Review – C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America

Ever since I read Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle in high school, I’ve been a big fan of alternate history. This “mocumentary” is an excellent case for the importance of playing what-if games with history. Relating the post-Civil-War history of the Confederate States beginning with the premise that the South won the “War of Northern Aggression.” In the process, the audience is brought mindful of the eerie similarities between a fantasy society based on de jure racism and reality where de facto racism still thrives. For example, I was tempted to scoff at the broadly ridiculous scene from a movie “made by D.W. Griffith” about the post-war capture of a crudely-caricatured Lincoln (in blackface, no less) until I remembered that Birth of a Nation was no more racially sensitive than the parody. Overall I was surprised to find myself more impressed with the fake ads sprinkled throughout the production than by the alternate history itself. Somehow the simple, everyday aspects of American culture recast in an apartheid light – such as “Cops” redone as a show about capturing runaway slaves – struck me as more profound than the broader speculation about how a Confederate victory would have turned the tide of history in other directions. Worth seeing