Does this movie insult anyone else?

I guess you've never heard of an American man and his wife who kept their disabled daughter in a cage or something like that in in her room for many years. She was, like, 16 when it was discovered. I don't remember what town it was but it was way more civilised area that the woods. You sound stupid overreacting because of a fictional story that was accidentally placed in your state and it's like there was something true in claiming people from where you live are backwards so quit mumbling cause it only brings the attention of the suspicious ones to you.

This movie does NOT make all the people who live in Western NC (or anywhere else similar) look like backwards hicks. Yes, there are characters who are portrayed in this role, namely Billy and his pool hall friends. But look at the rest of them; Jerry Lovell himself, is portrayed as a saintly, well-spoken, educated, compassionate and open-minded person. Sheriff Peterson is shown as a true friend to Jerry and a very level-headed and compassionate figure, especially in his relationship with his wife Mary, whose immediate connection with Nell is unlike anyone else's in the film. I believe that this film shows that small-town USA contains a full spectrum of personalities, none really forming a majority.

Being a Southerner (rural Virginia), I think I'm qualified to have an opinion on this.

Though white Southerners are one of the few minority groups that it seems OK to insult and demean, I am NOT insulted by this film at all. Many others, yes. I think this is one of the most intelligent and underrated movies ever produced, and it's a crime that Foster didn't get an Oscar for it. Not enough car chases, gunfights and simulated sex for today's brain-damaged viewers, perhaps.

There are idiots in every culture, and some of the scummy local residents in this film are really no different from the bums you find in the inner cities or in Yankee suburbs, except perhaps that you find more racism apparent in inner-city DC (directed toward whites) than you'll ever find in the rural South. Yankees -- including Hollywood -- have their own prejudices that infuse their awful movies, but I notice they usually do it from a safe distance, somewhere up north or out west.

I grew up in NE GA, not far from Robbinsville, the film's location, and I disagree. I regard the movie as a very accurate portrayal of the locals. The truth is hard to view. Many of the citizens in this area are, in fact, "backwoods hicks"; they flaunt the Confederate Flag, they are under-educated, and live in trailers. I moved far away from these mountains, even abroad, and have lived in one of the largest cities in the United States (NYC). However, I can tell you that you will find rednecks wherever you go. So it's better to accept the truth, rather than be offended. I think, also, that the movie portrays the geographic beauty in a similarly accurate light.

1) The majority of the characters in this movie are caring and intelligent. Even the "bad" characters are shown as 3-dimensional and really not all that awful (bearded Dr. at the hospital, journalist, delivery dude who later gets Nell to show her t*ts).

2) It's made very clear that Nell is an anomaly *anywhere*, and that there hasn't been a case of a wild child (she technically isn't one) in many decades. I doubt anybody gets the impression that this sort of thing goes on all the time.

Besides those teenagers at the pool hall, just who else is made out to be rednecks? And even at that, they're hardly "backwoods hicks" like what was shown in Deliverance.

But if you want to play that pity game, I can to. Is it true that everybody in North Carolina speaks like Nell? Are you scared of plumbing and shoes?

Damn, almost five years and this thread is still going 'till december 2009. Did the OP ever retract their original statement or say they were going to re-think their stance? From what I've seen...Nope. Just goes to show you that you can't change everyones mind once they've made it. I finally watched this film today and nothing I saw indicated any sterotype towards the residents of NC.

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Your post is very very old.

Considering the political climate... the Carolinas aren't looking impressive, but its not isolated to just your state.