oscaralbert Review of Hillbilly Hare

Hillbilly Hare (1950)

HILLBILLY HARE serves as a Warner Bros. tribute . . .

[8/10 · 17 January 2016]

. . . to the Men and Culture of the American South. Warner Bros. was never in ideological lock-step with studios such as MGM (which released the infamously revisionist and harmful public nuisance labeled GONE WITH THE WIND). HILLBILLY HARE opens with the "Martin Brothers" demonstrating to Bugs Bunny that guys in such Southern regions as the Arkansas Ozarks have never heard tell of razors. It goes on to show that such dudes feel naked without an over-sized gun in their fists to compensate for whatever phallic inadequacies or short-comings they may feel at the moment. When Bugs is able to tie up the barrel of Curt Martin's shot gun into a pretzel, it's a clue that Warner's animators want their audience to know that a Southerner's gun is not simply cold, hard blue steel, but also a warm, pliable tube more likely to spit out on themselves than anyone else as they manipulate it. Next, Bugs demonstrates that Southern gentleman are prone to be taken in by transvestites. Bugs throws on some Daisy Dukes, and the Martins begin drooling all over themselves. Finally, Bugs demonstrates how Sons of the South are dumber than posts--so dense, in fact, that all it takes is a malicious square dance caller's perverse rhymes to make them clobber each other with fence posts! It's hard for anyone who's seen Will Smith's CONCUSSION to believe that the NFL still will be in business five years from now. But as HILLBILLY HARE indicates, as long as there are Southern boys, we'll always have football!