Beasts of the Southern Wild

I hadn't heard all that much about this film before I watched it, the other day. I hadn't even seen the trailer, however I did read one synopsis of the film that described it as a more intelligent Waterworld. When Waterworld was released in 1995 it was given the title of being the most expensive production ever made. It's returns at the box office didnt match the amount spent to make it and the reviews told a decidedly more tragic tale. 'Beasts of the Southern Wild', on the otherhand, used a budget of 1.2 million dollars to produce a far more profound, far more aware film. Without a bevy of special effects the film is able to create a far more ominous warning about the state of our planet.

I see this film as succeeding in doing what many other films have sought to do yet failed. In Avatar we get the allegory of a race of people who live in harmony with nature while the humans plunder and purge their planet of natural resources. Apart from the obvious laughable point of their main natural resource being named 'unobtainium', the allegory was too far from home. The film was too sentimental and sickeningly preachy, despite the fact that this extremely big budget production could not seriously have been all that green.

'Beasts of the Southern Wild' differs in that it focuses on one community, one family, one child and one story. Hush Puppy is a young girl living in a fictional community in Louisiana, USA called The Bathtub. The time is not clear but this world is so closely related to ours that it could be ten years from now, maybe two, maybe even now. This community lives cut off from the 'civilised' world of factories, supermarkets, highways. They live in excess when there is plenty, they live frugally when nature is not giving much. They all live with the awareness that the polar ice caps are melting, meaning the tide will rise and eventually swallow up their community and everything they know and love. The film centres not only around this realisation but also around the relationship between Hush Puppy and her father, Wink, who is dying of an unnamed illness. Wink tries to get Hush Puppy ready for when he's not around and she will have to fend for herself. In this we see the most primal of relationships between parent and child. The fight for survival, that occurs in nature.

The film, itself is beautiful. I haven't been so moved by a film in a long time. The cast of non-actors fill the screen with raw emotion and the music aids the mood and tone of the film at every turn. By far the best thing about the film is the sweet, defiant and strong narration by Hush Puppie. Seeing this world through a child's eyes gives incredible insight into an issue that too often goes over people's heads. What I enjoy about this film is that while it does give us a view of where our planet is headed, it's not self-righteous nor preachy about it. But tells us that we have lost touch with our purpose as a planet, we've lost touch with our role in the functioing of the world in which we live.