On G List of Movie Reviews
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George Wallace (1997)
Rate:
7
Viewed:
5/17, 5/23
5/17:
Recently, I drove through Alabama on a long-distance trip, and wanting to get out of there ASAP, I immediately said to
myself, "Yep, this is George Wallace's country."
That's how bad Alabama's legacy is which all starts with racism. Often ranked among the worst in many categories, its state
motto should be: "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
Alabama was already terrible during the 60's, but when George Wallace became the governor, he did enough damage in race
relations that set the state back by a hundred of years. Since then, the image hasn't recovered much, and hence, to get over
it is to focus on Alabama Crimson Tide football *roll my eyes*.
George Wallace called the 1964 Civil Rights Act "a fraud, a sham, and a hoax." Once, he lost a gubernatorial election and
vowed to win next time by saying, "I was outniggered by John Patterson. And I'll tell you here and now: I will never be
outniggered again." On May 15, 1972, George Wallace, while on a campaign in Maryland during the 1972 Democratic primaries, was
nearly assassinated, being shot five times. He was therefore paralyzed from waist down. From that moment forward, George
Wallace became a born-again Christian, having seen the errors of his ways, and begged for forgiveness from everybody, black and
white alike.
All of them are richly captured in George Wallace, a fine John Frankenheimer docudrama starring Gary Sinise who gives
one of the best performances of his career. He would make a cameo appearance as George Wallace in Frankenheimer's final film
Path to War which was released in 2002. However, it has a couple of flaws. One, the movie is drawn out. Some of
the scenes feel too long. They should either cut them down or add more substance. Two, it's impossible for me to take
Angelina Jolie seriously as Cornelia Wallace. When I saw her, all I could focus on was her thick lips. Like I've said before,
once a slut, always a slut.
All in all, George Wallace is a good history lesson and captures a lot of the highlights that made the man quite infamous.
5/23:
There are only two infamous governors in U.S. history: Huey Long and George Wallace.
Both resulted in a movie: All the King's Men and George Wallace, respectively. Of course, this is Alabama in a
nutshell: stupid, backwards, and irrelevant. That's why we give them football to play with. Many highlights of George
Wallace's political career are captured well yet with historical distortions, but the use of Clarence Williams III as
Archie Weathers isn't effective.
Apparently, a Golden Globe was awarded to Angelina Jolie because the voters loved her playing a cockteaser; it's the only aspect
of the entire film that's impossible to believe. What happened at the end, when Wallace entered Dexter Avenue
Baptist Church, never occurred in real life. He was in cahoots with the Klan and, more importantly, the White Citizens Council
all the way through, often approving their methods to maintain white supremacy. Also, Wallace had abandoned Jim Folsom
(who never asked him for an increase in his pension) long before then. When he famously stood in the schoolhouse door,
there were no two black students waiting to enter; they had been registered and were well underway in the system.
All in all, thanks to George Wallace, Alabama is a joke.