Beasts of the Southern Wild on Fatherhood

Beasts of the Southern Wild was recently nominated by the National Fatherhood Initiative for the 2012 Fatherhood Movie of the Year. The relationship between Wink and Hushpuppy, and more specifically, Wink's parenting skills, has been a divisive topic in conversation with varying opinions and outcomes. Though, not everyone will agree with the National Fatherhood Initiative's take on the character, it certainly serves as a good starting point for discussion.

From their review:

Early in the film, we see that Wink is very hard on his daughter, Hushpuppy, played brilliantly by newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis (also nominated for an Oscar). He yells at her, expects her to fend for herself despite her very young age, and even beats her. In a particularly difficult scene, he slaps her repeatedly to the ground.

It is what Hushpuppy makes of this situation that holds an incredibly valuable lesson for fathers. Despite the mistreatment, Hushpuppy very clearly loves her dad and she knows that he loves her, despite his inability to effectively express it. This is critical for fathers to understand, especially dads who are facing particularly difficult circumstances. 

Read the full article here.

What Beasts of the Southern Wild Really Says

Or, at least through the eyes of one viewer. From the By Way of Beauty blog, another take on the film:

My favorite: "We's what the earth is for."

This last quote comes right before the end of the captivating first few scenes, which reveal the celebratory spirit of life in The Bathtub, complete with song, food, and fireworks. 

These lines show what Beasts is fundamentally about - not poverty or politics (though it does touch on these things), but universal "big" questions about mortality, purpose, and ultimate reality.

In a revealing interview with the director Benh Zeitlin, he does talk briefly about the social and political dimensions of the film. Zeitlin explains that the film tries to show The Bathtub as a kind of "utopia," a place defined by "ultimate freedom" and "joy" that you'd want to "fight and die for." (To be fair, you could also point to the many instances of physical, psychological, and spiritual turmoil experienced by Hushpuppy, and make a case for The Bathtub being an equally destructive and problematic place. The Bathtub - though blessed with a certain simplicity and sense of community - is far from a utopia, even on the film's own terms.)

Read the full analysis here.

Parents & Children

From time to time, we notice patterns or common threads in the feedback we're getting from our audiences.  Recently, we've been incredibly touched by the responses from parents and children with whom Wink and Hushpuppy's relationship resonated.  Below are some of the voices we've encountered that seemed almost in dialogue with one another. If any of the stories you read below ring true (or don't!) we encourage you to share your story and join the conversation, we're all ears. Jason from Boston, MA

We went to "Beasts" Sunday and really loved it. Still think about it every day. My 10-yr old was especially quiet after. She said she really liked it a lot, and she mentioned it was the first non-animated movie she'd ever seen in a theater. I hadn't realized that. I asked why she was so quiet and she said ".... I think I want to cry, but I don't think I'm sad?" I totally knew what she meant. 

Later that night she was trying to unscrew a cap from a bottle of water and for millionth time asked me to do it for her, I said "Come on, just give it a little effort, then if you can't I'll do it for you." For the first time in the 10 year ongoing battle of trying to get her some confidence, she actually gave it her all. Little fingers clenched on the cap, her face turned red, a vein in her forehead became visible and finally it opened. She slammed it down on the counter and yelled "I'm the man!" 

 Best laugh I had in a long time.

Kathy from Brattleboro, VT

My father was both hugely flawed an hugely caring, strong, protective. Even though, I’m not six years old, well, your dad is your dad. So I sat in the theater and watched this beautiful, spiritual, horrible story and I cried. You know, one of those good cries.

So on behalf of all daughters being chased by monsters, thank you.

Katie Calautti & Mark and Joe Pezzula, Twitter

Screen shot 2012-07-27 at 12.05.51 PM

Todd from  Los Angeles, CA

I'm a single dad so there was much resonance in the film for my daughter and me. She loved the character of Hushpuppy and remembers a few of the lines from the film. 

Rebecca from Seattle, WA

After many months of anticipation, I finally saw this outstanding film last night. I will surely see it again before it leaves the theater here. I was utterly captivated not only by the remarkable performance of Quvenzhane Wallis but by the depiction of the utter devastation that a child perceives when a parent disappears or dies. The deep connection that Hushpuppy has to the “universe”, both in literal and metaphorical terms, and the sense that even in the face of destruction one can be a survivor, a beast, and even have a little immortality, touches something deeply human. Adults know it cognitively, but children do in their own way. Bringing those two together as they were in the film was a true tour de force. To find a girl who can embody that was an incredible stroke of luck and turning her into that little, wonderful beast was directing at its finest.

Ellen Sweets, Blog Commenter

This film is so effin’ brilliant, so effin’ moving that i can’t believe the whole world won’t weep when hushpuppy faces down the aurochs…anyone unmoved by this film has a hole in his/her soul. my daughter and i have never — repeat — NEVER agree on a movie since “E.T,” "Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and, “Oh Brother Where Art Thou.” We can’t stop talking about “Beasts.” There will be a second viewing. Maybe a third. we’ll look for hushpuppy at the Oscars….and don’t mess with her hair too much.

Reactions to Beasts of the Southern Wild

There are some common threads emerging in how audiences are responding to and interpreting Beasts of the Southern Wild, but it also seems to hit everyone a little bit differently.

We've begun compiling reactions and analysis from thinkers, bloggers, academics, and regular folks and some of what we've come across is featured below. We invite you to read, reflect, and join in the discussion! Please let us know by adding a comment if there's a reference or  a thought you'd like to throw into the ring. We'll keep adding to this post as our collection grows.

Hushpuppy is small, but she has agency and power. Beasts of the Southern Wild presents a new hero of the monomyth, one that we’re not used to seeing in Southern literature — a girl of color who grows into a mighty (and mighty small) creature, despite the challenges of natural disasters, familial tragedy and mythical beasts. The scale of her story is epic, and epicly Southern, an attempt to keep the rest of the world from advancing on a place she loves and destroying it.

-- Brooke Hatfield's Small Mythologies in Canonball, a blog about feminist reading and writing.

"For the poor student or the minority student living in a police state, we ignore the signs of PTSD that are obvious and present, for that would require us speaking out against a system that has sustained our employ. These kids are our “beasts” of the educational wild. But it is not our job to tame them, because they do not need to be tamed. They require love and understanding. They don’t need us to explain their existence in ways that are palatable, when their personal daily experiences are unpalatable. They need to be heard in way they speak- without translation for our comfort."

-- Read Worokya Duncan's article "Beasts of the Educational Wild" here.

"In fact, that’s the message that all the stalwarts in The Bathtub—the black ones and the white ones—want to convey, that not only do all of us have an assigned place in the universe but that the way we were made is the way we’re supposed to be. In this cosmology, levees are unnatural. Flood protection leads to alienation. We may obtain some temporary safety when we wall ourselves off from nature’s ebb and flow, but it costs us our connection to the planet. And losing that connection is worse than any storm."

-- Jarvis DeBerry's piece, An Unexpected, Enduring Lesson From ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’, published in Color Lines.

The American Bible Society responded with a study guide to prompt discussion about our place in the universe and our intention in life.  It's available for download here.

 [There is a] national and international fascination with Louisiana’s disaster streak. Had 1,836 people (1,577 in Louisiana) not died during Hurricane Katrina and had the population of New Orleans not decreased by almost 30 percent (a majority African American), there would be no Beasts of the Southern Wild. Also, by coincidence, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil blowout occurred on the first day of shooting the film in April of 2010... Beasts depicts coastal Louisiana’s environmental and cultural endangerment in ways that transcend scientific studies and government policies, while at the same time reaching national and international audiences...My fear, however, is that those who watch Beasts of the Southern Wild will get lost in the wonder and magic and spirit of the Bathtub; that they will rest in the film’s beauty instead of being jolted by the reality that, as Hushpuppy says, “Sometimes you can break something so bad, that it can’t get put back together.”

--

Michael Pasquier, 

Something So Broken: What’s Frightening About 

Beasts of the Southern Wild

 for 

Religion Dispatches

Magazine.

Brewing Culture

released a Beasts of the Southern Wild Conversation Guide that poses questions about struggle, community, and friendship.  It's available for download

here

.

Benh Zeitlin's Bathtub

Back in June 2012, just before the theatrical release of Beasts of the Southern Wild, journalist Jeremy Butman sat down with Benh Zeitlin to discuss the filmmaker's take on The Bathtub and the ideas and themes the film represents.

And of course the storm is going to recall Katrina. So it seems as though it has an absolute analogue in the real world. How is the audience supposed to understand the connection between the mythological setting of Beasts and the real southern Louisiana?

I think it's very different inside and outside of Louisiana. In Louisiana, especially when you get outside New Orleans, the storm in the film and the issues with the storm are much more inspired by [Hurricane] Gustov and current land-loss in south Louisiana and the levee issues around the Mississippi and salt water intrusion and the oil spill and all this other stuff that for me was actually more the reference point. I feel like that's what it will be for people there, too. It's been interesting as I show it outside there that it's going to go to Katrina, because that's what people think of when they think of storms in Louisiana.

The reason I wanted to do this story was that I'm interested in the current moment of living in south Louisiana, where there's a group of people, and a world, that knows they're under threat constantly, but they're totally entrenched in living there, and they're not going to leave. I wanted to try to understand that impulse, that impulse as an observer and then also my personal impulse to move there and live there the rest of my life—why do you do that?

Read the full, in depth interview here.