Judge Priest - Portraying Post-Reconstruction South

Portraying Post-Reconstruction South

In Judge Priest John Ford pokes fun at the Southern United States, post the reconstruction era. By setting the film in Kentucky, 1890, the film is able to critique the south. Judge Priest portrays the town as being unable to let go of the past. Many of the male citizens of the town, including Judge Priest himself, were Civil War veterans. All the veterans fought for the Confederates. The town’s citizens refer to Yankees several times. Every time Yankee is mentioned, an aura of disgust and hatred comes over the character. One town citizen cleans his gun because, as he explains it, “You never know what them Yankees are going to do.”

At the end of the film the town happily participates in their annual Confederate Veteran’s Parade; complete with Confederate flags, which were, of course, as American as State flags, strewn throughout the parade. When Bob Gillus was on trial the jury was ready to convict him when they believed he was an outsider from the north. When the jury discovers that he was a Confederate War hero they release him on all charges. During Jeff Poindexter’s trial, Judge Priest shows he would rather reminisce with his fellow Confederate War Veterans about the Civil War than proceed with the arguments in the trial. Even the town Reverend, a man of God, fought for the Confederates in the civil war.

Judge Priest shows a South that does not have a lot going on besides talk of the Confederate past. The entire town, it seems, is in attendance at the trial concerning a small brawl between a barber and handyman. The entire town attends the Church Ice Cream Social and Candy Pull. It may be argued, that the statement that Judge Priest and Director John Ford make is that the main reason the South is unable to move past the Confederacy is they are too insulated and self-referential.