6/17/2023 0 Comments Sweet home alabamaPitting North against South, big city against small town and the past with the future, Sweet Home Alabama is a romantic look at what happens when one girl has two good choices in her life. Alcohol use and drunkenness are depicted, but at least some consequences result from the behavior unlike a solidly delivered punch that carries no penalty for assault. With sexual content limited mostly to comments, kissing and some implied relations, profanities are this film’s biggest problem. Determined to find any dirt on the new fianc0圎9e before the press does, the high-strung politician engages in some strategic warfare to disrupt the wedding plans. Meanwhile, Andrew’s announcement is giving his socially conscious mother a public relations nightmare. But her father Earl (Fred Ward), who spends his days reenacting Civil War battles for camera-wielding tourists, worries that his only child is running away from her past. After pushing her daughter into beauty pageants for years, the extravagant engagement ring from Tiffany’s showroom seems like adequate payoff. But with so much on the line, the chic creator is willing to stay in town with her working-class parents until her estranged spouse comes around.įor her mother, Pearl (Mary Kay Place), Melanie’s new life is a Cinderella story. Although Jake (Josh Lucas) is surprised to see her, the last thing this redneck is willing to do is sign the forms. There, she confronts the man who’s been avoiding her request for the past seven years. ![]() When Andrew (Patrick Dempsey) unexpectedly pops the big question, only one small problem stands between this girl and her newfound happiness a husband she married in high school.Īrmed again with divorce papers, Melanie heads for Pigeon Creek, Alabama. ![]() Hailed as a rising star in the world of fashion, the young New York designer is head-over-heels in love with the handsome and eligible son of the city’s mayor (Candice Bergen). Or actual human beings.Life seems almost perfect for Melanie Carmichael (Reese Witherspoon). But don't imagine that you're seeing anything to do with the actual South. I suppose there are worse ways to spend an evening. I've been sitting through the unending USA Network commercials for their showing of the flick, and getting the impression that the only reason they're showing it is to piggyback on the popularity of Dr. ![]() Meanwhile the movie itself is so innocuous that it dissolves while you're watching it. (Except black folks, who'd better not expect to see black folks living in the Alabama of THIS movie.) Reese Witherspoon herself, a well-bred Episcopalian débutante from Nashville, is a negation of Southern stereotypes, and an example of the Southerners we never see as characters in movies. (Mostly.) People see what they expect to see. For people who want to fantasize that we can still live in Mayberry, they can groove on how pretty it all is. What Skynard meant by the song and how SOME of their audience have interpreted it over the years are two different things, just like Springsteen's "Born in the USA" has been used for political purposes that are the opposite of the song's sentiments.) For people who think every white Southerner's favorite evening wear is a white sheet with burning cross as accessory, they can gloat over the stupid hicks in this film. But isn't it sad that the song "Sweet Home Alabama," which was written in the first place to object to sweeping generalizations about demon-Southerners (all Southerners being white, of course, in this anti-Southern view) is now gracing a movie that cozies right up to Southern stereotypes? (And for those objecting to the sentiments of the song, perhaps you should learn a little bit more about Lynyrd Skynard and Neil Young, and what that song actually said about their attitudes-and how Young responded.
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