Under Southern Stars

Starring: Fred Lawrence, Jane Bryan, Fritz Leiber, Wayne Morris, Pierre Watkin
Directed by: Nick Grinde
Rating: Approved
Genre: Drama, Short
Length: 17 minutes
1937

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Follows Stonewall Jackson (Fritz Leiber) the night before his fatal battle.

Review:

Tim: The biggest attraction about Under Southern Stars is to see it's depiction of Stonewall Jackson. Now, this short film is clearly enamored with him. That feels a little odd because the cause he fought for was clearly not the right one. However, if you can separate that fact and look at Jackson in the context of where he grew up and what his belief system was, you can find something at which to marvel.

I genuinely believe Jackson is a truly fascinating individual. The guy was a military genius, a deeply religious man, and yet fought to preserve slavery. This short film gives us some insight into the man on his final day on earth. The short does a fairly good job at painting the picture of this man in a relatively short amount of time. We see multiple sides to the character, including the famous "lemon myth", that Jackson loved eating lemons. This is simply not true- the guy ate whatever fruit was available, but still, in the context of this film, it gives the character an added dimension.

I found it interesting how pro-Confederate this film felt. This felt like a piece of propaganda about the Confederacy. I doubt a film like this would be made today, so it's incredibly provoking to see it and consider it within the context of the time in which it was produced. The Civil War had ended less than 100 years ago and Southern sympathies still existed (heck, they still exist today). I love seeing old films like this that portray a perspective that you simply wouldn't find today. This movie takes great pains to glorify Jackson and the South.

The film looked beautiful in color- you didn't see a lot of color films at this time, so what you see here was fairly cutting edge. That is certainly an appealing reason to check this out.

While Under Southern Stars is worth seeing from a historical standpoint, it should be noted that the 17 minute run time tries to cover too much story-wise. There's some romance subplot that felt unnecessary and distracting from the main plot. Glorifying Jackson, Lee, and the Confederacy isn't something I promote. So, if you want to study this as an example of short films in the 1930s, great. If you're not interested in exploring it from that angle, there's not a whole lot else to do with this short film.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- N/A



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Confederate Ironclad