As someone who writes quite a bit about history and movies, I found this to be an intriguing subject. The "what-if" notion has always been an interesting question when we look at historical events and wonder how history would have been altered by people and events taking a different turn from what really happened. The idea that the South could have won the Civil War is one of those things that never could have happened. Sure, if things had gone better, they might have beaten the North badly enough that Lincoln would have sued for peace and decided to let the Confederacy go their own way without trying to force them back into the Union. That's the best the South could have hoped for and that's all they wanted. It's ludicrous to believe that they could conquer the North or that they would desire to do so. Worst case scenario, there would have been two nations occupying North America, one free and one with slaves. Eventually, as the South moved toward an industrial economy (and the Civil War moved it in that direction sooner than it might have without the war) the necessity for slave labor might have disappeared as well. Slavery had been steadily declining, anyway, but the Civil War was not so much that the South loved their "peculiar institution" but that they resented being told that they had to get rid of their slaves or else. Taking all this into account, if we accept the premise of their being just one United States as a Confederacy existing today which still has slavery legal and prevalent in society, the rest of the scenario about siding with Hitler, etc., is not any more far fetched. As a satirical piece, it succeeds in making us think about the issues it raises. But don't for a moment think that there's much here that even Stephen Colbert would call "truthiness." Admittedly, racism still exists in America, as it does every where else in the world. But America still offers the best opportunities for people of any color or creed despite all its drawbacks. And no other place has the freedom of speech that we enjoy. That's why we can see a film like this and I can comment on it right now. For what it's worth, I give the film high marks for making the statement it does. As Jefferson said, I may disagree with what they're saying, but I defend their right to say it. I'm glad we don't live in a country that this mockumentary suggests could have been. But it exists only in your wildest nightmares, which we can all share by this cinematic experience. Dale Roloff
