The Rednecks #domdemilo

Winter’s Bone Dir. Debra Granik

Jennifer Lawrence (Ree Dolly), John Hawkes (Teardrop), Garret Dillahunt (Sheriff Baskins), Dale Dickey (Merab)

Roadshow Pictures, 2010.

Debra Ganik’s 2010 film Winter’s Bone entails a family who is broken. Jennifer Lawrence (Ree Dolly) lives in the typical “backwoods” “redneck” town with her two younger siblings and her sick mother. Her father is absent from the film because he is supposedly either dead, or in prison for allegedly cooking up crack and methamphetamine. Instead the father figure in her life is her uncle who is commonly known as “teardrop.” Now teardrop might seem like the father figure in Ree’s life, because he is the only older man who she can go to if she needs help, but he does not portray a sincere and loving father figure. At the beginning of this movie, teardrop advised Ree to not go out and ask people if they know her father’s whereabouts, but she did not listen. From beginning to end, Ree does everything she could to protect her brother and sister.

One day, as Ree was outside in the front yard, she was approached by a sheriff who came to inform her that if she could not find her father or prove that he was dead, her family’s house would be put on the market. Ree would not back down; she had to do everything to save her family. She did everything alright. Ree went through hell and back along her journey to find her father’s remains. She went to a woman Merab who was her cousin, and asked to talked to her husband who advised her to stay away from the property, or else there would be trouble. She followed her orders and went home. Later on, Ree’s cousin came to talk to her, and he told her that if they did in fact lose the house he would take one of her siblings in, and their other cousin would take the other. Ree hated the idea, and voiced her displeasure, and then continued on her journey of desperation. Ree eventually went back to Merab’s property. She was met by her and her sisters who hit her in the face with some type of sharp object, and stomped on her once she fell to the ground. All the sisters took the bloodied Ree into their garage where the whole family gathered to talk with her.

Someone came to rescue Ree and take her home. Surprisingly that person was Teardrop, the man who swore at her and smacked her in the beginning of the movie. At this point in the movie, everyone knew that Jessup (Ree’s father) was dead, and teardrop told her that if she finds out who killed her father, not to tell him because that would infuriate him, and he would then kill his brother’s assassin. I could see Teardrop doing this, because he was stopped by a cop with Ree in the car, and when the cop approached the vehicle teardrop had his gun ready to shoot. In short, teardrop was a savage, and gave no f****; when it came to his family, he had their back.

Time was money, and Ree knew that she had to find her father’s bones in order to save the house. Merab and her sisters –the ones who previously beat Ree–  scame to the house and said they would take her to where the father’s bones were. They took her to a deeply wooded area, that had a lake in the middle of it. Ree then found where her father’s body was and cut off both of his hands. Within 24 hours Ree went to sheriffs office to prove to that her father was dead.

Ree’s mission was a success, and the family was allowed to remain in their house. In addition, the sheriff told her that when Jessup was in jail someone paid off part of his bond, and that the leftover bond money was now Ree’s to use to support her family. Although we did not find out who the father’s killer was, I believe it was Merab’s husband. The first time Ree went to the house, Merab immediately pushed her away. Then, when she was brought to the garage, he was the first one to say “I do not want to be here when he gets here.” He was referring to Teardrop. You can assume that he does not want any contact with teardrop, because if he killed him and teardrop found out, well he is dead meat.
Throughout the movie, Ree was portrayed as the "female protagonist." She acted as the father like figure for her siblings, and she would not let them or herself down. Ree did let her ego over power her along the way though. She was often very arrogant, cocky, and did not think before she spoke. This is why she fell into trouble with both Teardrop and Merab. I would definitely recommend this film to someone, because at first, it might not seem like an intriguing watch, the action did come around. You also learn a valuable lesson from this film: do not let your ego speak for itself.