Dixie

All of these reviews read like essays by high school kids competing with each other to gain the favor of their teacher who made them watch this movie, and then write an essay about how evil minstrelsy was. Extra credit for the most anti-minstrelsy.

From the synopsis I read of this movie (I haven't seen it, but I'd like to) it would appear it has almost nothing to do with the real Dan Emmett, or the real cultural environment of the country during the time period covered, so there's no point in looking to the movie for insight into minstrelsy. Instead, it appears the reviewers looked elsewhere on the web, and found the most biased, least informative stuff they could find on minstrelsy, and cut and pasted it into the reviews.

Folks, Minstrelsy was by far the most popular form of entertainment for a CENTURY in the US. Only the circus came close. Do you really think that minstrelsy was all about one thing, and it was always the same thing to the majority of the population for over a century? It is a shame that discussion of minstrelsy has been so suppressed that it has allowed these attitudes to grow up around it. Now there is a great deal of scholarly discussion, and the researchers have a sophisticated grasp of what was really going on. Most of this information hasn't trickled down to us yet.

Imagine if somebody said that all of rock music is about one thing - stealing from and making fun of blacks. Mick Jagger was aping black people to make fun of them. Some people might agree with that, but they would be wrong. Or if they said rap music is about one thing - hating whitey.

As wrong-headed as those assessments would be, it's 10 times worse about minstrelsy, which was a much bigger phenomena than rock and rap put together. Minstrelsy was about mockery, and mimicry. About admiration, and hate. it was whites pretending to be black, blacks pretending to be Chinese... there were many stock characters in minstrelsy, and everybody played everybody. Some of it was about hate and distrust, some of it was about finding a way to get along.

In 1943, they were already looking at this stuff through filters, though if Al Jolson was out of blackface by then, it was only be a little bit. Now we have different filters.

Don't take other people's word (including mine), look at it for yourself. But spend some time with it. Sure, the first thing you will see is the caricature, and it will appear it was all about degrading at hate. But the more you look, the more you will learn.

Dixie is a biopic of a showman and musician, Daniel Decatur Emmett, who got his start in vaudeville performing in blackface in the 1840s. This is a touchy subject, because since that was a large part of his life-he was the first successful blackface performer-but it's not something American audiences like to watch anymore. Should Hollywood cut that part of the plot out and ignore part of this man's life, or keep it in and risk offending people? In case you're wondering why Hollywood decided to make a biopic of this man in the first place, he contributed something else to American culture, something so famous and crucial: the anthem of the South, "Dixie".

If you look at this film as recording the life of a man in the 1840s, it's actually tastefully done. Yes, there are too many blackface scenes to count, but the film doesn't take advantage of the opportunity to be exceedingly offensive. Without the makeup, most of the jokes and routines Bing Crosby and his troupe perform are just puns and pratfalls. "How was the trip?" he asks his fellow actor after he tumbles off the stage. "I don't know, I'll tell you next fall," the man answers. These aren't racist jokes, if you close your eyes when you hear them.

It really is too bad that so much of the movie is visually jarring, because the story itself is very interesting and heartwarming. At the start of the movie, Bing is engaged to Marjorie Reynolds, but he's not allowed to marry her until he makes his fortune. He's naïve and falls into the oily embrace of card shark Billy De Wolfe, but the two quickly join forces and pursue an acting career, where they meet Dorothy Lamour. Dorothy is completely different from Marjorie, and Bing falls in love. When Bing goes home to break his engagement, he finds out Marjorie's fallen ill and has become permanently paralyzed. Stricken with guilt, Bing marries Marjorie and sends a note of apology to Dorothy, with no intention of ever seeing her again.

What's missing from that synopsis? Racism! See what I mean, Dixie has a very compelling story behind it. If you can get past the several blackface numbers and realize it was a part of this man's history, this is a good movie. The Jazz Singer is universally revered, and audiences accept that blackface was a part of Al Jolson's history.

The movie will make you wait for it, but when you're finally treated to the "Dixie" number, it's well worth the wait. Since it happens so late in the film, I don't want to tell you what happens, but it's an incredibly moving scene. Dorothy gets to show off her acting chops, and Bing rouses the film audience to their feet; it feels like you're really taken back in time a hundred years when the song turned into an anthem. There's no true Southerner who can watch that scene and not be moved to tears.

In the movie Dixie (1943), it was apparent that at this civil war time entertainment there were different styles of dance emerging. During this time it became a popular diversion to spend evenings at a minstrel theater. Straying away from the traditional opera or ballet, minstrels offered a new sense of entertainment which promoted the class system. Fortunately our society today is accepting African Americans and prejudices are less prevalent. Subsequent to professional minstrelsy's decline in th 20th century, its appeal continued in the south. Though Minstrels proposed stereotypes, some good did result from this type of entertainment. These shows presented black performers the opportunity to build a foundation which later helped many of them to emerge as successful entertainers.

Minstrel shows exposed a wide selection of audiences to this unique type of entertainment. With its combination of eccentric dancing and diverse music, people enjoyed the allure of the entertainment. Closely similar to tap dancing, it boasted innovative and bizarre movements' pairs wit flamboyant eye-catching costumes.

This type of amusement contributed to later types of dancing and entertainment. As a big benchmark in the industry, without minstrels played a role in what dancing has evolved into presently. Without minstrels, who knows if the great such as Dizzy Gillespie, W.C Handy, and Bert Williams, would have been as successful as they were.

Boy, that was a tough slog getting through all the history lessons and moral instruction regarding slavery. Yes, yes, it was a shameful period in America and minstrel shows were degrading, but most contributors forgot to evaluate "Dixie" - the movie, that is.

Well, let me have a bash at it. When I think back on "Dixie", the first thing I think of is the ballad, "Sunday, Monday or Always", done to perfection by Bing at the beginning and at the end. Much of the rest of the movie is forgettable and uninspired. Paramount had assembled an excellent cast which is largely wasted in this fictitious biography of a forgotten songwriter. Maybe the biggest disappointment was the lack of spectacle and excitement in musical number after lifeless musical number, especially the last one. The choreography was almost non-existent and very understated, except for a dance by the largely wasted Eddie Foy, Jr. The script was desperately in need of a re-write - and what's with the fires? There were three separate fires in the course of "Dixie", one of which should have included Dorothy Lamour's thankless part.

I guess musicals were not Paramount's thing. Such matters were best left to Fox or MGM, or even Universal, which had a few pretty good underbudgetted musicals. Our present rating is a little rich for "Dixie" - I gave it five and upped it to six on the strength of the song "Sunday,Monday or Always", which was gorgeous.

Paramount finally gave Bing Crosby technicolor in this 1943 film, presumably based on the life of Daniel Decatur Emmett, minstrel man and composer of many 19th century songs like Turkey in the Straw, Old Dan Tucker, and of course, Dixie.

Seeing this film today and realizing that the song Dixie is a bad reminder of slavery for Afro-Americans and that minstrel shows in and of themselves are not so subtle examples of racism the film ain't recommended by this writer. It's a pity because technically the film is flawless, good writing, directing and acting.

Crosby also sings one of his most famous movie songs, Sunday, Monday, or Always in this and the recording by Decca is an interesting story. For most of 1943 into 1944 the musicians union went on strike against the record companies. This played hell on Frank Sinatra who had just signed a contract with Columbia Records after leaving Tommy Dorsey. Bing was already established and Decca re-issued his old platters up to a point. Sunday, Monday or Always was such a mega-hit from the film that Decca got Crosby to record it with the Ken Darby Singers doing an a capella background. The flipside was If You Please also from this film. Columbia did the same thing with Sinatra for the songs from Higher and Higher. Both Crosby and Sinatra were accused of not honoring the musician's picket line and the practice was discontinued. But Sunday, Monday or Always became one of Bing's million sellers.

One incident from the film is true. The song Dixie was originally written as a slow moving ballad. But a theater orchestra had to speed up the tempo to what we know today because of a threatening theater fire. That tempo change made it a hit and the rest as they say is history.

Dixie doesn't mean to be offensive, the film was made in a different time. But offensive it is.

I would only see it if you are Crosby fan or as a historical curiosity.