I had a ‘Rent 3 for $10’ coupon for Blockbuster and this faux-documentary piqued my interest. CSA takes a hypothetical look at what might have happened had the South won the Civil War. It poses as a British documentary showing the history of the CSA- essentially a skewing of real events as they occurred.
The film captures the made-for-TV feel very well, but its substance feels forced. In this alternate timeline, the Confederates manage to gain French and British support, altering the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg. From there, wild speculation runs rampant, insinuating that the Confederacy kept marching through the Union until President Lincoln surrenders the US Government. The CSA conquers and enslaves all of Central and South America, but fails to take over Canada; they side with Germany in World War II; they attack Japan to launch the war in the Pacific; they build the equivalent of the Berlin Wall along its border with Canada; and they never develop any kind of culture (Canada becomes the pop culture powerhouse of the world instead).
To its benefit, the film uses actual commercials and pictures from real companies from the early 20th Century, such as Darkie brand toothpaste and Coon Chicken Inn restaurants. These historical accuracies show how far we’ve come with civil rights in the past 50 years, but fail to outweigh the preposterous prognostications of what could have been if the Confederacy won the war.
To re-imagine history is one thing, but to simply reverse many historical events is cheap and lazy. In reality, had the CSA won the Civil War, the course of history would have been completely different and would certainly not have been the dirty mirror image portrayed herein. The films is also very hostile and prejudice against people from the South, portraying all the dirtiest of stereotypes of Southern whites and insinuating that they lack the intelligence and creativity to develop a culture of their own (which any thinking person knows to be false).
Don’t waste your time with this one, unless you’re willing to think about it for a long time afterwards.
I had a ‘Rent 3 for $10’ coupon for Blockbuster and this faux-documentary piqued my interest. CSA takes a hypothetical look at what might have happened had the South won the Civil War. It poses as a British documentary showing the history of the CSA- essentially a skewing of real events as they occurred.
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