I saw the following posted as a comment on an article about whitewashing of black characters and thought it was a very good comment, and thus worthy of a blog post:
While we are fixing this problem, can we also got back to old movies and REMOVE something digitally that very often doesn't need to be there? Eg. The Confederate Flag. There is a time and place for the confederate flag, like in Civil War movies or in films where racism plays an important role, but films like "Smokey and the Bandit" however, wherein two of the protagonists are driving around in a black Trans Am with a confederate flag on the front next to the license plate... That is unnecessary. Yes, the villain in the film (the evil sheriff Buford T. Justice) is a racist bigot, so racism does play a role in the film... But if anyone should have the confederate flag on his car, it should be the racist sheriff. Not the protagonist. This problem can be seen in other films too. "Smokey and the Bandit" is hardly the exception. We should also be digitally removing the confederate flag from many other movies and even TV shows. Eg. Dukes of Hazard should definitely remove all the confederate flags. If the Washington Redskins can finally change their racist name, isn't it time we digitally remove unnecessary symbols of racism from films?
And honestly, I agree with this idea.
Furthermore, organizations like Netflex could even take a stand on this issue by refusing to display films like "Smokey and the Bandit" and others until the studios which own their rights take the necessary steps to remove the confederate flag from any film where the flag doesn't need to be there.
So I was watching the TV show Fargo recently on Netflix, and I got curious... where exactly is Fargo?
So I looked it up.
At which point I discovered that Fargo is only barely inside North Dakota. It is right there on the eastern border, practically in Minnesota.
I also found out that Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota, with a population of 121,000.
Now while it is the largest city, the actual capitol of North Dakota is Bismarck - which is apparently often misspelled Bismark, even by mapmakers. The proper spelling is Bismarck, not Bismark.
Note - If you count the greater metropolitan area, then Bismarck's population is actually closer to 133,000.
So why my sudden interest in North Dakota geography?
Well I found the TV show Fargo to be fascinating - and funny. The accents alone are very interesting.
The accents in North Dakota / Minnesota sound a bit like a Canadian accent, a bit American, but with some very interesting drawls.
I am not alone in my fascination of the North Dakota accent either. There are whole YouTube videos on this topic, both in relation to the film Fargo, the TV series, and people from North Dakota comparing how they pronounce words.
Now it should be noted that not everyone in the region talks with such a thick accent.
Part of it I think is that accent is largely found in rural people, whereas people in cities have a less thick accent - combined with differences in ethnic backgrounds as cities tend to be more ethnically diverse.
So for example I found this video of two guys from Bismarck North Dakota talking, Andrew Lilja and Gustavo Luna (just giving them credit here). The video is a bit boring unless you like learning about energy traders. With both of them you can tell they have almost no accent. You can still hear that they sound a bit like a Canadian accent, but it isn't as noticeable as the thick drawls in the above videos.
The company they work at is Basin Electric Power Co-op, based in Bismarck North Dakota - which as we already know is one of the larger cities so it makes sense that their accents should be less thick because cities are more multicultural.
In particular listen to Gustavo Luna when he talks. You can guess his ancestors are probably not farmers from North Dakota (or maybe they are, who knows), but you don't hear any other major accent either. He sounds like a typical person from a big city in North Dakota.
My apologies to Gustavo Luna for analyzing his accent so much. No ill intent there at all. I was just looking for someone from the region who doesn't have a dramatically thick accent and Gustavo Luna made a good example.
Anyway, back to the TV show Fargo.
In the show the plots often focus on murders and mayhem in small towns in rural Minnesota or North Dakota. Very little of the action takes place in a big city, so the emphasis is largely on rural people and the actors are either from that region or have been coached in how to speak in an accent from that region. Specifically, the rural regions.
The plots also range over a vast area... and I kind of feel like there should be snapshots of maps regularly so that viewers know the area they are talking about better. Sort of like what they do with Game of Thrones with the map at the beginning of each episode. The purpose of the map is that viewers get a better understanding of the geography of the world of Game of Thrones, as geography does play an important role in the stories and plots of the show. eg. See maps of Game of Thrones.
It does make me wonder if tourism in the Fargo region has gone up thanks to the TV show.
If it has, I think that is pretty awesome.
Visitor and Travel Info for Fargo ND https://www.fargomoorhead.org/ Fargo Tourism, Best of Fargo 2018 https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Tourism-g49785-Fargo_North_Dakota-Vacations.html 5 Top Rated Tourist Attractions in Fargo http://www.planetware.com/north-dakota/fargo-us-nd-f.htm
Admittedly Canadians could probably see a lot of similar things here in Canada. So why bother going all the way to North Dakota?
Same reason why anyone does any kind of tourism I guess. For the fun of it.
I think North Dakota would be a fun place to go fishing. That sort of thing.
