depths Of "America's Heart And Soul" - Brilliant!

After him comes the Appalachian rug-weaver who explains that even though she's always been broke, "Poverty is not a word to a true Appalachian." And then there's the California vintner who loves his job so much he says he doesn't need a retirement plan.<<

Orwell would be proud. I wonder if these Europeans would buy this film...