Carolina Skeletons

I want to write a bit about the obscure movie Carolina Skeletons. I’ve always been a bit of a fan of Louis Gossett Jr. This because he always struck me as a lovable chap (especially when this Hollywood star appeared in a TV show in my country and showcased himself as the friendliest person alive –a big impression on a seven year old).

I’ve seen quite a few of his movies. Most of them can (unfortunately) be filed away in the category: ‘pays the bills’. But some, I think, were special. Carolina Skeletons is one of them.

Carolina Skeletons deals with James Bragg –an army man returning home in the south to care for his dying mother. On her deathbed she asks her son to find out the truth about the crime his older brother was convicted of. His older brother, Linus, was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of two young  Caucasian girls. As James delves deeper he uproots age old codes of apartheid and concealment.

The southern heat

There are several reasons why Carolina Skeletons is –to me- a must see film. But one is (definitely) front and centre. The story is based on a real-life case in which a fourteen year old African-American boy called George Junius Stinney Jr was executed on the electric chair –making him the youngest person in American history to receive the death penalty.

Now I’m not going to question whether he committed the crimes or not. But –based on this movie- I can’t help myself but wonder. I’ll leave it at that.

The strength of this movie resides in the time and setting. That moment in history when  southerners were trying to readjust to an equal world. Some do –like the sheriff; played quite tangible by Bruce Dern- and others don’t. 

Carolina’s Skeletons is almost a post-apocalyptic world in which neither side knows what to do with this new world before them. Some ‘whites’ are still as racist as they were years before. Some African-Americans have trouble committing to the idea that they are now equals in the world of white.

Combine this tension with the southern summer heath and the hunt for a killer to boot and you’ve got a highly interesting slow-burn thriller before you.

Now, I must admit, there are quite a few faults in this picture. The racism is played rather in-your-face. The burning cross comes by as expected. And, to be honest, there aren’t enough suspects to make this a real who-dun-it.

Trust me, fifteen minutes after the mother’s passing you’ll be able to guess who did it –and you’ll be right.

But then, this movie isn’t about the crime. It’s more about the injustice and the crooked fate African-American’s suffered in the south ever since slavery was abolished.

Louis Gossett Jr.’s character –being a decorated army man- knows racism. But he also knows that there are places in the world where he is actually an equal. So putting him in the aforementioned mix creates a wonderful two-sided tale: the way it is/was and the way it is perceived upon by men who know better.

Louis Gossett Jr. definitely knew this playing the character. And his performance balances nicely between ‘wanting to change’ and ‘holding back’. Which is brilliantly counter-played by Bruce Dern’s character who, in a sense, plays the opposite (‘Holding back’ versus ‘wanting to change’).

The two scenes

Which brings me to the second biggest scene of the movie. Poor little illiterate Linus is bribed to sign his own death warrant in exchange for food. This scene is played so caringly. Chris Blackwelder uses all his charm to coerce the little boy (and still you can spot the remorse in his eyes). And the boy signs a big black cross on the paper simply because he wants to be a good little boy (a good person in a world that considers him ‘lesser’).

And then there’s the number one scene: the execution. Two years before Spielberg took us into the gas chamber in Shindler’s List does a TV-movie dare to show the execution of a person (a fourteen year old boy, no less) from start to finish.

Combined with the previously mentioned scene this is brutal beyond believe. Here we have pure innocence in a dark cold world dying because he wanted to be good. It is gut wrenching.

And when I watched it (aged ten), I knew I was seeing something that I would never be able to forget for the rest of my life.

Of course -the critic in me has to point out- it is true that Carolina Skeletons does make quite an effort to make Linus the pure golden boy. In a contemporary take, I would expect, the movie to give Linus some faults and bad characteristics. But every version you would see: Linus’s demise should shock you to the core.

After that scene the rest of the movie wraps up rather quickly. The killer is found, the truth unraveled. And, no, the killer doesn’t come along easily.

A nice turn on the death sentence, I always found. Yes Linus was executed. But as an audience-member I really (really) wanted the true villain to die as well. I don’t think I would have ‘enjoyed’ (for want of a better word) the conclusion of this movie if the villain was still alive in lock-up.

So what concludes this little stream of thought? I haven’t mentioned directing, lighting, effects and only glanced at acting. I think sometimes a movie is just to be viewed. Forget all the stuff I, somewhat of a critic, am trying to give you and take that which the movie offers. Carolina Skeletons is an intriguing mystery set in the post-apartheid days of the American south in which a young boy was executed for the mere fact of not being the right skin color.