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For this week’s Hairy Harmonies, we have two films with flawed portrayals of African Americans in the United States: Native Son (1951), written by a blacklisted commie who was also ‘guilty’ of being Arfican American, and – the movie Disney wants you to forget – Song of the South (1946) a musical written by and for white people about black people. You may start cringing now.

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Details

Native Son (1951) 1h 48min
English language noir murder story made in Argentina and based on Richard Wright’s novel. Wright was blacklisted in Hollywood at the time for being a member of the communist party. Further, the film’s initial release was about 30 minutes shorter than this version with censors removing ‘objectionable’ bits. Supposedly it had been a pain point to find a white actress who was willing to risk her career by touching a black man on-screen, and one can expect that was the sort of thing likely cut. So: while this restored version is a more-accurate-than-average portrayal, there are problems with this film. First, this is from an era when ‘the law must prevail’ for any film shown to the general public. Next, it is saddled by use of the author as the star (a change made because the intended star could not get a passport). Lastly, it would have been a more powerful story if our lead character had a different opening or at least included the book’s trial ending.

Song of the South (1946) 1h 35min
Disney finally closed Splash Mountain, so little remains to remind people that the studio made this musical, which is reason enough to see it. Background: In 1880, Joel Chandler Harris wrote his first book, “Uncle Remus: His Songs And Sayings” and was immediately acclaimed as one of the era’s best writers, ranking with Mark Twain, Whitcomb Riley and George Washington Cable…

Disney hired African-American performer and writer Clarence Muse to be consulted on the screenplay, but Muse quit when Reymond (another writer) ignored Muse’s suggestions to portray African-American characters in a way that would be perceived as being dignified and more than Southern stereotypes. Muse subsequently wrote letters to the editors of black publications to criticize the depiction of African-Americans in Reymond’s script. Disney claimed that Muse attacked the film because Disney did not choose Muse to play the part of Uncle Remus, which Muse had lobbied for.

The Disney Company has stated that, like Harris’s book, the film takes place after the American Civil War and that all the African American characters in the movie are no longer slaves. The Hays Office had asked Disney to “be certain that the frontispiece of the book mentioned establishes the date in the 1870s”; however, the final film carried no such statement.

Content Warnings

Native Son

Sex & Nudity: Mild
Violence & Gore: Mild
Profanity: Severe
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: Severe
Frightening & Intense Scenes: Moderate

N-WORD
Hate Speech removed mentioned
Dead Animal/Animal Dies
Gun violence
Choking
Covered Mouth
Childbirth
Character dies
Car noise (honk/screech)

Song of the South

Sex & Nudity: None
Violence & Gore: Mild
Profanity: None
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: None
Frightening & Intense Scenes: Mild

RACISM
Child abuse (off screen, but a switch is shown in hand)
Sad animal
Bugs (animated)
Minority misrepresented

Letterboxd:

Native Son: https://letterboxd.com/film/native-son-1951/
Song of the South: https://letterboxd.com/film/song-of-the-south/

Links to films:

Native Son: https://tankie.tube/w/sQ2MJMqki1sn44jToSPxfH
Song of the South: https://tankie.tube/w/vWy3xgmJU3KmmJCMkqsvj7