# The South Never Plays Itself: A Film Buff's Journey Through the South on Screen - Hardcover

by **Ben Beard** (Author)

Since _The Birth of a Nation_ became the first Hollywood blockbuster in 1915, movies have struggled to reckon with the American South--as both a place and an idea, a reality and a romance, a lived experience and a bitter legacy. Nearly every major American filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter has worked on a film about the South, from _Gone with the Wind_ to _12 Years a Slave_, from _Deliverance_ to _Forrest Gump_. In _The South Never Plays Itself_, author and film critic B. W. Beard explores the history of the Deep South on screen, beginning with silent cinema and ending in the streaming era, from President Wilson to President Trump, from musical to comedy to horror to crime to melodrama. Beard's idiosyncratic narrative--part cultural history, part film criticism, part memoir--journeys through genres and eras, issues and regions, smash blockbusters and microbudget indies to explore America's past and troubled present, seen through Hollywood's distorting lens. Opinionated, obsessive, sweeping, often combative, sometimes funny--a wild narrative tumble into culture both high and low--Beard attempts to answer the haunting question: what do movies know about the South that we don't?

### Author Biography

BEN BEARD is a writer and librarian. He is the co-author of _This Day in Civil Rights History_ and the author of _Muhammad Ali: The Greatest_ and _King Midas in Reverse_. In the 2000s, Beard reviewed movies and wrote features for _InSite Magazine_, _King Kudzu_, and _Filmmonthly.com_, where he also worked as an editor. Beard, a native of Georgia who spent his formative years in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama, currently lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.

**Number of Pages:** 304

**Dimensions:** 1.2 x 9.1 x 6.3 IN

**Publication Date:** December 15, 2020

## Details

- **Price:** 29.95 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 29.95 USD | In stock |

## Images

- The South Never Plays Itself: A Film Buff's Journey Through the South on Screen - Hardcover
- The South Never Plays Itself: A Film Buff's Journey Through the South on Screen - Hardcover

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