By Stephen Silver

Of all the stereotypes long embraced (and since rejected) by Hollywood throughout its history, one of the last that is still considered acceptable is that of the redneck. It's never okay to make fun of or ridicule blacks, Jews, gays, or anyone else, but it's perfectly okay to stereotype those who are low-class, rural, Southern, or any combination thereof.
This practice is common in such lowbrow comedies as "Joe Dirt," but fairly rare in critically acclaimed, Oscar-nominated fare. That's why I was so surprised that a film as otherwise exceptional as Todd Field's "In the Bedroom" could have at its heart such a condescending attitude towards the lower class. It's the opposite of the usual liberal Hollywood formula: class warfare, in which the rich are the good guys.
I've always assumed that if there were ever such a thing as the Redneck Anti-Defamation League, they would emulate the NAACP, GLAAD, the ADL, and the Catholic League and start pickets and boycotts of films like "Boys Don't Cry," "Sling Blade," and of course "Deliverance" (a picture that, of course, is still trotted out by standup comics for redneck jokes 30 years after its original release.) But of course no organization exists, and even if they did, I somehow doubt anyone would listen.
(SPOILER WARNING)
Set in late summer in coastal Maine, "In the Bedroom" is the story of married couple Matt and Ruth Fowler (Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson), he a doctor and she a high school choir teacher, who have one son, college student Frank (Nick Stahl). Frank is in the midst of a summer romance with Natalie (Marisa Tomei), a working-class girl with a heavy New England accent and two young sons- a development to which the father is ambivalent but the mother treats with great
disdain. Natalie is menaced by her redneck ex-husband Richard (William Mapother, complete with plaid shirts and mullet) who stalks the family, breaks into Natalie's house, and later shoots Frank dead. After Richard is freed on a technicality, the parents cope with the nightmare of living in the same town as their son's killer, until Matt kidnaps Richard, takes him to the woods, and shoots him.
The message, therefore, is what Ruth implies during the first act: the college-boy son of upper-class parents shouldn't get involved with an uncultured, single mother of the lower class, lest he be dragged down into their sordid world and subsequently lose his life over it. That prophecy, after all, is completed, when the husband ventures into that sordid world and commits a capital crime himself.
If you're skeptical about this, imagine the same movie, with a slightly different plot: an upper-class, white college boy has an affair with a working class, African-American single mother, to the obvious disapproval of his parents. The gangster-ish, cornrow-wearing father of the woman's children stalks and menaces the woman and kids until he murders the son in cold blood, getting
off on a technicality and continuing to haunt the boy's family until the husband shoots him.
That is a film that you will never see, because it would (rightly) be considered racist, stereotypical of black people, and generally offensive on every level. But if the gangsta stereotype is unacceptable in a film made by well-to-do white filmmakers, then why is such a redneck persona considered perfectly acceptable?
"In the Bedroom" was nominated for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor, Actress, and Supporting Actress in last year's Academy Awards. No film has won this much acclaim while simultaneously sucking up to elitist liberal sensibilities since "American Beauty," with its all-in-one liberal punching bag character of Col. Fitz (not only is he Southern, militaristic, and abusive of his son, he's also a closeted homosexual- and a Nazi!).
When conservatives rail at "the elite media on the coasts," this is what they're talking about. One of their biggest targets, Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein, of course masterminded "In the Bedroom"'s Oscar campaign. And while Harvey may not be personally to blame in this case, there's little question that Hollywood in general pays very little attention to what lower-class, middle American, or "redneck" audiences want.
"In the Bedroom" is not a bad film. It's exceptionally well-acted all around (especially by Wilkinson and Spacek), the story is told reasonably well (from the short story by Andre Dubus), and the Maine photography is pristinely beautiful at all turns. But it's very hard to get past its prejudicial and condescending attitude.