Rich Hall sets his keen eye and acerbic wit on his homeland once again as he sifts truth from fiction in Hollywood’s version of the southern states of the USA. Using specially shot interviews and featuring archive from classic movies such as Gone With The Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire and Deliverance, Rich discovers a South that is about so much more than just rednecks, racism and hillbillies.

via BBC – BBC Four Programmes – Rich Hall’s ‘The Dirty South’.

It’s rare that I watch anything challenging lately. I’m usually content to sit down and veg out to either comedy, soaps (yes, soaps) or some film I’ve watched before. However, last night I watched Rich Hall’s The Dirty South.

Now I’m not saying that it was a challenging show, but it was something I had to concentrate on and think about – that’s enough for me after a day at work.

I really enjoyed it. 90 minutes well spent that not only gives me greater appreciate for America, but resulted in a couple films being added to my ‘would like to watch’ list.

My Beliefs

As the show was anti-Hollywood, the show itself challenged my beliefs (whether I like it or not, I tend to learn things from films – especially {en:Biographical_film|biopics}). As enjoyable as the show was, I find it hard to watch or listen to things that do this – it’s hard to swallow. I’m quite happy with my beliefs. Among other things, those beliefs have resulted in me enjoying the films {en:Ray (Film)|Ray} and {en:Walk the Line} (the Johnny Cash biopic). Why would I not want to enjoy a film? But the next time I watch those films, I don’t know whether I will enjoy them or not.

Ray

Rich Hall points out that when making biopics, Hollywood attempts to associate character development with key moments in a person’s life, even though it isn’t true to life. As he put it, Ray Charles didn’t become a heroin addict because his brother died. He became one because he kept shooting heroin into his arms.

When watching these films, in the back of my mind I kind of know this. But it’s great to get caught up in the story and believe that “blimey, Ray Charles really did do it hard!”. It not only helps me to enjoy the film, but also the music. So it’s hard when someone challenges that.

Easy Rider

One thing I am please he did though was point out that {en:Easy Rider} just seems to be about two guys smoking pot and driving motor bikes.

Easy Rider has always come across as a bit of a “hands off! This is a classic so I don’t want to hear a bad word about it”. When I watched it, I kind of enjoyed it but I did end up thinking “What’s the point of that?”. Until now though – until Rich led the way – I’d never feel comfortable admitting it. Thanks Rich!

As I wrote earlier though – with regards to The Dirty South, 90 minutes well spent. Anything that makes you think enough to compel you to write a blog post must be worth it in my eyes.