MovieChat Forums > Sweet Home Alabama (2002) Discussion > Was Anyone From Alabama Offended by this...

Was Anyone From Alabama Offended by this Movie???


Come on guys.. we have got to stand up for ourselves.. this movie is an insult to the people of Alabama.. Although I don't deny we do have the "redneck,,white trash,beat up truck driving,beer drinking,baby making "billy bob".. but it definately does not represent the MAJORITY of Alabama. We are very classy, & well educated; and we have not JUST recently discovered recliners! If you do not live in or have never visited our beautiful State .. Please do not judge Alabama by this movie. Granted the hospitality & manners were right on!

I have an aunt who is 58 years old and has lived in New York for 40 years ^^^ she recently moved to Alabama because when she visited every Thanksgiving/Christmas she fell in love with the people and State as a whole. Although she does make fun of our southern accent a little.. I tell her as Jake told Melanie . just because we talk slow doesn't mean we're dumb! ;-)

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[deleted]

hahah, I agree. We should put that on our license plates: ALABAMA at least it's not mississippi

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calm down k and t, its a movie! its not meant to be taken seriously.

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Don't worry. I think most of us know that "Sweet Home Alabama" is an exaggeration. Besides, the movie didn't exactly portray those exagerations as negative.

But I'm from Hawaii. I know how you feel. People have assumed that I surf, speak Hawaiian... even wear grass skirts or live in a grass house. (FYI, I don't.) haha

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I find it interesting that the south, southwest, and midwest are usually portrayed as rural and the northeast is usually portrayed as urban. As for Alabama, I lived in Talladega and then Tuscaloosa from junior high through college before moving to Atlanta several decades ago.

Even Talladega (pop. ~20,000) seemed like a booming metropolis compared to the small town portrayed in Sweet Home Alabama. The five largest cities are Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery, Huntsville, and Tuscaloosa, in that order. And there are 14 additional Alabama cities with a higher population than Talladega.

Although I found some of the southern stereotyping a little too much like The Beverly Hillbillies, I was more turned off by the way the film portrayed New Yorkers, especially toward the end.

And, believe it or not, even small town people in Georgia target Alabama for jokes about inbreeding and backwardness as if there was actually that much difference in culture between all the states in this area. I am not kidding about this. It is sort of a standard shtick that never fails to annoy me, especially when I think about all the Alabamans I have known who were far more sophisticated, usually, than the Georgian making the snide crack.

My own perception is that Alabama and southern states to the west are more laid back and friendly and Georgia and southern states to the east are more surly and paranoid -- but only as a subtle generalization, of course.

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[deleted]

Nope. I love this movie. I have lived in Alabama most of my life. Right now I live north of Birmingham although I lived in Northern Alabama as a child; as well as Southern Alabama(my dad liked to move around a lot). The Northern Alabama folks were kinder, more neighborly, like folks in the Andy Griffith Show. Southern Alabama folks are crazy, wanna have fun folks(it could be because they live close to the beach or because of all the crop dusting) Folks here in the Birmingham area are high-fulootin city folks who stare down their noses at anyone who doesn't wear, drive or say what they think you ought to and it makes me miss the country living of the north. Although, I have to say, I have never seen anyone anywhere bring a baby into a bar.

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I have not been to Alabama, but I do not judge a state based on a movie. I know movies are just movies and not always acurate and do not represent the whole state. There are movies made about where I live and I do not get offended because as I stated before I know they are just movies. Not every movie has to accuretly protray the place it is set in.

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I get it, after people saw Fargo they thought all Minnesotans were like that, but we're not.

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