A year ago I put up the first Prognosticator, and one of the movies on that list for January 2005 was CSA: The Confederate States of America.
It’s January 2006 and I have just seen that film at a press screening. It’s finally coming out next month. And it’s great. I don’t know why it’s been delayed so long, but I do know that it’s a funny, smart and ballsy satire about race in this country that aims to illuminate the continuing modern racism that is everywhere – and does it well. CSA reminds me a lot of Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, if Bamboozled had been kind of a better movie (and I say that liking Bamboozled).
The basic premise is simple – what if the South won the Civil War? The picture it paints is grim and hilarious, and while it’s not always completely historically realistic (it’s satire, not a serious alternate history), it’s shockingly well-researched and put together. And best (or worst) of all, you learn at the end that some of the most seemingly outrageous “jokes” are based on very, very real things.
My review will come closer to the film’s opening, but in the meantime, check out the website for the movie – the home page made one journalist I know actually complain about it being racist. I think he missed the point.