Winter's Bone

[macwilkin]

I cannot, unfortunately comment on the accuracy of the film's portrayal of life in the rural Ozarks like Todd can. However, I HAVE seen this film. We had a screening with some friends and it's certainly a very intense movie.

When it comes to movies like this, I hesitate to say that I LIKE them, as the subject matter is very brutal, the outcomes are not at all happy or positive, but quietly disturbing and disjointed. Much the same way, I cannot in good conscience say that I LIKED The Passion of the Christ (dir. Mel Gibson). It's a powerful movie and I'm not sorry to have seen it. But it's also the type of film I would hesitate to own on DVD. It's not something I would pop into the player on a Saturday night for entertainment purposes. Seems almost twisted and somehow masochistic to do so.

Having said that, some things should be seen at least once. If Winter's Bone truly IS comparable to the clan system of the Scottish Highlands, the portrayal would certainly not be a romantic one, but very brutal, full of senseless expressions of some indecipherable code of honour that outsiders cannot relate to or understand, and acts of violence done in the name of the family or clan. If such a parallel is true, then the film is accurate.

Cinematically speaking, this movie is brilliantly directed, and the actors were exceptional. It is fully deserving of the awards it has received at the Berlin Film Festival, Sundance, Toronto, etc...

It's generally getting good publicity in these parts; a number of local folks were involved in the production, and the local news media has been running a number of stories about the movie and the Oscars. As I said, I will hold my comments until I see it, but one point to make -- the film may very well be accurate. Meth is certainly a big problem around here, but not just in the rural areas -- occasionally a house in Springfield blows up or catches fire, and now we have mobile meth labs in vans. I even remember one that was clandestinely set up on the national park where I worked as a ranger.

Your description reminds me a lot of how I felt after watching "Hotel Rwanda". We own it on DVD, but it's not one I watch all the time.

T.