Review of Louisiana Story (1948) by Sabrina A — 14 Jan 2008

Propaganda at it's not so finest. It took me a while to "get" what the film was trying to tell me. As far as I'm concerned, it's a beautifully shot film that screeches to a halt every time one of the "local" actors opens his mouth.

This flick was funded by an oil company. Now, normally I'd think that the film is trying to tell me that drilling for oil is good, and the Utopian bayou is just as peaceful as ever after the oil company comes in, makes the family rich, and happily leaves.

HOWEVER, this train of thought is stunted by the visual rape of utopia by the drilling machines presented to me. There must have been 5 solid minutes of phallic machinery roughly plunging in and out of a hole in the deck, splashing around water and such that made me very uncomfortable and rather anti-oil company.

Is it propaganda? For sure. Is there conflicting imagery? I'd say so. Is it a documentary film, as it was presented to me? Hell no. It was a fiction film. With actors. And a script. And extremely selective editing.

Also, if I were raping nature for oil in Louisiana, I don't think I'd let the barefooted Cajun son of mother nature wander around my rig, especially when he's spitting both superstitions about mermaids and werewolves AND actual spit all the hell over the place. There's work to do, buddy.

This film made me irrationally angry. Maybe I reacted badly because of my rising fever. *sigh*.

...documentary, my ass.