What if the South won and Lincoln lived to be an old man?

C.S.A: Confederate States of America (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Alternately hilarious and frightening, "C.S.A: Confederate States of America" is an alternate account, in the guise of a mockumentary, of Civil War History. It posits a fascinating question: what if the Confederates won the Civil War instead of the Northerners? The scenario is troubling, the answer many will find controversial.

In this alternate account, President Abraham Lincoln is not assassinated in the Ford Theater - he hides from the Confederates by wearing blackface and stays with Harriet Tubman. He lives to be an old man, a forgotten footnote in history who lives his last days in Canada in infamy after having been jailed. Confederate Jefferson Davis becomes President, the United States become the Confederate States, slaves are considered the white man's property forever, and Mark Twain and others move to Canada where an abolitionist group is formed. Oh, that is not all. Hitler is our friend in CSA, a chancellor to Germany who is recruited for talks on how to handle the Jews - use them as slave labor instead of exterminating them! (It is never clear if Hitler went ahead with his own holocaust or not.) The CSA goes to war with Canada over their anti-slavery, abolitionist stance. To make matters worse, the film we are watching is actually a PBS-type of documentary with modern-day commercial breaks featuring the worst commercial products ever that carry negative images of blacks (many of these products did exist at one time, the names of which I will not repeat here).

"C.S.A" covers a lot of ground, from popular culture perpetuating the minstrel stereotypes all through the 2000 decade, to the reasons why the Civil War was fought (slavery, primarily, a bone of contention for many historians, and secession from the Union), to products that reinforce the slave mentality (the film ends with a description of various products that did exist and some, Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima, that continue the trend, to the existence of mulattos (a big no-no), to propaganda film such as the brilliant fake "I Married an Abolitionist" and the D.W. Griffith fake film featuring a blackface Lincoln, to a mocking of the TV show "COPS" called "Runaway," to a 2000 political candidate with lineage dating to the Civil War who might be a mulatto. Interspersed throughout is actual film footage and photos of a time most would probably like to forget (including that 1863 photo taken by abolitionists of a black man's heavily whip-scarred back, or one heinous photo of a hanging), all meant to shock and provoke from a history that has been rewritten or glorified or romanticized.

Written and directed by film professor Kevin Willmott, "C.S.A." is pure satire and either you will laugh or cringe or both. It is most certainly thought-provoking and disturbing in that modern-day society is not far off from what is shown in this alternate universe. The film was released in 2004 but, in 2012, we are still too far from an America where blacks are not discriminated (or almost segregated, notably schools thanks to the Koch brothers, an act that almost became a reality). Discrimination and institutional racism are more subtle nowadays, but it still happens. So when politicians from the right discuss how things have changed, and that they wish to espouse the values and virtues of the past (as shown clearly in this film), you have to wonder what past they are talking about.