The Mythos and the Masterpieces

Texas purists -- those of the "a country unto itself" camp -- tend to bristle at being lumped into the whole of the South. Still, every once in a while, Texas would do well not to balk, as in the case of its inclusion in The Oxford American's Southern Movie Issue, the latest from the Mississippi-based quarterly magazine. This sharp, smart rag -- the "Southern Magazine of Good Writing," as its cover boasts -- offers an invaluable primer to Southern films from beloved (Nashville, Inherit the Wind) to obscure (William Faulkner's forgotten Sanctuary). Within its packed pages are slices of Dreadful Hollow, an unfilmed, previously unpublished screenplay by Faulkner; a dissertation on the Elia Kazan controversy; odes to Ava Gardner and Burt Reynolds ("the king of the 'white trash' movie"); swipes at Method actors misrepresenting the South ("Stellaaaaaaaa!"); Steve Kimble's funeral-dirge photo essay on drive-in theatres; and "Chicken House Cinema," a semi-comic piece by Gary Hawkins on what it takes to make a good Southern movie. (A good Southern accent, largely.) The Texas angle? Included in the magazine's listings of "Essential Southern Documentaries" are Waco: The Rules of Engagement and the cheeky Longview, Texas, doc Hands on a Hard Body; there's also a profile of Texan filmmaker David Gordon Green (George Washington) and his new film, All the Real Girls. All in all, it's a damn near exhaustive undertaking and, $7 newsstand cost aside, a priceless resource, equal parts reverential and rib-ticklin' that begs to be dog-eared and carted along to the video store. Capping the issue off is a last-page shot of Drive-Invasion, a three-day event of bands, beer, and drive-in movies that took place in Atlanta a couple of years back. Tim and Karrie League of the Alamo Drafthouse are hoping to re-create that experience here in May, proving once again that however isolationist Texans may be, they still know a good thing when they see it. The Oxford American's Southern Movie Issue? That's a good thing, too.

The Oxford American's Winter 2002 Southern Movie Issue will stay on newsstands until April. For a subscription, call 800/269-6926.