Beasts of the Southern Wild
Starring: Quvenzane Wells, Dwight Henry, Gena Montana.
Directed by: Benh Zeitlin.
Continuing from Alien, Crooklyn, and Winter's Bone, this film continues the idiom of strong female protagonists. This film concerns a six-year-old girl and her father in a post-Katrina Louisiana bayou. Wink (played by Dwight Henry) is the father to Hushpuppy and is struggling with health and anger issues, and when he comes down with a mysterious illness, nature goes out of control: temperatures rise, animals die, ice caps melt, and pre-historic creatures come back to life. Critically, I really liked the film's cinematography, acting, and great line in the beginning of the film; I also, however, felt that the film's pacing was a little too fast and threw the film off -- at least, to my point-of-view. I felt the film a little hard to understand and take in at times, but I still really liked it and I see the film's purpose and place.
Essentially, what makes Hushpuppy a strong female protagonist is her father's tough love and her willingness to find her mother. Her father can easily come off as abusive, uncaring, and short-tempered, which is correct to some degree; however, it is Wink's tough love that prepares Hushpuppy to go out into the real world. This is symbolized by the aforementioned symbolism of the climate changing and the pre-historic beasts coming back from the dead that describes Hushpuppy's transition into the real world. Furthermore, there are pieces of dialogue from Bathsheba (Gena Montana) about the climate changing and the south side of the levee sinking; this also gives a good description of Hushpuppy's transition, warning her that she is gonna see bad and deadly things -- this, to me, represents the rough transition from childhood to adulthood. Wink's parenting is extreme, but can be explained as preparing Hushpuppy for the real world, therefore making her a strong female lead. In conclusion, I hope Wink earned the father-of-the-year award!
Essentially, what makes Hushpuppy a strong female protagonist is her father's tough love and her willingness to find her mother. Her father can easily come off as abusive, uncaring, and short-tempered, which is correct to some degree; however, it is Wink's tough love that prepares Hushpuppy to go out into the real world. This is symbolized by the aforementioned symbolism of the climate changing and the pre-historic beasts coming back from the dead that describes Hushpuppy's transition into the real world. Furthermore, there are pieces of dialogue from Bathsheba (Gena Montana) about the climate changing and the south side of the levee sinking; this also gives a good description of Hushpuppy's transition, warning her that she is gonna see bad and deadly things -- this, to me, represents the rough transition from childhood to adulthood. Wink's parenting is extreme, but can be explained as preparing Hushpuppy for the real world, therefore making her a strong female lead. In conclusion, I hope Wink earned the father-of-the-year award!
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