Song of the South

Song of the South, Political correctness having been pounded into our heads by the media, I can understand the underlying racial issues that have blunted this Disney film’s reputation–no one really wants to be reminded of this particular era (the post-Civil War) when rich Southern white folks called the shots and the black folk did all the hard work–but I can’t imagine any film-goer of any color passing up the chance to see James Baskett as Uncle Remus (this was his swan song, dying about a year after this film’s original release and just a few months after winning a special Oscar for his contribution). I saw this in the 1970s at a drive-in theater and the experience was magical, it stuck with me for years. It’s an emotional, lovely movie about childhood, the friendship between kids and adults, and the confusion about right and wrong. There are no issues here about white and black, but then, this isn’t the proper film to address those issues. It is the South at the turn of the century, and in that regard it’s not much different from “Gone With The Wind”. There are beautiful animated interludes and a handful of terrific songs, Brer Bear is a riotous Disney character, and the live-action youngsters (Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten) are wonderful–the scene where he gives her his fancy collar is quite poignant. Driscoll and Patten were later teamed in Disney’s “So Dear To My Heart”, which is also worth finding. “Song of the South” is a film with a great big heart that needs to come out of the vaults. Let viewers judge for themselves.