Title: Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Director: Benh Zeitlin
Cast: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry
Review:
The idea that society is headed towards really bad times and
that we better start getting ready for this coming “storm” unless we want to be
swept away by it, is one that has been very popular in films lately. Take for
example Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter (2011) a film about a man who has these
nightmarish visions about the world being engulfed by a horrible storm. The
main character in that film starts to build an underground shelter to protect
his family from the storm he keeps dreaming about. Take Shelter was a very dark
film that used this premise of a coming storm to illustrate this fear of how
bad things could get in the near future. Taking in consideration the state of
global economy, recent political events and how poverty, gas prices and
unemployment have all increased over the last couple of years, it is reasonable
to come to these conclusions about a coming ‘storm’. One gets the idea that the
whole world is going to go down the drain, flushed down the toilet back to the
dark ages. These are some of the ideas that Beasts of the Southern Wild plays
with.
Not unlike Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), The Wizard of Oz (1939),
Labyrinth (1986) or Where the Wild Things Are (2009); Beasts of Southern Wild
is a film about a child who has it so bad in life that she sometimes escapes to
a magical land of her own conceit. In this imaginary land, gigantic god-like
warthogs stampede through her town, destroying everything in their path. Now
with films such as these in which characters escape to imaginary places,
whatever we see in the fantasy world always has a representation in the real
one. It’s through these imaginary worlds that the child processes what he or she
is going through, to find some sort of sane way to deal with whatever it is
they are dealing with. In Pan’s Labyrinth Ofelia had to deal with her fascist
step-father and the abuse he was inflicting on the people. In Labyrinth, Sarah
was dealing with becoming an adult and accepting her responsibilities in this
world and in The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy learned that she had no one else to
rely on but her own self, the power to solve her problem was always within her.
On Beasts of the Southern Wild, we meet a little girl by the
name of ‘Hushpuppy’. She lives in a town called ‘The Bathtub’ which is knee
deep in poverty. Her father, ‘Wink’, is the quintessential man whom life has
beaten. He is a drunkard, unemployed looser. He takes out his frustrations on
Hushpuppy, whom he wants’ to control most of the time. Good thing Hushpuppy is
one of these strong willed kids who has a mind of her own; she’s taken command
of her life at a very young age. She is only six in the film, yet psychologically,
she’s such a strong little girl. She has her own personal points of views about
the world she inhabits; thankfully we can hear her thoughts from time to time
as she talks about the universe and how we’re all in some small way a part of
it. Her father knows how harsh the world is, so he trains her to be strong. At
one point he asks Hushpuppy “Who’s the Man?” and she says with the meanest face
she can conjure up while hitting the table with her hands “I’m the man!” You’ll end up really rooting for Hushpuppy, she’s
the future of the world, but she’s strong willed and ready to battle the storm.With
youth such as these, you get the feeling that there’s hope for the world yet.
I liked this idea that the film was putting across; the idea
that the world is caught up in a storm, adults are unreliable in their crazy
ways, yet the newer generations are willing to stand up to the madness going on
in the world. There are these beautiful images of a group of young kids simply
screaming at the world, so symbolic, the idea being that it’s the new
generations that are telling the older ones that the world is all wrong. They
see it for what it is and don’t agree with it. Perhaps this is why Hushpuppy
sees these giant warthogs destroying her world. The powers that be don’t look
at who they are stepping on, they simply stampede through the world, devouring,
destroying, consuming, sucking the world dry.
But Hushpuppy doesn’t just go up against the tumultuous world
or giant imaginary warthogs; Hushpuppy also has to deal with her unreliable parent.
Wink as he is called, doesn’t do a very good job of taking care of his daughter
who roams alone through the world for most of the film. At one point Hushpuppy
actually runs away from her father, an act I’ve always approved of if a child
has obviously insane or unreliable parents. If a child has good loving parents,
they should love, appreciate and listen to them, but if in the other hands a child’s
parents are insane, in my book they have every right to run away and find their
own happiness in this big bad world; especially if said parents abuse a child physically
or mentally. This is an idea that was also recently presented to us in Wes
Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom (2012), a film
about two kids who turn their backs to the world they know in order to create a
world of their own, sharing books, falling in love and listening to good music.
Aside from all these thematic elements, Beasts of the
Southern Wild is simply put a beautiful film to look at. Yeah Hushpuppy does
live in the midst of extreme poverty and ‘ugly’ things, but there’s beauty to
behold in the middle of the ugliness. The character of Hushpuppy is an
extremely loveable one, she’s a delicate as a child can be, yet she is also strong, she’s admirable just for that. She
symbolizes our frustrations with the world we live in; Hushpuppy has no
problems in screaming at these problems in fierce complaint. As Hushpuppy her
self says, the world has to know that she existed, that she passed through this
world. First time director Benh Zeitlin is also letting the world know who he
is with this impressive first time effort; here’s looking forward to whatever
he has planned for us next. Highly recommend this beautiful movie for those out
there in the mood for something uplifting, symbolic and beautiful.
Rating: 4 out of 5
2 comments:
This was a great read - thank you for recommending this movie, which I haven't heard of before. It sounds like something I will definitely watch if I have the chance to.
Glad you enjoyed the review Mette, it really is a beautiful film and worth checking out, hope you enjoy it when you see it!
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