Had one failed diplomatic initiative during the Civil War succeeded, could it have changed all of history? Perhaps. Kevin Willmott's chilling and somewhat plausible alternate history of America was so well produced that even its exceedingly unlikely and prejudiced retelling of the 20th century passes with a bit of artistic license. It assumes, wrongly, that America is a country completely without any virtue, a view to be rejected outright. Assumptions about a Confederate Empire, chattel slavery spread unimpeded and unchallenged throughout the Americas, a ridiculous notion of a "Cotton Curtain" cold war with Canada just don't add up. It could not have evolved that way. Nonetheless, the alternate 19th century history is utterly fascinating. Had Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin succeeded in getting European powers to fight for the Confederacy, what would America look like today?

Even with its terribly cynical and often unfair view of America, I admit I couldn't stop thinking about this film.

The movie is pretty interesting, it shows what it could be like if the south won the civil war and slavery still persisted today. The modern-day commercials like the 'Slave Selling Network' and other products that put black people in their minstrel-like places was pretty poignant. The end of the movie showed that some of those commercials that were portrayed were actually REAL products, some used into the 50s.

However, from a 'what if' standpoint, the history is pretty unrealistic. The movie shows the South taking over all of the North, something that would have been impossible, and something the South never intended on doing. They just wanted to secede from the US and form their own country - they did not have the manpower or resources to occupy and conquer all of the North. If you want to read a more probable history of what may have happened if the South had won the war, check out Harry Turtledove's series of books. North and South remain enemies, fight each other in the 1880s, in WWI, WWII, etc. This makes European history pretty different as well, since you didn't have a united America aiding the Allies in the World Wars. The South under exceeding worldwide pressure from its allies ends up ending slavery, but laws are in place to be sure to keep the black man down in such a way that they are not much better off. More realistic I think.

Still, a pretty good movie.

The writer/director of CSA Kevin Wilmott is black . I thought I'd point this out to guard my back . I also thought I'd mention that I seeked out this film because it received a rave review on Richard Schieb's Sci-Fi movie review page which can be accessed on the external reviews of this page . I feel the deep need to do this simply because CSA is a film of such biting , brutal bleak and brilliant satire featuring an America that still enforces slavery that it'd be very easy to be picked up wrongly by saying I laughed outloud at a great many scenes . Often it was nervous laughter and this was no doubts Wilmott's intention . I did feel very foolish at the end credit scenes . Again this was no doubt Wilmott's intention

The premise involves the South winning the American Civil war and Abraham Lincoln being jailed as a war criminal . With great credit Lincoln is portrayed as an opportunist who wanted to get his hands on the South's cotton fields and one suspects Spilebergs upcoming bio-pic starring Daniel Day Lewis might just miss out this very important detail . As it stands history takes a diverted path where the USA become The Confederate States of America ( CSA ) and all the fall out this involves . The biggest divergence being that slavery is not abolished

The story is told as a mockumentary by the " British Broadcasting Service " which hints as how unsubtle CSA is . Credit to the makers because at the outset we're shown a public information film called Why We Fought which does give a rather Eurocentric view of America then we start the documentary proper and everyone will be jumping on the outrage bus at one point . Try suggesting a scenario where " Union forces flee in the face of British and French fire " and you'll get the impression red necks aren't going to enjoy this as much as they were hoping . Of course African Americans will take the brunt of the outrage via stereotypical portrayals but if you've seen BIRTH OF A NATION then you'll realise this is an attack on moral climates of early 20th Century America . And it's the Hollywood sections that are the most scathing and unsubtle which is not a criticism . Quite the reverse because these are the most identifiable parts of the mockumentary to an international audience - Hollywood where men are men , where myths are made and where Europeans with a brain shake their head . The mockumentary is cut with advert breaks and trailers for spoof TV shows such as " Runaway " a send up of COPS complete with banjo music . This type of brutal and scathing satire outdoes the ones seen in the ROBOCOP movies

As much as I can praise CSA in its witty satire where it fails very badly is in its alternative history aspect . For example if a scenario is created it can be clumsily forgotten about as in America creating a South American empire but later on we're told the rest of the world has brought in sanctions against the CSA because of its attitude to slavery which means the government has to bring in rationing ? In reality America is more than self sufficient in food and raw materials and widening this to South America means more food supplies so why introduce rationing ? There's also illogical ridiculous aspects such as women never having a vote in this alternative America and at the same time an America crippled by sanctions and citizens on rations this alternative America can still fight wars in Vietnam and lead Operation Desert Storm and land men on the moon

In summary CSA is a very memorable mockumentary . It's unsurprising that there's a lot of mixed reviews on this page . Some people will have seeked it out on the grounds that it's an alternative history documentary and they'll be slightly disappointed in it . I certainly enjoyed the satirical aspects of it only to feel foolish when at the end when the " satire " was slightly closer to home than I thought it was . I will point out that I do realise that the photos of dead native Americans and lynched blacks are in fact real photographs and that William Wilburforce deserves to be remembered more than Abraham Lincoln