The Old South

This short documentary (or "miniature" as MGM liked to call them), designed as an accompanying bit of background info during the rush of Gone with the Wind fever, is one of the few Fred Zinnemann shorts that can be seen on DVD.

It often comes up in discussions about Zinnemann that his background in this area gave his full-length pictures a "documentary feel", although this isn't really the case. In the first place, other than the occasional realist touch here and there, I wouldn't say he had what you could call a pronounced documentary approach. Secondly, looking at The Old South (and other MGM miniatures which turn up as DVD extras) you can see these shorts largely consisted of staged scenes. Much of the "real event" shots appear to be stock footage, and for the final montage they even stole the opening shot from 1929's Hallelujah, directed by King Vidor! Still, one or two things make this stand out as the work of Zinnemann. In particular there is the way he shoots outdoor scenes – pretty and tranquil images with lots of overhanging tree branches. Much later he would use shots like this to help bring out the poignancy of an important scene; here he is probably just doing it for aesthetics. He has consistently attempted to fill the frame with life and character, sometimes getting the better of himself. For example in the scene where two landowners discuss the slave trade, the arrangement of the shot draws our attention more to the activity in the background and away from the speakers, rather than balancing them effectively.

The Old South is available as part of the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink four disc edition of Gone with the Wind. Although it looks pretty and may be of vague interest to Zinnemann buffs, to be honest you can probably do something better with your eleven minutes.

THE OLD SOUTH is a MGM pseudo-documentary dramatic short that was made in 1940 at the height of "pre release" GONE WITH THE WIND fever (although GWTW premiered in Atlanta in 1939, it did not go into release until well into 1940 and was not in full release until early 1941). The short tells the story of how the dirt-poor, land-rich American South zoomed into prosperity in the late 18th and early 19th century thanks to cotton, originally seeds imported from India which quickly flourished in the sunny, productive fields of the American South to create a worldwide demand for this American export. I disagree with the reviewer who says the film somewhat condones how the South became affluent via slavery. This short is quite unflinching in the ugly side of this American dream with slaves shown being captured and occasionally thrown to their deaths from ships to avoid the crew's possible arrest for being caught by the British as slave traffickers. A plantation owner is shown quite unsympathetically as he barks his demand for more slaves to work his fields. The movie seq ways into the growing outrage of the North over the South's slavery (one reader is shown throwing UNCLE TOM'S CABIN into the fireplace in disgust at it's revelations) which ultimately climaxed in the Civil War which devastated the South. The movie manages to end on an "up" beat as the South rebuilds it's cotton empire although one can't help but note the film shows black people still having to work as field hands in the late 19th century "new South". Despite a tasteless watermelon gag in one dramatic scene, this is a well made, rather solid little history lesson,

This "documentary" says much more about 1940 USA than it does about the history of cotton and the South. It's an example of the political correctness of that time: don't say anything that offends white Southerners! It's fascinating to watch: you get to hear how Southern history and slavery used to be taught in schools in the USA (I say "used to", but this was the version of the history I heard as well as late as 1980 or so in Kentucky). The movie doesn't have a political agenda, but as a result of its skewed view of history, ends up explaining cotton and Southern history largely in sympathy to the South, particularly regarding the issue of slavery, with only one scene depicting its horrors -- "balanced" with a scene of a slave family that will make you cringe for all the wrong reasons. I don't think the film was intended as propaganda -- I think the producers were actually trying to present something historical (and cash in on all the "Gone With the Wind" mania of the time). I give it 8 out of 10 because, wow, you'll learn a LOT about the climate of the USA in 1940 with regard to how it wanted to think about the Civil War.