George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire [VHS]

George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire [VHS]
by Daniel McCabe, Paul Stekler

George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire [VHS]

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Actor: Bob Ingram, Dan T. Carter, J.L. Chestnut, Pat Buchanan, Randy Quaid
Director: Daniel McCabe, Paul Stekler
Writer: Dan T. Carter
Producer: Daniel McCabe
Writer: Daniel McCabe
Producer: Paul Stekler
Writer: Paul Stekler
Producer: Claire Jones
Producer: Matthew R. McClung
Producer: Robin Espinola
Writer: Steve Fayer
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: NTSC
Running Time: 167 minutes
Release Date: 2000-05-23
Audience Rating: Unrated
Publisher: Pbs (Direct)
Studio: Pbs (Direct)

VHS Movie Reviews of George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire [VHS]

Movie Review: The darkest side of political ambition
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a story that is more about a lust for power than it is about racism, grand political strategy, a tragedy of an attempted assassination or a popular political figure. George Wallace began his political career as a liberal judge, as one black lawyer mentions, Wallace was the first governmental authority to ever address him formally by leading with Mister. When he first ran for governor of Alabama, Wallace stated quite clearly, "If I am not capable of treating all men the same, regardless of color, then I should not be governor." He was soundly defeated, so making a very Faustian bargain, vowed to never be "out-ni**erred again."
Wallace completely changed his tactics, adopting racist rhetoric and policies that led to horrifying events that were covered live and shocked the nation. I watched those events on television, and even some of the people I knew that had no time for black people objected to what was happening. Quite ironically, his hardline segregationist policies served to hasten the demise of segregation in the south. According to some of his confidants, Wallace privately expressed personal regrets over the brutality committed by his state troopers.
Over the years, he toned down his rhetoric, arguing more against big government and for the rights of states rather than pushing the race button. Nevertheless, it was always present, sometimes only thinly painted over. From his speeches of the late sixties, you still see the racist firebrand and it is hard to believe that he stood a good chance of winning the Democratic nomination in 1972, until he was gunned down. Of course, everyone knew that Nixon would be re-elected, so a vote for Wallace was not one that would have to be lived with later. Nixon would have crushed Wallace just like he did McGovern.
Nixon and his disgusting band of cronies appear in the life of Wallace in one of the most disgraceful political plans ever devised. Within hours of learning that Wallace had been shot, Nixon and his group were plotting to plant McGovern campaign material in the apartment of the shooter in an attempt to discredit the McGovern campaign. It makes modern political mudslinging look like a perfume fight.
To his credit, later in life Wallace began calling his old enemies and asking for forgiveness, and started courting the black vote. Of course, he could not have regained the governor's chair without a significant number of black votes, so that could also have been a political ploy. Furthermore, one wonders if he would have felt the need if he hadn't been paralyzed from the waist down.
George Wallace is one of the most frightening political figures of this century, but also the easiest to understand. All he wanted was political power and he would do anything to achieve it. I was mesmerized as I watched this biography, as he transformed himself from a decent man to a racist brute and finally back to a man who appeared decent. All in the name of political power of course. It is not possible to understand the civil rights movement without understanding men like Wallace as he was in the sixties. However, it is also not possible to understand the southern states as they are today without knowing how men like Wallace underwent the transformation from men who preached segregation to those who openly courted the support of blacks.
This is one of those tapes that shows you as much about the country and how it has changed than it does about the person being described. I strongly recommend it to everyone, as it shows why there had to be a civil rights movement and why the federal government had to trump the "rights" of some states in pursuit of a greater right of decency.

Movie Review: The Best American Expirence
Summary: 5 Stars

I learned a lot from this great movie. Before I watched this movie I thought that he was a terrible person but after I watched this movie I learened that he was good at the start and the end his life. He was an amazing politician.

Movie Review: SEGREGATION'S DEMAGOGUE
Summary: 5 Stars

"Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever." Who can ever forget those chilling words of Segregation's most ardent son, George Wallace. Settin' the Woods on Fire presents us with the portrait of George Wallace's emergance as a political icon whose entire campaign was based on race. Told through the use of film clips, staff members, family and opponents, you get an opportunity to see just what gave rise to this political phenomena whose political star captured the attention of a nation.

George Wallace can be looked upon as a demon by those who suffered under his racist rheotoric yet another portrait of the man emerges in this documentary. A younger Wallace is found to be one of the most liberal judges in his state. Naturally he was a racist or was he? J.L. Chestnut, a Black civil rights lawyer tells us Wallace allowed him to practice in his courtroom and demanded that Chestnut and his Black clients be given the same respect as anyone else. Is this a contradiction of the man we know as a racist?

Wallace's life and political career is full of paradoxes, paradigms and other complexities which this video does a superb job in presenting this personality. Wallace loves power and is the consumate politician who will do anything to get it. His motives, passion and life is devoted to acquiring power by any means regardless of whom it hurts.

His ability to sway the public even when he has been defeated is a great display of his manipulative powers. Wallace is a magnificient defender of southern tradition. Over the course of his career we view the nuances and changes that take place in his life. The Wallace you knew today is not the Wallace of tomorrow. His political agenda spurred the emergance of a third party which threatened the system and later on his ideology was adapted to the mainstream parties. Wallace is someone you will never forget. His political legacy will live on.

The greatness in this film is that you see a man go through countless changes in his career for the better and the worse. You see what power can do to a man but you can see what redemptive grace can do in transforming a man. George Wallace is not all that he appears to be. Learn from his life journey.

Movie Review: An excellent documentary.
Summary: 5 Stars

"Settin' the Woods On Fire" offers a compelling look at Alabama Governor and erstwhile presidential candidate George Wallace's contribution to American political life and explains how a man who once declared "segregation forever" could later asked for forgiveness. Balanced and thoughtful, "Settin the Woods on Fire" avoids facile conclusions and banal cliches about Wallace and thus succeeds as an admirable piece of political biography.

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Summary of George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire [VHS]

Feared, revered, and admired, George Wallace shaped himself into a lightning rod for controversy. Considered both a racist demagogue and an admirable politician, he was one man who could reflect and provoke tension on the streets of American cities and towns. Four times the governor of Alabama and a presidential candidate, his life was peppered with ups and downs. Now follow Wallace's story as authoritative commentators trace his life from his early Alabama roots to his quest for forgiveness after a crippling assassination attempt.

He first appeared on America's TV screens as a pugnacious southern governor standing in a schoolhouse door, vowing to physically prevent integration. Within a few years George Wallace managed to win 10?million votes in the 1968 presidential election. Wallace's story is skillfully told in this documentary, which appeared as part of PBS's American Experience series. Surprisingly, Wallace was, early in life, a liberal judge, and not as surprisingly, he had earlier gained some local fame as an amateur boxer. Out of political expediency he adopted a belligerent form of conservatism, and when he was elected governor of Alabama in 1962 he was ready to take a starring role in the nation's civil rights struggle. This documentary explores the contradictions of his controversial nature in numerous interviews with former associates as well as old adversaries. The centerpiece of the documentary is Wallace's tumultuous run for the White House in 1968, when he shocked some observers with the depth of his constituency. Another presidential bid was cut short by an assassination attempt in 1972, and this production details Wallace's later years when, as a nearly spectral figure, he pled for forgiveness from those whom he once took glee in attacking. This is a sensitive and intelligent rendering of a unique figure in American politics. --Robert?J. McNamara

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