By Alvin Starks
In this fairytale, Cinderella doesn’t have a Fairy Godmother; she is actually motherless on all fronts. Nor does she have glass slippers. In fact, she doesn’t have shoes at all. In this fairytale, the protagonist may be destined to work in servitude and she’s absolutely fine with it. Beasts of the Southern Wild is provocative and rich with many themes. Benh Zeitlin, in his debut feature, has sculpted a masterpiece. The film has won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. Zeitlin has created a fascinating world to explore, a world of chaotic beauty, terror and mythical wonder. Electing to choose a cast of nonprofessional actors was ingenious. He may have found Hollywood’s next big star.
The narrator and protagonist of the film is a six-year-old girl named Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) who lives in a fictional Louisiana bayou called The Bathtub along with ailing father, Wink (Dwight Henry). Hushpuppy’s father is a serious alcoholic who lives in a separate house connected to hers by a wire. Darwinism never rang truer in their environment. Her father abandons Hushpuppy for a few days and she has to fend for herself while sleeping among the animals, who happen to be her friends. In a nonchalant tone, Hushpuppy says, “If daddy doesn’t come back soon, I’ll have to start eating my pets.” This is the way of the land in their world, an understanding that you must do anything to survive and it isn’t sugarcoated in the slightest.
Their home, the Bathtub, is a decaying, swampy, primitive civilization inhabited by society’s outcast. There is a dearth of food and the place is bereft of resources that most families rely upon each day. Houses are makeshift, crafted with branches, random pieces of scrap metal, rope, leaves, and wood. The houses are part mobile home, part
tree house. Even boats are made of pick-up truck beds. The residents of the Bathtub spend their days drinking heavily, fishing, and scavenging. The parents train their kids, like animals, to be self-reliant. They also teach their kids to believe in a folklorish tale of ancient beast called aurochs that have a symbolic role in the film.
As the people sing, dance and celebrate simply being alive and free, there is always a foreboding tone of doom looming in the atmosphere. There is a storm coming and the people can sense that the storm would be the storm of storms. Some of the residents of the Bathtub have the foresight to flee and relocate. While others either are bereft of the means to pack their things and relocate or are just too prideful to abandon their home.
Hushpuppy’s father, Wink, is an interesting character. In the real world, Dry World in their lexicon, his fathering tactics would result in CPS taking Hushpuppy away and land him a spot in prison. Wink tries to rally his neighbors together and inspire them to stay in their homes in an effort not to abandon their land. Then the storm comes. When the storm hits with cataclysmic force, to lift his daughter’s spirits, Wink reacts by climbing onto his roof and shooting a gun into the sky as if the storm could be killed. This mad and invigorating scene of individual defiance against impossible and inhuman forces, is a testament to the resiliency of the Bathtub’s people. The storm came and took everything except their hearts. Despite Wink’s deteriorating health and Hushpuppy’s youth, father and daughter weather the storm.
Zeitlin, who will soon be introduced to Oscar voters, and cinematographer Ben Richardson creates a sense of systematic chaos with constant, searching camerawork. Beasts is shot on location in Louisiana from Hushpuppy’s point of view for the most part. To accurately depict what Hushpuppy sees through her eyes and her perspective,
Zeitlin shoots from the hip, with the wobbly, watchful intensity of a young girl. The mumpsimus dialogue shines through the film adding a level of authenticity. After the storm, the survivors find refuge in a floating shack and proceed to have dinner.
Hushpuppy struggles to crank open her crab with her bare hands. Wink scolds his daughter and orders her to, “beast it, beast it.” As Hushpuppy struggles, a symphony of chants, “beast it, beast it,” fills the room. Hushpuppy savagely cranks open her food and feasts in triumph. Hushpuppy’s scenes of struggle and perseverance uplifts the tone of the film in every regard.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is a bayou fairytale wrapped in a nightmare of epic proportions. It is a Rubik’s Cube, enclosed in an enigma, placed at the center of a labyrinth and guarded by mythical beasts. Zeitlin’s film can be interpreted in various ways. The story is chaotic and at times it seems like nothing holds the film together but at times the narrative is precisely focused. The film could be an allegorical interpretation of the plight the people of New Orleans endured during Hurricane Katrina and in its aftermath.
The film can be characterized as a celebration of freedom. It can also be about a father teaching his daughter to be self reliant while maintaining happiness amidst the most dire circumstances. There are many lessons to be learned from this film that are taught to the viewer by the mesmerizing Hushpuppy. The lesson that resonated most and is explicit throughout the film entirety is, one day everything on our plates will fall on the floor and no one will be there to pick it up except us.
Add the DVD to your list of gifts for your favorite movie lover this Christmas.
