This is the only screenshot I could find from the movie, and the quality isn't good enough to show just how drenched Ashley Judd is. I swear, throughout the movie, it looks like various characters have taken a shower and forgotten to dry off before putting on their clothing (which, despite rumors to the contrary, Southerners do not make a habit of doing). I think the costume/makeup people were standing by at all times with a water guns, hoses, and squirt bottles, ready to soak anyone who dared to look semi-dry.
Now, really. I know it gets hot down in Mississippi. And I know it is humid. (I've said before that going outside in southern Alabama in July is like wrapping yourself in a hot, damp blanket.) But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the folks in charge of the sweaty look in "A Time to Kill" missed the mark. Unless they meant to convey that all of their characters were just in from a long-distance run around a bonfire at noon in July, in which case, they got it exactly right.
3 comments:
How can this portrayal NOT be accurate? I'm sweating here in my air-conditioned carrel just thinking about how hot Mississippi or Alabama is in the dead of July. I have dreams where I'm at a church barbeque with Elvis at some park in Tupelo, and they always end with me waking up drenched with sweat looking for a glass of sweet tea.
I call shananigans on this post!
See, this is the problem. You Yankees think that these drenched actors present accurate portrayals of actual people walking around in the South.
Don't get me wrong. It's hot down there. And people sweat. But I've never seen a person, outside of people doing actual physical activity, sweat as much as the actors in "A Time to Kill" sweat. And they're all sweaty while hanging out mostly indoors!
You can't call shenanigans on this post. The fact that I lived in the South trumps your call.
And now it's time for some sweet tea.
its not all that different from other southern-fried courtroom dramas. I think Spencer Tracy sweat buckets in "Inherit the Wind" which took place in Tennessee which, from what I understand, is not really considered south.
There is also "To Kill a Mockingbird" which did take place in Alabama and has Robert Duvall and Gregory Peck doing the wet towel thing....
You probably didn't notice the sweat as much because
A) Frederic March and Robert Duvall don't glisten near as much as Ashley Judd and Matthew McConaughey nor are they as pretty.
B) Refer back to A.
Maybe it is a glandular problem instead of a geographical issue. Maybe, just maybe, all of the characters suffer from some kind of physical ailment that causes the body to produce too much sweat. If that is the case then I think we are being a wee bit insensitive to our salty moist brethern (and sistern?). The excessive sweat challenged folk need the same kind of respect and right as the rest of us non-sweat-too-much people.
Power to the Sweathogs....
Sorry. I'm a wee bit tired and punchy. Excuse my excessive commenting....
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