The Southern Movies series explores images of the South in modern films as well as how those images affect American perspectives on the region.

Over more than a century, mainstream movies about the South have offered portrayals that range from the darkness of 1915’s Birth of a Nation to the fluffiness of 2002’s Sweet Home Alabama. Many Americans who have never visited the South (and know little to nothing about it) take their understanding of our complicated culture not from history books by Shelby Foote or C. Vann Woodward, but from the images, characters, and story lines in movies about the South, like Gone with the Wind, Forrest Gump, The Help, and Fried Green Tomatoes. (Personally, I don’t know anybody who ever pooped in a chocolate pie or barbecued an abusive husband.) Whether they are set in the South, feature Southern characters, or both, movies feed and fuel how Americans view and treat the South, and also perpetuate and protect misinterpretations. Below is a (constantly growing) list of nearly five hundred Southern Movies made over the past century.

Introduction: Ten Films about the South, from March 2013

33 Movies from the Late 1920s – 1940s

Hearts of Dixie (1929) • Hallelujah (1929) • Dixiana (1930)

Cabin in the Cotton (1932) • I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

Carolina (1934) • Steamboat ‘Round the Bend (1935) • Mississippi (1935)

The Green Pastures (1936) • They Won’t Forget (1937) • Jezebel (1938)

Gone With the Wind (1939) • Way Down South (1939)

Tobacco Road (1941) • The Blood of Jesus (1941) • Little Foxes (1941)

Swamp Water (1941) • Tennessee Johnson (1942) • O, My Darling Clementine (1943)

I’m from Arkansas (1944) • Dark Waters (1944) • Dixie Jamboree (1944)

The Southerner (1945) • Go Down, Death! (1945) • Son of Dracula (1945)

The Yearling (1946) • Song of the South (1946) • Beale Street Mama (1946)

New Orleans (1947) • Louisiana Story (1948) • Intruder in the Dust (1949)

All the King’s Men (1949) • Pinky (1949)

22 Movies from the 1950s

The Glass Menagerie (1950) • The Toast of New Orleans (1950)

Drums in the Deep South (1951) • Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Member of the Wedding (1952) • The Mississippi Gambler (1953)

Jesse James’ Women (1954) • Naughty New Orleans (1954)

Night of the Hunter (1955) • The Phenix City Story (1955)

Duel on the Mississippi (1955) • Baby Doll (1956) • Old Yeller (1957)

Band of Angels (1957) • God’s Little Acre (1958) • Thunder Road (1958)

Long, Hot Summer (1958) • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

The Defiant Ones (1958) • Porgy and Bess (1959) • Lil Abner (1959)

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

43 Movies from the 1960s

Thunder in Carolina (1960) • The Young One (1960)

The Fugitive Kind (1960) • Wild River (1960)

Inherit the Wind (1960) • Claudelle Inglish (1961)

Poor White Trash (1961) • The Children’s Hour (1961)

Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) • To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

The Intruder (1962) • Cape Fear (1962) • The Miracle Worker (1962)

Walk on the Wild Side (1962) • The Cardinal (1963) • Gone are the Days! (1963)

Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) • Black Like Me (1964) • Nothing but a Man (1964)

Moonshine Mountain (1964) • Murder in Mississippi (1965) • Forty Acre Feud (1965)

The Legend of Blood Mountain (1965) • The Glass Menagerie (1966, TV)

The Chase (1966) • The Girl from Tobacco Row (1966) • The Black Klansman (1966)

This Property is Condemned (1966) • Hurry Sundown (1967) • Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Cottonpickin’ Chickenpickers (1967) • In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) • Shanty Tramp (1967) • White Lightnin’ Road (1967)

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968) • Finian’s Rainbow (1968)

If He Hollers, Let Him Go! (1968) • The Exotic Ones (1968) • The Witchmaker (1969)

The Reivers (1969) • Slaves (1969) • The Scavengers (1969)

88 Movies from the 1970s

The Liberation of LB Jones (1970) • I Walk the Line (1970) • tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . (1970)

WUSA (1970) • A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970) • The Beguiled (1971) • Preacherman (1971)

Mississippi Summer (1971) • This Stuff’ll Kill Ya (1971) • Brother John (1971)

Quadroon (1971) • Sounder (1972) • Deliverance (1972) • The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)

Corky (1972) • J.C. (1972) • Moon of the Wolf (1972) • The Legend of Hillbilly John (1972)

The Glass Menagerie (1973, TV) • Walking Tall (1973) • White Lightning (1973)

Preacherman Meets Widderwoman (1973) • Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (1973)

Lolly Madonna XXX (1973) • Gator Bait (1974) • The Klansman (1974) • Conrack (1974)

Buster and Billie (1974) • Macon County Line (1974) • Black Oak Conspiracy (1974)

Abby (1974) • Bootleggers (1974) • Hot Summer in Barefoot County (1974) • Cockfighter (1974)

Where the Lilies Bloom (1974) • Bucktown (1975) • Poor Pretty Eddie (1975)

Truckin’ Man (1975) • Hard Times (1975) • WW & the Dixie Dance Kings (1975)

Nashville (1975) • Moonrunners (1975) • The Night They Robbed Big Bertha’s (1975)

Sheba Baby (1975) • Return to Macon County (1975) • Walking Tall, Part 2 (1975)

Framed (1975) • Emma Mae (1976) • Ode to Billy Joe (1976) • Nashville Girl (1976)

Eaten Alive (1976) • Passion Plantation (1976) • Dixie Dynamite (1976) • Stay Hungry (1976)

Leadbelly (1976) • The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) • JD’s Revenge (1976)

Gator (1976) • Creature from Black Lake (1976) • Crypt of Dark Secrets (1976)

Greased Lightning (1977) • Redneck Miller (1977) • Roots (1977, TV) • Bad Georgia Road (1977)

Death Driver (1977) • Whiskey Mountain (1977) • Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Moonshine County Express (1977) • Walking Tall, the Final Chapter (1977)

Pretty Baby (1978) • Lawman without a Gun (1978) • Honky Tonk Nights (1978)

Walking Tall, the Final Chapter (1977) • French Quarter (1978) • Seabo (1978)

Walking Tall, the Final Chapter (1977) • A Real American Hero (1978, TV)

Texas Detour (1978) • Smokey and the Good Time Outlaws (1978) • Norma Rae (1979)

39 Lashes (1979) • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979, TV) • Steel (1979)

Roots: The Next Generation (1979, TV) • Wise Blood (1979) • Incoming Freshmen (1979)

The Evictors (1979)

(There are also the early 1970s pornographic “hicksploitation” films: Tobacco Roody, Southern Comforts, Country Cuzzins, Sweet Georgia, Country Hooker, and Midnight Plowboy.)

71 Movies from the 1980s

Georgia Peaches (1980) • The Sky is Gray (1980)

Macabre (1980) • The Loveless (1981)

Back Roads (1981) • Porky’s (1981)

The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia (1981)

Southern Comfort (1981) • The Beyond (1981) 

Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981, TV)

Smokey Bites the Dust (1981) • Soggy Bottom, USA (1981) • Liar’s Moon (1981)

Six Pack (1982) • Tennessee Stallion (1982) • The Beast Within (1982)

Curse of the Cannibal Confederates (1982) • Cat People (1982, remake)

A House Divided (1982) • Stroker Ace (1983) • Cross Creek (1983)

Murder in Coweta County (1983, TV) • Porky’s II: The Next Day (1983)

Ellie (1984) • The River Rat (1984) • Tank (1984) • The Enchanted (1984)

And the Children Shall Lead (1984) • Day of the Reaper (1984) • The Fix (1985)

A Soldier’s Story (1985) • The Color Purple (1985) • Words by Heart (1985)

The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) • Porky’s Revenge (1985) • Alamo Bay (1985)

The Long, Hot Summer (1985, remake) • The Trip to Bountiful (1985)

Crossroads (1986) • Down by Law (1986) • No Mercy (1986) • Evil in the Woods (1986)

The Big Easy (1987) • Angel Heart (1987) • Summer Heat (1987) • Shallow Grave (1987)

The Glass Menagerie (1987) • From a Whisper to a Scream (1987) • Shy People (1987)

End of the Line (1987) • Sister, Sister (1987) • Guilty of Innocence (1987)

Foxfire (1987) • The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains (1987, remake)

A Gathering of Old Men (1987, TV) • School Daze (1988) • Long Walk Home (1988)

Mississippi Burning (1988) • Fresh Horses (1988) • Zelly and Me (1988) • Blaze (1989)

Driving Miss Daisy (1989) • Mystery Train (1989) • Steel Magnolias (1989)

Trapper County War (1989) • Chattahoochee (1989) • Miss Firecracker (1989)

Sweet Bird of Youth (1989, remake) • Tennessee Waltz (1989) • Heart of Dixie (1989)

58 Movies from the 1990s

The Rose and the Jackal (1990) • Cape Fear (1991, remake) • Voodoo Dawn (1991)

Ramblin’ Rose (1991) • Forrest Gump (1991) • Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

The Prince of Tides (1991) • Mississippi Masala (1991) • Daughters of the Dust (1991)

Man in the Moon (1991) • Paris Trout (1991) • Carolina Skeletons (1991)

Doc Hollywood (1991) • Brother Future (1991) • Wildflower (1991) • One False Move (1991)

Slacker (1991) • Borderlines (1992) • My Cousin Vinny (1992) • Netherworld (1992)

The Firm (1993) • Sommersby (1993) • Scattered Dreams (1993) • Morning Glory (1993)

Interview with a Vampire (1994) • Tollbooth (1994) • River of Grass (1994)

Dead Man Walking (1995) • Stormswept (1995) • The Journey of August King (1995)

Sling Blade (1996) • A Time to Kill (1996) • Heaven’s Prisoners (1996) • The Chamber (1996)

Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) • Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) • Nightjohn (1996)

Moonshine Highway (1996) • The Rainmaker (1997) • Clover (1997) • Rosewood (1997)

Eve’s Bayou (1997) • Traveller (1997) • Macon County Jail (1997) • Carolina Low (1997)

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) • Ellen Foster (1997, TV)

Old Man (1997) • The Apostle (1998) • Beloved (1998) • The Waterboy (1998)

Shadrach (1998) • Evidence of Blood (1998) • Down in the Delta (1998) • Palmetto (1998)

The Secret Path (1999) • End of Innocence (1999) • A Lesson Before Dying (1999, TV)

49 Movies from the 2000s

The Courage to Love (2000) • The St. Francisville Experiment (2000) • Stalled (2000)

Dirty 3rd (2000) • Harlan County War (2000) • Run the Wild Fields (2000, TV)

Ruby’s Bucket of Blood (2001) • Monster’s Ball (2001) • Jewel (2001)

Big Bad Love (2001) • My Louisiana Sky (2001) • Sonny (2002) • The Badge (2002)

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002) • Trapped (2002) • Monster (2003)

Radio (2003) • A Painted House (2003) • Deacons for Defense (2003, TV)

The Notebook (2004) • Undertow (2004) • A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)

Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires (2004, Video) • Ray (2004) • Cavedweller (2004)

2001 Maniacs (2005) • False River (2005) • Southern Belles (2005)

Because of Winn-Dixie (2005) • Skeleton Key (2005) • Black Snake Moan (2006)

All the King’s Men (2006, remake) • Hatchet (2007) • Hounddog (2008)

The Secret Life of Bees (2008) • Yellow Handkerchief (2008) • Tennessee (2008)

Pure White Bitch (2008) • Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins (2008) • Ballast (2008)

Alabama Moon (2009) • The Blind Side (2009) • In the Electric Mist (2009)

Trash Humpers (2009) • That Evening Sun (2009) • The New Daughter (2009)

Hurricane Season (2009) • Get Low (2009) • Mississippi Damned (2009)

95 Movies from the 2010s

Welcome to the Rileys (2010) • Virginia (2010)

The Help (2010) • Blood Done Sign My Name (2010)

Redemption Road (2010) • Good intentions (2010)

The School in the Woods (2010) • My Own Love Song (2010)

The Dynamiter (2011) • Texas Killing Fields (2011)

Bloodworth (2011) • Jess + Moss (2011) • Ghost of New Orleans (2011)

Come Morning (2012) • Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) • Mud (2012)

Last Kind Words (2012) • Tennessee Queer (2012) • Last Summer (2013)

Straw Dogs (2013) • The Pardon (2013) • Hell Baby (2013) • 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Red (short, 2013) • Django Unchained (2013) • As I Lay Dying (2013)

Child of God (2013) • Jug Face (2013) • Sunlight Jr. (2013) • Selma (2014)

Blackbird (2014) • Jessabelle (2014) • Wicked Blood (2014) • Evergreen (2014)

Southern Baptist Sissies (2014) • The Sound and the Fury (2014)

Redemption of the Commons (2014) • The Trip to Bountiful (2014, remake)

Blue Ridge (2014) • The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2015, remake) • Lost Colony (2015)

The Last Confederate (2015) • White Water (2015) • Junebug (2016) • The Hollow (2016)

Bad Ass 3: Bad Asses on the Bayou (2015) • Family Possessions (2016)

Southern Comfort (2016) • Stomping Ground (2016) • Free State of Jones (2016)

Carry Me Home (2016) • North Star (2016) • Birth of a Nation (2016, remake)

God Bless New Dixie (2016) • Strange Weather (2016) • Mud Bound (2017)

Alabama Dirt (2017) The Nth Ward (2017) • Lost Child (2017)

Sweet Home Carolina (2017) • Sophie and the Rising Sun (2017) • 1 Buck (2017)

Mississippi Murder (2017) • Counting for Thunder (2017) • Blood Country (2017)

Dixieland (2017) • A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. (2017) • Purgatory Road (2017)

Talon Falls (2017) • County Line (2018) • St. Agatha (2018) • Mississippi Requiem (2018)

Moss (2018) • Bayou Caviar (2018) • The Perfect Host (2018) • Forever My Girl (2018)

Laundry Day (2018) • Attack of the Southern Fried Zombies (2018) • The Green Book (2018)

Bullitt County (2018) • My Sidepiece Hit the Lotto (2018) • Gothic Harvest (2019)

Just Mercy (2019) • Trading Paint (2019) • The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

Red Dirt Rising (2019) • Burning Cane (2019) • Dead on Arrival (2019) • The Farmhand (2019)

Queen & Slim (2019) • Last Holler (2019) • Tennessee Gothic (2019) • Rust Creek (2019)

The Death of Dick Long (2019) • Them That Follow (2019)

32 Movies from the 2020s

Tuscaloosa (2020) • Arkansas (2020) • Burning Kentucky (2020) • Son of the South (2020)

Where the Crawdads Sing (2020) • Miss Juneteenth (2020) • Hallowed Be Thy Name (2020)

Uncle Frank (2020) • Stars Fell on Alabama (2021) • House on the Bayou (2021)

Fisher (2021) • Howard’s Mill (2021) • Last Holler (2021) • Maysville (2021)

Beast Beast (2022) • Tethered (2022) • Alice (2022) • The Wendigo (2022)

Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2022) • Double Down South (2022) • Alabama Rose (2022)

Storm over Georgia (2023) •The Hopewell Haunting (2023) • One of These Days (2023)

Desperation Road (2023) • Abigail (2023) • Southern Gospel (2023) • The Dirty South (2023)

A Song for Imogene (2023) • Crescent City (2024) • Southern Soul Sunday (2024)

Sinners (2025)

Southern Movie Bonus:

A Spooky, Scary Southern Sampler
October 2019

A Women’s History Month Sampler
March 2020

Another Spooky, Scary Southern Sampler, Old School Edition
October 2020

Another Spooky, Scary Southern Sampler, Twenty-First Century Edition
October 2020

A Black History Month Sampler
February 2021

The 2021 Spooky, Scary Southern Sampler
October 2021

The Films of 1997, 25 Years Later 
January 2022

Another Black History Month Sampler
February 2022

A Pride Month LGBTQ Sampler
June 2023

Quick Tributes

A Quick Tribute to “Mountain Man” Bill McKinney

A Quick Tribute to “Redneck Sheriff” Clifton James

A Quick Tribute to “Big Bear” RG Armstrong

A Quick Tribute to Severn Darden, Character Actor