![]() ![]() Change allows for the possibility of improvements. Even in a movie where New York is portrayed as a shallow glitzy sort of place, it is still an environment of change.Īnd change is good. They had to move someplace new, using a new context to create a new identity, as Reese did in her initial move to New York, and as she got her husband to do later in the movie. But I find it interesting that they were unable to carry out their dreams in their hometown. ![]() Such ambition disrupts the comfortable community, and thus the agent of change must be treated as an outcast.Īt the end, the film tries to have it both ways, by having the high school sweetheart create a business that he can then move to New York and join Reese, holding true to their past but moving forward together into the future. In fact, anybody that does aspire to anything more should be thought of as crazy because such ambition implies that the status quo is not the best of all possible worlds. It promotes a conservative worldview where we can aspire to nothing more than what we already have. At one level, it’s very comforting “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in”. Nothing had changed in the seven years since she had been home. Reese’s father is a Civil War re-enactor, still fighting for the Confederacy. Her childhood friends are all still mostly the same, living in the same town, doing similar things. ![]() Meanwhile, the stereotypical Southern culture as portrayed in the movie is far more static. Yes, New York can be harsh, but as the lyrics state, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere”. Everybody here is ambitious, aspiring to something great. It is a land of opportunity, where people move every year in search of their chance to make the big time, whether in finance or media or theater or whatever. It is a true melting pot, with people of all nationalities mixing together it’s almost more common than not to hear languages other than English being spoken. New York seems to represent a lot of what is great about this country. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a snooty New Yorker now, but this portrayal really bothers me. ![]() Reese punches the mayor, saying “Nobody talks to my mama like that!” as the crowd cheers this victory over the Yankees. At the climax of the film, where Reese breaks off the engagement at the wedding, the mayor tries to stop her, saying that no poor white trash can do that to her son’s political ambitions, and starts excoriating Reese’s mother. The Alabama friends are portrayed as living in the moment, having a good time down at the bar each evening. The New York mayor is portrayed as manipulative and cold, always calculating the political consequences of an action. It’s a bit preposterous on my part to think of such an inconsequential movie as having an agenda, but I thought it was interesting that the film centers on the rejection of New York culture in favor of a simpler, more friendly, family-oriented Southern culture. By the end of the movie, she chooses her high school sweetheart over the overly coiffed New York paramour. There we meet her childhood friends, including her high school sweetheart and husband, from whom she was never officially divorced. She tells him she wants to tell her estranged parents about the engagement personally, so she flies back to rural Alabama. Quick plot summary: We first meet Reese Witherspoon as a successful fashion designer in New York City, getting engaged to the New York City Secretary of Housing, who is also the mayor’s son. The rest of this post will involve spoilers so if you have not seen the movie and plan to, you have been warned. It was decently entertaining, but later in the evening, I started thinking about the cultural memes that it is propagating, possibly because I have been reading too many of Jessie’s posts. I saw the movie Sweet Home Alabama yesterday. ![]()
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