The Muddled Message of ‘Hillbilly Elegy’

The film rings true for many who have dealt with poverty and addiction, but it doesn’t quite feel comfortable in its milieu.

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The protagonist of the 1941 comedy Sullivan’s Travels is an earnest comedy director named John L. Sullivan. One day, Sullivan announces that he’s going to make a socially important film. It will be a film that has Something to Say, a meditation on labor and capital and dignity! 

“But with a little sex?” his producer urges. 

“A little,” Sullivan concedes, adding primly, “but I don’t want to stress it.”

But Sullivan has a problem. He lives in a mansion in Beverly Hills and doesn’t have the remotest idea what “hard luck” is. Guilt-stricken at his lack of victimhood, Sully dons a hokey “hobo” costume and hits the road with nothing but his wits, a small bundle of provisions, and the ability to—at any time—call on his network of friends to prevent him from suffering any real harm. Still wrapped in his invisible privileges, he declares, “I’m not coming back until I know what real trouble is.”

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  1. Sean Farrell

    Kingsport guy here (TN). This terrific piece mentions some strong movies, but a great TV choice is Justified. If you haven't streamed it, well get on it. It captures the whip-smart resourcefulness and funny eccentricities. It also captures the outsider distrust and outright meanness that I recognize when Kevin Williamson writes about us.

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  2. KIttye

    I grew up in a small Southwestern Virginia town and still have my twang. I never thought about Ohio being part of Appalachia. To me, Appalachia was Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. I read Hillbilly Elegy and saw some similarities to people I knew but I knew no mamaws. Most actors portraying Southerners and hillbillies don’t get the accent right and just don’t seem authentic so I have no desire to see the movie. I never saw the stark poverty, although I am sure my social worker mom did, it was just out in the hills and “hollers.” There were few social barriers in my town. I went to school with the children of coal miners and sharecroppers, and the children of doctors and lawyers. We mingled freely and the children of sharecroppers and coal miners went to college right along with the children of doctors and lawyers. Most of those kids moved away to larger places after college. It was hard to go back to that narrow way of life but nature was still pristine and views of the hills and mountains were absolutely beautiful.

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    1. Sean Farrell

      There's some kind of dividing line across Ohio. Southeast Ohio is way more like WV than Dayton.

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      1. ChristinaM

        Yes, I don't know where exactly I'd delineate, but somewhere south of Columbus, it starts feeling very Appalachian. Southern Indiana's got that going for it too.

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    2. Hannah Long

      I'm from southwest Virginia, too - Rural Retreat, in Wythe County. You're right, it really is a beautiful area. I don't think of Ohio as being Appalachian either, but the "hillbilly" type is something that emigrated from Appalachia (I use them interchangeably sometimes so I could see where the confusion comes in.)

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      1. KIttye

        I am from Lebanon Virginia, in Russell County, moved to Martinsville after college and to North Carolina a couple of years after that. I have been to Rural Retreat. It is a very pretty area too.

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    Bruce Mamont

    Good piece; I look forward to her future Dispatches. It makes me want to watch Sullivan's Travels and taught me a new term, "hillbilly doctrine". Can "hillbilly dogma" be far behind?

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  4. Stanley Ford

    You are being unfair to Ron Howard and his informed perspective. After all, he grew up in Mayberry with his Pa and Aunt Bee. Mayberry is a place where individualism thrives, people are proud of where they're from while being humble about who they are. It is the antithesis of the cultural sophistication (and related deceit) of Mount Pilot. Thank Heaven Ron didn't grow up there...

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  5. Extreme Moderate

    Great piece! Every director who thinks he or she has something serious to say needs to watch Sullivan’s travels once a year. You also hit it by noting the muddled character arc of Hillbilly Elegy. The film contains absolutely nothing to show how he gets from his early circumstances to Yale law school. Nothing about the military. And perhaps the biggest omission was any sense of the community’s arc - The idea that the postwar boom seemed to offer a pass out of poverty, but ultimately betrayed them, leaving them without the community they had left in Appalachia and failing to replace it with anything else. I’d love to hear Hannah Long on these issues.

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    1. Hannah Long

      I think we're meant to assume that being with Mamaw is the key factor in his ascent to Yale - which she sort of is - having a stable home really does seem to make the difference for him. But as you say, they also skip the military and a lot of the broader societal commentary. I suppose there's only so much they can do, so I won't judge it for choosing a narrow focus, but then I expect it to do well with what it chose to focus on...and as you say, the character arcs are just nonexistent.

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    rlritt

    You know not everyone in middle America is a hillbilly. I'm from middle America and I was from an economically modest background. My brother lives in Ohio and is working class and his wife was an LPN. Home schooled his kids who all went to college and are well off. I have an advanced degree. My husband practiced law and his brother was an Insurance underwriter as was his father and they were from Kentucky. My father and all his family were born and raised in VA. Guess what. We don't take drugs, we are educated even though we were not necessarily wealthy, and we are pretty much the same as people we know on both coasts, Fla, North and South Dakota where we have relatives. Differences in people have less to with region and more to do with level of education. Families who value education are more alike wherever they're from than people who see education as unnecessary.

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  7. Beth C.

    I thought the movie was really more about the way addiction affects a family and not trying to give a full picture of Appalachia. All the addiction stuff rings true, no matter where you are from.

    I had similar thoughts about the book. Most of the criticism seems to come from folks who want to make the story a complete picture of the place and time. It's really just one man's experience that can throw some light on those people, but isn't the only way to look at them.

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    1. OpenBook

      Exactly. I found this article overreaching and tedious. Lighten up. The movie is just one man's story with some core elements that helped with his success. I didn't grow up in Appalachia (and neither did the main character) but the story rang true for my life history in the 50-60's lower middle class.

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    Old guy named Bill (OGNB)

    Enjoyed reading the piece and agree about the strength of using a lighter touch in this subject area.

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    Rob Weiter

    Same question that others have been asking... Who wrote this wonderful piece for the dispatch staff?

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    Will I Am

    I, too, would like to know who wrote this insightful piece! And wonder why it wasn’t done closer to the release of the film.

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    1. Hannah Long

      Mostly because I was dragging my feet on being a freelance writer again...I had the take in my head but was refusing to commit to actually writing it!

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