C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2005)

Instant Favorite.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Awful effort on alternative outlook on history. Spike Lee? He made mistakes, too. Why on Earth making such a blatant parody of Ken Scott and Shelby Foote's Civil War masterpiece which was and is an unbeatable peak? Why, even if you did, do this newer effort such a rushes, rash-ed, rueful, woeful mish mash of all wrong elements possible? Badly calculated, poorly executed, terribly done, this short (and this Is the only redeeming quality of the effort) mocks the very core essence of Civil War achievements and depicts several sacred cows as desacralized calves. The worst moment? Alleged older Lincoln interview. Made me sick and filled with wrath. Wasted effort of dubious merit and horrible conclusion.

I have always been intrigued by the film's 'what-if' premise. After all, I'm a huge fan of author Harry Turtledove, Ward Moore and Phillip Dick's books about alternate history. Having a mockumentary, where the Confederacy had won the American Civil War and established a new world order that incorporates the entire former contiguous United States, the Golden Circle and the Caribbean; seem very fascinating to me. Without spoiling the movie, too much, I found the film directed by Kevin Willmott, to be very good, despite the low budget. I like how the movie primarily details significant political and cultural events of Confederate history from its founding until the early 2000s, using only a few fake historic reenactments, replica talking head interviews, and using real-life historic stock footage as faux-newsreel like a fantasy version of documenter Ken Burn's 1990 documentary 'Civil War'. I also like how it is presented as if it were made by a British documentary crew, being broadcast to the Confederate States, including fictional humorous fake commercials between the segments of the documentary with a few real racist products. I even like the way, the mockumentary opens with a fictional disclaimer that says, it might not be suitable for viewing by children and "servants"; making it seem like we were really in that world. For the most part, this film was fine and dandy, but I thought, the movie could have work better, if truthful, they didn't show the Confederate States, so united. After all, based on my research, each state in the Confederate States of America was only united, because of the war. In peace time, these states would had ate each other, seceding left and right because how much, they value their own state rights over a strong federal government. Even the institution of slavery wouldn't have save the CSA, as majority of the south did not believe in slavery. Only 31% out of 100% of southern families owned slaves at the time. Most of those, who was willing to fight, was only doing it, to protect their homes. Plus, the slowly isolationism between the states, segregation between minorities and its majority white upper class and the creeping of the Industry Revolution, would had crush the style of plantation-type agriculture that slavery live on. This will cause the slave trade to be near-obsolete in this world, as the few industries, that are left in this backward world would had value machine over human livestock. Another thing, worth noting, is the CSA would never had the power to possess the Union, even if they really wanted to; which is true in real-life history, as the South never really wanted to, but let's just say, for fun, that they indeed persuade the military and financial aid of the United Kingdom and France. Even with that, the North would still have most of the industries, and the larger amount of population. So, a CSA version of reconstruction is pretty much not possible, as the South didn't have the troops to do so, if anything, the South would be ravage by slave revolts as majority of the Southern troops would be occupying in the Northern States. In truth, if the South really did gain, their independence, it's most likely that the United States would still their own separate country, because of those versions. Another problem with this film is the fact that CSA's History is too much like the US's history. This film seems like it wasn't creative enough to make alternate world history in the absent of a US presence. Like really, how is Nazi Germany and Soviet Union still around, seeing how the CSA never interfere in WW1. There wouldn't be a Great Depression, Second World War, the Cold War, The Political unrest of the 1960's and the Vietnam War. It's not the cleverest of scenarios. If anything, the 20th century world of this film should be, way different than the real one, seeing how economy, policies and borders are not the same. I was really hoping for this film to be, more imaginative. Another thing, the movie could had made the film seem more realistic, is not have the same actor, Larry Peterson played every member of the Fauntroy family throughout the mockumentary. It made the film look really cheap. Even if, they got, another actor; I found the idea that one family having a big part in every Confederate event, kinda unrealistic. Despite that, the film still work with their satirize tone. The acting was alright. The camera work was fine & while, this movie doesn't the greatest grasp of history. It's still worth seeing. So check it out.

This is one of the first mockumentary movie I saw when I was a Teenager at a time when I was very interested in the American Civil War. The idea of a parallel reality was very new to me at the time so when I watched this film in early 2010 I very quickly became interested in the concept of an alternative reality in what would later become a genreknown as "Alternative history" and C.S.A: The Confederate States of America was the Spear of what captivated me into that genre. However, as I got older and started to look into the film in great detail I realize that the film has too many factual, historical and some global errors. The one that stands out the most is the Confederate takeover of the United States. At no point in the Civil war did the South wanted to conquer the United States and replace it with the Confederate States. The American Civil war was a war of Secession, the south wanted to become Independent from the union due to the north's abolishment of slavery in 1861 which was a source of income for many southern states. Even if the South did subjugate the North it wouldn't hold it for very long. The North hated the Confederacy believing them as traitors to the people who fought and died in the American Revolution, if the Confederates somehow annexed the union the northerners at some point or another would have rebelled against the CSA and reclaim the union. The Movie focuses mostly on slavery which probably wouldn't have lasted as long as this movie predicted and show us a divergent reality in where the CSA has taken over the USA as well as Central and south Americas. The film tells how the Confederates won the Civil War (which ended in 1864 in this timeline) and how they brought slavery back to the North. In this timeline Abraham Lincoln never published the Emancipation Proclamation and thus the Confederacy gain support from Britain and France. By the end of 1863 the Confederacy successfully advances into the Union strongholds winning battle after battle. After a few months a defeated and broken United States eventually surrendered and was force to join the CSA due to their costly defeat. By the end of the War the United State Ceased to Exist and the Confederate Battle flag (not the national flag of the Confederacy) becomes the National flag of America. Towards the end of the 19th Century and the end of the Reconstruction of the North the Confederates begins their expansion into Latin America as well as the Caribbean, enslaving local Blacks in the Caribbean and creating a Racial Segregation System in Mexico and Central America. By the 1920's the Confederates successfully annexed all of the South Americas by divide and conquer. However this put the CSA in a financial derp causing the Great Depression in the 1930's (similar to our timeline). In 1933 the German Nazi Party seized power which makes no sense whatsoever since there was no mention of Confederate aid to Britain and France during the First World War and also the fact that the Confederates were at war with South America.Although the CSA and Nazi Germany are neutral and maintain a friendly relationship with each other, the CSA decides to go to war with Germany's ally Japan in fear of Japanese expansionism in the Pacific. The Confederates Defeated the Japanese after Launching a Nuclear attack on Japan, and also enslaving the Japanese civilians, not long after Nazi Germany is also somehow defeated and falls to the Russian and British. Years later a Proxy War starts between the CSA and Canada which continued past the 21st century. During the 1950's the CSA build a concrete wall called the "Cotton Curtain" across the Canadian Border whilst an international embargo on the CSA takes place, South Africa becomes the only country to maintain diplomatic relations with America. By the start of the 21st Century the Confederates invade the Middle East in a Moral Crusade to eliminate Islam by converting the populace to Christianity whilst simultaneously taking over Oil productions. Along with the ludicrous back story on how the Confederates came to be, there is also a side story about John Ambrose Fauntroy's presidential election campaign. However his Character seems somewhat pointless and the twist ended in which it is revealed that his great grandfather (John Ambrose Fauntroy the first) and his servant's great grandmother had sex, just went nowhere for me.The movie barely uses any historical facts other than the Confederates plans to invade South America which was plan during the Civil war, there is also no mentions on the Second Mexican Empire which was established in 1864 nor is there any mentions of what happen to that regime. The CSA's History is too much like the US's history, things like the Great Depression, America's war in the Middle East, the Cold war (though with Canada instead of the Soviet Union), The Political unrest of the 1960's and the Vietnam War (again makes no sense in this timeline) is way too identical to our timeline that it makes the history kind of boring. Realistically had the CSA seceded from the US it wouldn't just have affected the Americas but the world. Example of this would be Mexico be rule by a Monarchy, Europe becoming the dominant power of the world, The United States remaining Socialist, Russia not becoming Communist and so on. To be honest, there are way better stories that tell us what would have happened if the Confederates won the war. Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series is by far the best one, since it shows the Confederates in a divergent history in a more realistic scenario, unlike this film which seems that the people who made it knows absolutely nothing about Confederates.

Heres the thing, it's a really solid premise that's lent itself to numerous books, movies, sci-fi, etc. What if the Confederacy actually turned the tables and won the Civil War? From the viewpoint of a British documentary, the film covers how the altered outcome shaped the economical, cultural, and political development of the nation throughout the 20th century.There are two main issues here. The first is that the film suffers from what appears to be a smaller budget. I can't fault the filmmakers for this one, they did a solid job with what they had. It just becomes obvious at some points that cuts were made in production, so don't expect something too extravagant. At times it almost looks cheesy (not sure if that was the intention).The bigger issue is that it's almost too much to cover in 90 minutes. They try to focus on key points, but some things are completely glossed over and given little/no mention (sports, pop culture, scientific developments). This is definitely a premise that would be better served by a several part miniseries with episodes focused on various aspects of the Confederate culture. Worth a watch though.