Outsiders

                The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan is the perfect example of Hollywood stereotyping Appalachia. They place the illiterate, anger prone male brute into the rural wilderness of Kentucky to “accurately” portray how all Appalachian people act. Natives to the region tend to react negatively to this stereotype, but in truth, this isn’t the first time Hollywood has glamorized the American “hillbilly”, but it was only start of a new millennium of Appalachian based films.

Movies based around the Civil War to about 1950 portray Appalachians to be the rugged, mountain men who have no sympathy for outsiders. For example, the television miniseries Hatfield’s and McCoy’s shows how ruthless and revenge-filled the mountain people are. The Kentucky Cycle shows this same view and the feuding that goes along with it. However, both of these works make the feuding and warfare between families seen as never-ending with no hope for a truce.

                Another large issue surrounding The Kentucky Cycle and Hatfield’s and McCoy’s is the fight for land. Michael Rowen begins the play by stealing land from the Cherokee tribe, a common act for settlers to do. The Hatfield’s and McCoy’s fought over timber rights on a mountain and who they actually belonged to. The Rowen’s wanted land to show their wealth and superiority over the Indians and to have a piece of land to give to heirs. The Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, however, wanted land for economic gain.

                In truth, feuding was very uncommon in the Appalachian region and rarely escalated to the legendary height of the Hatfield and McCoy feud. The feuding and fighting in The Kentucky Cycle amounts to nothing but worthless bloodshed over land and sanity. Movies and television try their hardest to make the area of Appalachia seem as ruthless as possible, even though it was a fairly civil area. For a change, why doesn’t Hollywood create a film about the actual Appalachia?

-C