Spectatorship- Beasts of the southern Wild

Spectatorship and Ideology- Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild is set in a community living off the coast of South Louisiana. It shows a community full of eccentrics and outcasts through the POV of six-year-old Hushpuppy.

Audience expectations:

• Set in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina.
• Level of squalor and Lack of health and safety is shocking.
• Setting is timeless- contemporary props with historical costumes and other props.
• The giant party could be seen as medieval, or post-apocalyptic.
• Smoke-bleaching factories over the levee could be an image for future dystopia.
• Hushpuppy narration- reflects from the future and how shell be remembered in a thousand years.
• The film represents a community that challenges the dominant ideology of what is considered a safe, healthy lifestyle. Their existence could be described positively as libertarian and anarchistic. 

Magic Realism– This is a film where grittily realistic stories (often about people in poverty or oppressed) have miraculous or fantastical elements mixed in. Often the fabulous characters or events act as allegories for political conflict, and put real-world issues into an almost mythical context. It also often features characters with a ‘sensitivity’ to nature or supernatural, who can talk to animals, as feature in in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

The Aurochs—an extinct but real animals. 

Benh Zeitlin: They came from cave paintings I’d seen—Lascaux, Pech Merle, and a bunch of caves around there. Hushpuppy, sees herself as the last of her kind, on the verge of extinction.

• The Storm and the release of the aurochs from their icy prison are all connected to environmental change – we see clips of icebergs collapsing, and the water level created by the Levee after the Storm is a foreshadowing of when the sea levels rise. 

• The ‘ghost’ of Hushpuppy’s mother guides her as she makes food, showing how her mental processes manifest as ‘reality’. 


Encoding/ Decoding Responses: Hall’s theory 

Stuart Hall– classify three audience responses: Beasts of the Southern Wild 

● Preferred meaning: the Bathtub residents are “outlaws without committing crimes”; outcasts who have created a community of like-minded spirits to live apart from the hypocrisies of the modern world – “fish stuck in plastic, babies stuck in strollers” as Hushpuppy puts it. 


● Negotiated meaning: the community resembles the counter-cultures of the 60s and 70s, where free-spirited people lived “off grid” and created their own alternative to mainstream society. Unfortunately, many of these communities ended up attracting criminal or abusive people. If the adults of the Bathtub want to live like this, that’s fine, but it’s not a suitable environment for children. 


● Oppositional meaning: the Bathtub residents are (in words of LA Review of Books) “apolitical, individualist hedonists” that don’t represent what people from very poor underdeveloped communities are actually like. The film represents a romanticised and idealistic ‘pastoral’ fantasy of the filmmakers. 


Libertarian/ Anarchist Values:

Personal autonomy – live life as you want without interference from the State. 

Abolition of capitalism – communities run on ‘barter’ system. 

Distrust of authority – children home-schooled, hospitals, police. 

Personal identity – be who you are regardless of gender. 

Individual wealth and property – as well as the trappings of material success – are unimportant. 

Be tolerant of other people’s weaknesses – no-one is perfect. Let others go about their business without judgement 

Representation of Family:

• Hushpuppy and Wink’s family relationship is unorthodox.
• It isn’t clear who has moral authority or best judgment.
• Wink’s parental style is rough, tender, neglectful and loving- He teaches her hash lessons ‘how to be a beast’, which enables her to cope with the storm, the aftermaths and eventually Wink’s death. 

Key Elements of Film Form: 

Cinematography:

• 16mm handheld camera- gritty but colourful and always moving.
• Shots from the eye line level/ POV of Hushpuppy or the animals she interacts with- aligns us with her insight into the world.
• Enhanced camera movement- spectators may be unsettled by the swaying raucousness of the partygoers.
• Camera stills- Hushpuppy, showing in a longshot her comfortable, confident body language shows she feels secure at home and in her environment. 
• The camera circles around the table and group, as if we are one of them, and uses close ups of Hushpuppy.

Mise-en-scene:

• Crabs (props)- reflects both abundance and the natural world- Edenic view of nature that survived the flood. Feral nature of people as they tear the crabs from limb with no pretence, decorum or sympathy.
• Shellfish (props)- poured unceremoniously across the bar table and the dim lighting makes the room look dingy and dirty. 
• Knife (props) is discarded as Wink tears the crab with his bare hands as the crowd begin to chant. 
• Crab becomes a rite of passage for Hushpuppy- symbol of her ability to survive without the tools of civilisation. 

Editing:

• Match-cuts- between close ups of the crabs, her reactions and Wink watching. 
• Shows his care and concern for her and his dedication to prepare her to live without him when he dies.
• Cuts between static shots of faces from Hushpuppy’s POV- Wink tells Hushpuppy to ‘beast it’ – becomes an initiation ritual. 
• Camera cuts speed up until she breaks open the crab in triumph feasting and climbing on the table- climatic excitement. 

Sound:

• Celebratory mood. 
• Miss Bathsheedba (teacher) sounds concerned about the floodwaters and the practicalities of the community surviving.
• ‘Beasting of the crab’- ritual/ tribal atmosphere.
• Chanting intensifies the atmosphere and turns the scene into a moment of Hushpuppy’s significance.
• Screams of victory- characters celebration and pride in their community.

QUESTIONS:

Having watched this webcast, think about how you can apply the concepts of ‘Character Engagement’, ‘Look’, ‘repeat viewing’ and ‘Passive and Active viewers’ to Beasts of the southern Wild:

• Why might we ‘side’ with Hushpuppy? Why might our judgements of Wink change across the narrative of the film?

Due to the alignment of the film, as we see the world from Hushpuppy’s POV, we are instantly shown to sympathise with Hushpuppy. However, our judgment of Wink may change throughout the narrative. At the start Wink is seen as a tough and quite forceful, but protective parent, however this changes towards the end as he appears ill and finally pens up to Hushpuppy about his emotions in a not so masculine fashion as he has shown to portrayed through the film. This means we feel more sympathetic for not only Wink, but experience Hushpuppy’s loss after her father dies.

• How are point of view shots used to direct our understanding of events in the film?

From the POV of Hushpuppy, as spectators we are given an insight to the world viewed from a six-year old’s perspective, even though the events of this film could be seen to reflect Hushpuppy’s maturity and strong emotional understanding. This also crates a common ground for anyone watching the film as we were all once that young and gives the audience something that everyone watching can relate to no matter what background or cultural believes you are from or have. 

• Why might some of us be drawn to watching this film over and again? How might the messages and events of the film resonate with someone who lives in Worthing? What is the emotional ‘draw’ – if there is one?

I believe the main theme/ message that resonates with most people is the idea of community and a tight-knit group of people who differ to the ‘typical’ beliefs of modern day and the new urban development of society. The emotional draw is the feeling of togetherness and this sense of community.

• Whilst the film form directs out responses through use of juxtaposing edits, point of view shots and emotive music, encouraging a passive response to the film, there are other times when we might quickly shift to an ‘active’ viewer position: Why is this? When does it happen? Might this be an intention of the director? What are the outcomes of shifting the viewing into an active position?

Another element that could encourage a passive response to the film is hegemony. This shows the community and cultural values that are represented in the bathtub as dominant and suggests their cultural views are correct and not to question, however unique and unorthodox they are. This happens as Wink shows Hushpuppy how to eat the crab, appearing as a type of rite of passage of ritual within their isolated and closed-off environment and culture. The outcomes of shifting the viewing into an active position could be to provoke meaning and response/ emotions to heighten the emotional connection and alignment between the characters and spectator, showing how the audience will find a way to relate to the film with their own experiences which is known as the cognitive theory.