imdb-3918 I found this gem on Netflix.Other reviews are criticizing the improbability of events depicted in the movie, starting with the involvement of France and the UK in the Civil War. That's why it's fiction: the precipitating events *did not happen*. It's a "WHAT IF" work of fiction. The film maker presupposes a few alterations to history, and then examines what would happen as a consequence. Chaos theory indicates that just about any imagined set of consequences of a few initial changes to a system are as plausible as any other. This movie is essentially "alternative Earth" fiction. It's fanciful by definition. It has a lot more in common with something like the sci-fi series "Sliders" or the "barbarian universe" riff in Star Trek than it is to be taken as a serious critique of modern US society. It's essentially "historical science fiction", with the aliens being the citizens of the "US" (CSA) in a different reality.I also really did not feel that it was liberal or minority grievance agitprop (it was pointed out at the end of the movie that "Aunt Jemima" and "Uncle Ben" are major US brands, but I don't need to be preached that they are somehow embody racist evil.) What CSA is, is an exploration of where the US would be if certain of the values of the antebellum South had been captured through the expanding US, and had then evolved to the present day as mainstream US values. How would the US relate to the rest of the world? What would become of the Americas? What about WWII, Nazi Germany, and the cold war? What would the major political dynasty of our time be in such a country? The film explores a fascinating series of possibilities that could have resulted.The film is only "ha ha funny" for the commercial segments. The meat of the narration is a bit satiric. The historical figures that the film portrayed, including Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas, and minor figures like Judah P. Benjamin and doctor Samuel A. Cartwright, show a serious effort to take one implausible assumption (the Union forces lose at Gettysburg to combined Confederate, French and English forces) and run with it to many logical or at least plausible conclusions.What I found very implausible has not been mentioned by most reviewers. Given that the CSA was born as a xenophobic and virulently intolerant society, I don't see a CSA type nation as having accomplished most of what the US has done, particularly in terms of the sciences, militarily, and economic development. The white supremacist establishment would have rejected and marginalized many of the most productive and brilliant members of "real world" US society. IE, would a CSA ever have developed the resources to conquer most of the Americas? Would the CSA have been in a position to plant a confederate flag on the moon? (Great sight gag, BTW.) Would a CSA have invented radio, TV, atomic fission, and the internet? "CSA" only got this diminished society aspect partially right by showing that the arts and entertainment flourished in the Canada of the film, and therefore arts in the CSA were stunted and mostly tended to government propaganda.The part that I felt rang very true was how values are transmitted from one generation to another. Supposing that abolition had never happened, and also supposing that it a preference of the government - what else could you say about the society? So in CSA, women in 2004 do not yet have the vote. And Canada is despised for "stealing" the CSA's slaves.If you have an open mind and a small interest in US history, I highly recommend this movie. It's fun. It's good when it is over, and you can breath a sigh of relief for our flawed but still superior real life world.

mkeram What shocks me, is that many people who've seen CSA, and, have found it 'offensive,' don't know that the man who created this (Kevin Willmott) happens to be black.If you read the opening quote from George Bernard Shaw('If you're going to tel people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you'), then, you'll understand, that Mr.Willmott grasped this, when he crafted this picture.In the past decade, or so, we've had a horrible injustice done - a 'hypersensitivity,'(called 'politically correct) that has made any REAL discussions almost taboo.Mr. Willmott ISN'T afraid to show this alternate history, and, he understands that the common language is humor.The sad thing, is that, some people who've watched this (and, many did not know Mr Willmott's ethnicity),thought it was some 'horrid' film made by whites, and, didn't understand what Mr. Willmott was trying to show - instead, only viewing it FOR the caricature that it is.I give Mr. Willmott MUCH credit, for making this film.

dawnibolical The movie once you get to the end was okay. The execution hard to sit through, one reason is some question if the south would have had won what would this land be. America wouldn't be the home of the free so some of the contributed from Black American, South American, and American immigrates who arrived here through Elise Island would not exist. Plus how big would The CSA population be? I was confused. I'm sure some American wish the south would've won and that unsettling enough. This movie wasn't entertaining or doesn't present the question well enough. Living in America for myself Black female seem to make no difference if the South would've won it just be more acceptance to Keep Black American as slaves

Charles Herold (cherold) CSA begins with a quote from Shaw saying that if you are going to tell the truth, make it funny or people will kill you. CSA certainly tells a lot of truth, but it's more disturbing than funny, a mockumentary so dark and so thoughtful that it winds up being rather depressing.This fake documentary tells the history of a United States in which the Confederate States won the Civil War and slavery continues to this day. The movie plays this as a British documentary shown on American TV and interrupted by American commercials for products with incredibly racist names, references to black people as property and even a public service commercial encouraging people to report those of suspicious racial make up.A lot of research obviously went into this movie. As much as possible it tries to use genuine events and people from that period, and much of the early part of the movie appears to mix in a lot of historical events, sometimes only slightly twisted. At the end of the movie some of the research is shown, just to let people see how close the film is to reality.The movie is less successful when it tries for something more elaborate than a Ken Burns collection of talking heads, pictures and documents. Recreations of movies and plays show clearly how small the budget for this film was. They also can break the mood, most notably in a Broadway musical that seems to be going for cartoonish humor in a movie that for the most part is dark satire.The movie feels, for the most part, very real. The trajectory of history seems reasonable, and many of the commercials are pitch perfect. It can be difficult to watch such a horrible world unfold (it reminded me of times as the depressing, brilliant novel The Handmaid's Tale) but it is a movie well worth watching all the same.