“Hey, hey boy, wake up there. Sheriff, wake him up there. If anybody’s going to sleep in this court, it’ll be me.”

Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers as the titular character, is a pastoral comedy set in a small town Kentucky town decades after the American Civil War. Priest is a laidback, eccentric advocate taking a pragmatic approach to the law, often taking into account his fellow citizens personalities and life situations in his judgements. the film follows him as he tries to encourage his nephew’s relationship with a local girl whilst dealing with a case involving a civil war veteran and a stabbing.

It’s a film with two sides. On one side is a nostalgic, elegiac depiction of small-town America, in character close to Our Town or the radio series of Garrison Keillor. On the other side is a complex depiction of the legacy of the war and the romanticisation of the confederacy. Priest’s best friend is a black stereotype: lazy and incompetent. This element is uncomfortable, as is the misty-eyed shots of the confederate flag, but one saving grace is the fact that both these are presented in a knowing, slightly ironic way (the black character, Poindexter, is shown to be deceptively cunning). this saving grace isn’t enough though.

Watch To Kill a Mockingbird if you want something more nuanced and thoughtful, and something that better stands the tests of time.