Everyone has probably heard the expression “good ol’
Southern Hospitality,” but what exactly does it mean? There are several films that approach the
customs of Southern America and the way in which they
affect the way people are meted, greeted and treated. In the films of Bette Davis, more
specifically 
Jezebel and The Little Foxes, Southerners are represented as
ignorant and greedy using their charms as a means of consolidating a business
deal, trying to con their fellow man out of a cotton plantation or sneakily
cipher out a relatives money to further their own empire. The Little Foxes shows this greedy nature of
wannabe aristocratic southerners who conduct themselves with the graces of God, civilized in speech and tone, but only as a means to an end. Another custom that was not uncommon was to discipline
one’s wife with much more severe methods than would be tolerated these
days. The men of these films are not
afraid to whip, slap or give their wife a degrading talking to if they feel
they their image has been scuffed by any inappropriate behaviour.
In Jezebel, Davis plays a wealthy but conniving governess of sorts, using her wiles to get back a
lost fiancée who is now married to a woman from up North in New
York. When he
returns back to his hometown with his new squeeze the more developed culture of
New York as well as the influence of his new wife has changed his perspective
and so there is a clash between old customs and new. For example, his support of abolition does
not bode well with his old friends of whom have grown up with black people as
not only servants but as close friends and family. The duel is another custom that seems to be
uncouth and savage, given that a slight dispute or show or disrespect and lead
to death all in the name of pride. In
The Pilgrim, Charlie Chaplin pokes fun at such hospitality when in a memorable
scene involving a gentleman’s hat and some custard; he shows how absurd such
self-righteous behaviour can seem. He
even has as a thief, who is invited into the home of a hospitable mother and
daughter, steal a large amount of money from them in what seems like a further
affront to the naivety of some of the sheltered women in the south. That’s another thing; if the women in these
films are not ruthless and strong like Davis
then they are weak and gullible. However
Southern hospitality isn’t all tea and treachery, but can be downright bone-chilling
and primal if we go by the family of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They make slaves not out of African Americans
but of their own family, beating them into retardation and leaving any guests
they might have a in state of terror. Here
we have a gang of male maniacs who have no polite speech or etiquette to speak
of but who will enthusiastically have you over for dinner and get right to
business. No small talk, no discussion,
and no platitudes, just a hatchet and some barbeque sauce. Between these two extremes of the south
though, we have films like Sweet Home Alabama,
which aim to show a more subdued and easy-going folk, wholesome through and
through and sentimental as a Wichita.
Nathan
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