Beasts of the Southern Wild is an adaptation from Lucy Alibar’s play ‘Juicy and Delicious.’ The film was released in June 2012 after premiering at many film festivals. Upon release the films met with commercial success and critics acclaim due to the filmmaking as well as Wallis’s performance. Additionally, the film was nominated for 4 academy awards with the categories of ‘Best Picture, Best Director (Benh Zeitlin), Best Adapted Screenplay(Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin), and Best Actress (Quvenzhané Wallis).’ Wallis is the youngest ‘best actress’ nominee at age 9.
The film follows the Bathtub community is south Louisiana which is cut off from the world. The film’s protagonist is Hushpuppy, a young girl with aspirations of fending for herself which is contrasted with her clear need for her fathers affection. Wink (Hushpuppy’s father) is often hot tempered but is still aspirational about the future despite his deteriorating health throughout the majority of the film.
An underlying sub-plot is the aurochs which will be released due to the meting of the ice-caps. Throughout the film the audience learns more about the creatures with the initial information coming from the teacher that explains the origins of the ‘beast.’ Furthermore, the audience is shown creatures within the icebergs and the ice melting showing the prominent threat of the aurochs. Once the ice has gone the creatures start their journey towards Southern Louisiana showing them eating the weak in the herd for survival.
This constant migration of the creatures toward Hushpuppy and her community can be shown to represent the inevitable death of her father coming forwards towards Hushpuppy throughout the film. This is shown throughout as the film as the closer the creatures get, the worse Wink’s condition becomes. They could also be shown to represent natures return to the earth which links to the theme of global warming causing the icebergs to melt and additionally linking to the natural community of the bathtub residents. Additionally, they could represent the devastation that the Western world has caused due to global warming and the effects of this, and the immoral act of this is depicted through the ‘beasts.’
There are also strong themes of masculinity throughout the film shown by Hushpuppy’s desire to act masculine in order to prove herself. There is masculine imagery of her flexing her biceps, as well as aggressively screaming, fighting and breaking the crab in order to prove herself. This theme is present throughout most of the film, including when they’re on the boat as Hushpuppy is the final one to show affection to the women on board and only does so when it’s hinted to the audience that one of the women is her mother.
Another theme which is present throughout the theme is that of Hushpuppy’s desire for affection which is shown in the scene where she is lifted by the woman on the boat and the audience is informed that Hushpuppy can only recall being lifted twice showing her desire for affection. Moreover, Hushpuppy burnt down her house so that she could live with her father showing her pursuit for attention and affection.
The performance of both Wallis and Henry adds to the story line as the tension and change in their relationship throughout the film aids the progression of the plot and allows the audience to engage and relate with the characters.
In conclusion, Beasts of the Southern Wild effectively fulfils its genre expectations of a fantasy and drama which is presented through the relationship between the daughter and father, fulfilling the drama expectations and the creatures fulfilling the fantasy genre expectations.
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