The American Spectator : Winter's Bone

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Winter's Bone

By James Bowman on 7.1.10 @ 6:02AM

This dark, somber, well-made film offers a woman's perspective on the patriarchal honor culture of the Missouri Ozarks.

First let me say that I liked Winter's Bone, the adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's novel of the same name by Debra Granik, who directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Anne Rosellini, though I thought it needn't have been so somber and depressing as it was. This was because the tone was not quite rightly judged, I think. Essentially, the movie gives us a woman's -- if not quite an explicitly feminist -- perspective on what is represented, probably with some accuracy, as the patriarchal male honor culture of the Missouri Ozarks. But the result is almost unremittingly grim and miserable and so runs the risk of compromising that accuracy by making it look too much like a feminist caricature. Although I have no idea of Ms. Granik's political views, she could hardly have made a movie more dark and depressing if she occupied an honored place among the sternest sort of that's-not-funny! feminists.

There are some rather half-hearted attempts in the movie to lighten this darkness. In one or two scenes we see these wild mountain men forget their propensity for violence long enough to engage in music-making along with the women who, for the moment, cease looking depressed and resentful of their lot in life. But these scenes are not enough to add any significant shading of gray to an otherwise starkly black-and-white representation of this bleak and frightening world. The mountain-man's honor culture is doubtless a throwback and considerably debased from the time -- only seventy years or so ago, as you can see from Howard Hawks's Sergeant York of 1941 -- when it bore some relation to a national honor culture, but even today it would be an exaggeration to say that either the women or the men are prisoners of their ancient habits of clannishness and deference to paternal authority. The patriarchy could not have held on for so many centuries if it were the tyranny the feminists believe it to be. There must be good as well as bad in it.

There is a hint of this good, too, in the pride Ms. Granik's heroine, 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), takes in her family's honor when a bail bondsman (Tate Taylor) appears at her door to tell her that her father, Jessup, charged with "cooking" methamphetamines, has put their house up as bail and then disappeared. If he doesn't show up for his trial, she is told, she, her mother and siblings will lose their home. Ree, who has no income and whose mother is non compos mentis, is the only person able to look after her younger brother (Isaiah Stone) and sister (Ashlee Thompson). Yet she has not the slightest doubt that her father must be dead or he would have showed up. "I'm a Dolly, bred and buttered, and that's how I know he's dead," she confidently says.

She is thus appealing to the same standard of honor of which she immediately becomes the victim. For when she turns for help in finding her father -- or his body -- to a succession of friends and relatives with little success, all assure her that there are powerful forces engaged in his disappearance, and she were best to shut up about it and submit to her fate. Gradually, we learn that Jessup has committed the unpardonable sin in this harsh and unforgiving world based on honor. He has informed on his fellow drug-manufacturers, including members of his own extended family, rather than go to jail. As Ree's uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes) informs her, "He loved you all. That's why he went weak."

There, I think, the film puts a foot wrong. It seems most unlikely that, for some bizarre but unspecified reason, Jessup would have thought he could somehow escape the inevitable retribution that everyone else in the movie automatically assumes is the lot of the snitch. In real life, if he had put love for his family first he would have known that they would be better taken care of if he had gone to jail and kept his mouth shut. That, much more than the murder or intimidation of witnesses, is why it is always so hard to get a conviction in these honor-based family businesses. All the same, I think it worth looking past this false rendering if you are fully to appreciate what the movie has to offer.

This is mainly its portrait of Ree, who is one of the most impressive female characters to be seen in the movies in recent years. She is heroic and yet entirely believable partly because she is not given to political preachments or judgments against the society in which she lives. Ree would not have been believable as a feminist revolutionary; instead, she is simply -- simply! -- a brave and determined young woman trying to keep her home and her family together in a world neither she nor we can imagine being other than it is. In doing so, she has to stand up to the hostility of the family patriarch, "Thump" Milton (Ronnie Hall), and the many other family members -- including, at first, even her Uncle Teardrop -- who are terrified of him and so win his and their grudging acceptance.

Teardrop is ultimately inspired by her example to his own possibly fatal defiance of the family code of honor and so helps to bring about a compromise solution to the problem of what is to be done about Jessup's family, albeit one involving yet more horror for Ree. Yet in some ways I think the movie would have been better if her singular bravery and strength of character had been just a little less singular and a little more like that of the honorable society as she imagines it to be when she explains her scarcely believable actions by repeating to the bail bondsman at the end that she is a Dolly "bred and buttered, like I told you."

About the Author

James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (44) | Leave a comment

Bill| 7.1.10 @ 9:27AM

"Bread and buttered," a meaningless phrase instead of "born and bred," the phrase that obviously "inspired" some screenwriter?

I've never heard the former phrase. I bet it's made up.

Sandra| 7.1.10 @ 10:18AM

Bill's correct, the phrase is "born and bred" or "bred and born" Then again, the book writer got lots of things wrong, and the screenplay only continued that trend.

Wolfburg| 1.16.11 @ 10:01PM

Well Sandra he got a lot more things right than wrong.

James| 7.1.10 @ 10:53AM

You have got to be kidding. I've lived in the Ozarks for almost 40 years and have never seen any behavior like the drivel relayed in this article. There are no "clans" in the Missouri Ozarks: it's a fully commercialized tourist trap for boating, camping, and fishing. Believe it or not we actually have running water and flush toilets in our houses. What a pathetic farce.

Dawn| 7.1.10 @ 12:30PM

Totally agree James, as a fellow Missouri Ozarks resident. Hey, we even have high-speed internet and 'lectricity too!

JS| 7.1.10 @ 1:19PM

The people who write this tripe are of the same ilk that think they need so called third-world-country shots to go to a NASCAR race. They think we Texans still ride horses to school (I know some who do) and still have indian attacks. They are truly clueless.

A. Bellows| 7.16.10 @ 3:10PM

I agree wholeheartedly James. While I'm a Michigan resident, I've visited the Ozarks many times and have never seen the type of behavior portrayed in this book or film.

Powell| 8.3.10 @ 1:59PM

Correction: You have lived in one or two or three places in the Ozarks for almost 40 years. I have lived there too. Have I seen characters like this? No. Does that mean they don't exist? No. If you rule out the possibility of this kind of society existing simply because you haven't been exposed to it, you are geographically and intellectually insular. This was a great movie.

Wolfburg| 1.16.11 @ 9:45PM

I don't know where you live in the Ozarks James but I have been here for 40 years also (much to my regret) and the movie is an accurate depiction of "Ozark Mountain" culture. In my job I have visited many homes and encountered many people as dark, threatening and menacing as depicted in the movie. I have learned to survive by understanding and accepting their culture but it is what it is and the movie did a great job of depicting the reality of the Ozark Backwoods.

Robbins Mitchell| 7.1.10 @ 4:04PM

Evidently the only concession this film makes to modernity is that Jessup was cooking up meth instead of making 'shine....everything else about it sounds contrived

Wolfburg| 1.16.11 @ 9:47PM

Believe me it's not contrived. If you want I can take you to many places just like that depicted in the movie - if you have the stomach for it.

Bilwick| 7.1.10 @ 4:53PM

Doesn't sound like a movie I'd want to see.

Less'n, of course, if it has some hot cousin-on-cousin hillbilly lovin'! Yee-haw!

Wemedge| 7.3.10 @ 5:23AM

From the ever informative Wikipedia:
"(film maker) Granik was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C. She received her B.A. from Brandeis University in 1985, where she majored in politics. She later earned an MFA from the graduate film program at New York University (Tisch School of the Arts)."

Nuff said.

Trebuchet| 7.3.10 @ 10:07AM

"Missouri Ozark Male Honor Culture"? What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports are you talking about. It's a movie about Tweekers.

Annie| 7.3.10 @ 11:55PM

I was born and reared in the Ozarks--my ancestors have been Missourians since at least the early 1800's. The movie was filmed in SW MO because the area written about (southern MO) was a bit hostile to the idea. I don't know about the others, but this does happen, even in the towns around here, not just the remote areas. In many parts it is a male-dominated society. Missouri is the meth capital of the US. Poverty is pervasive. But I guess it is easier to say the movie is a farce than to actually check the facts or be familiar with the area (not just the tourist strip). The locals had a lot of input to make sure it rang true (like cooking fried taters instead of grits). Ok--I've never heard the term, "bred and buttered," but it can vary by town or county. The movie is multifaceted--not just about Tweekers, poverty, hill folk. I enjoyed it. I plan on seeing it a third time, getting the DVD to see the cut scenes, continuing to discuss it in depth with those who "get it"--mostly those who live in this area.

Ian| 7.25.10 @ 12:29AM

Amen

Julie Brinkhoff| 8.4.10 @ 2:14PM

I, too, grew up near the Ozarks (SW MO) and can confirm that these conditions do exist in pockets of the area. There is a lot of poverty and, when combined with meth, creates exactly what you see in this movie. A "meth/poverty culture" has definitely taken hold. It's interesting (at least to me) that so many posters can't/won't believe this is movie is realistic. Your thoughts?

Wolfburg| 1.16.11 @ 9:49PM

You are right on Annie. Not all here are as depicted in the movies but they are here and in no small number.

jonathan fultruth| 7.13.10 @ 11:21AM

Your reviewer must have really been on his politically correct horse when he wrote this political screed. "The patriarchy could not have held on for so many centuries if it were the tyranny the feminists believe it to be. There must be good as well as bad in it."? (By the way, what good do you think there is in that culture, espically for women?) Ever hear of fundamentalist Islam? Ever hear of the Christian church? Ever hear of orthodox Judaica? Ever hear of the first 1900 years of Euro-culture?
And to hold up the obvious WWII political propaganda of Sgt York as a measure of truth, come on!
And that's not to mention your stereotypical use of "humorless" feminists as a straw person.
You ignore several hundred years of history when your politics require you to deny the continued poverty, oppressiveness and utter degradation of of life in much of the rural US.

Doug| 12.16.10 @ 6:08PM

Just for the record, the story of Sgt. York was about WWI, not WWII.

Grady Lee Howard| 7.14.10 @ 1:47PM

I didn't even know Sheryl Lee could run a chainsaw, let alone cut off a dead guy's hands while standing in a jon boat. These scenes suggest Ozark women in drug cults dispose of the snitchers' bodies. (Stihl is the best chainsaw.) Sheryl has come a long way since Twin peaks, and is definitely on that Carrie Snodgrass road. Everyone ages, but not all with so much courage. Playacting ain't that easy, in the Ozarks or downtown Burbank.

jay| 7.21.10 @ 10:03AM

that character isn't sheryl lee...sheryl lee plays the woman jessup was having an affair with.

Doug| 12.16.10 @ 6:06PM

The woman with the chainsaw was played by Dale Dickey, not Sheryl Lee.

Grady Lee Howard| 7.14.10 @ 1:55PM

I'm a Howard "bread and buttered".... common adage in upstate western S.C. to southern Virginia Blue Ridge, especially in Elk Park, N.C. They continue to crop grown dogs' tail and ears there right on the chopping block in the backyard. America has a sadistic cruel underbelly everyone denies. (Axes, not chainsaws.) See Wikileaks helicopter footage of cannon slaughter of Iraqi civilians (2 kids included) and Reuters journalists.
Our military seems particularly drawn to journalists, maybe because filmmakers avoid war zones.

Brian Clarke| 7.21.10 @ 10:25PM

The folks depicted in this film are the sophisticated ones. You should see the others. You should see the ones they ran out of the Ozarks and who now live in Jeff County near St. Louis. Real?? You betcha!

Harold| 10.10.10 @ 12:20AM

amen!

Jeffrey| 7.25.10 @ 8:17PM

The original novel's author (Daniel Wodrell) was born, raised and currently resides in the Ozarks. I have traveled to and worked in some astonishly diverse areas of this country, and have never ceased to be amazed at the varieties of cultures that live within a stone's throw of each other, but never intersect. There are people who live in Los Angeles, who have never been to the beach or seen the ocean -- even though it's less than ten miles from where they live. Folks, please don't write in stating that just because you haven't seen something means that it doesn't exist. You only reveal your own particular parochialisms.

Kareberg| 7.26.10 @ 12:37AM

Excellent point, Jeffrey!

Chuck Tibbs| 7.27.10 @ 1:54PM

Jeffrey hit it. There are people living in six an seven figure homes in southeast and southwest Pierce County Washington, also Kitsap and Mason Counties, an easy drive to the state capitol or Seattle, who don't know or would deny what the neighbors are up to. Snuffy Smith, the moonshiner distilled 'shine in the comics then grew pot, peddled powder, heroin and probably crack and cooks meth. Notice the resemblance between the leader of the pack and Little Abner's mammy? In the real world it ain't funny. I've heard recently that there is still (or again) a moonshine industry in the foothills east of Seattle. There is a dangerous world a few miles from the tourist town of Gig Harbor. Or the tourist towns of southwest Missouri. A person can be killed for being too curious or too talkative. It's as true out in the country as it is Hell's Kitchen or Little Italy. This is a story about a seventeen girl trying to find her way through this snakepit. No, it isn't funny. There are no light moments. Hell of a film.

ann Glynn| 8.2.10 @ 12:53AM

It was a great film. Mysogeny seems universal.

Dale B. Hallling| 8.9.10 @ 4:27PM

I think the article is wrong. This is not a story about the oppression of women, but about despair. Humans are weak and evil and success and heroism are fantasies. Because people are weak and evil all that is left to do is fall into despair - or perhaps some benevolent dictator will ensure we do not descend into total chaos.

While it might be possible to find some isolated cases in Missouri of people like those portrayed in this movie, the same could be said of Washington DC, Los Angels, Houston or anywhere else you look. If the movie’s location had been any of these locations, the point of the movie would have been the same – people are weak and evil and resignation and despair are only rational choice.

This movie was worse than bad it is evil.

Keith| 8.12.10 @ 10:30PM

Have read the book and have seen the movie. Also sat in on a book club discussion led by a Missouri State University English Lit professor who grew up in Arkansas. A member of the club grew up in Tennessee and both individuals can attest to the way of life depicted in the story. Further, Missouri is known as the meth capital of the US, especially in the southern part of the state. I can personally attest to having seen home sites that are shown in the movie. I also have a friend who is a Ph.D psychologist who deals with these kinds of people at a local hospital in southern Missouri. For those of you who think this is a contrived story, you need to get off of the main roads in Christian and Taney Counties and also south of West Plains, Missouri toward the Arkansas border. The clan mentality depicted in the movie is a lingering culture from the Scots-Irish clans that migrated to the US in the 18th century and came down into Tennessee and Kentucky and into the Ozarks in southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas. They are still there and they are real.

Wolfburg| 1.16.11 @ 9:56PM

Dale, it is a depiction of the truth. The movie is not evil. It is a depiction of evil. The evil exists because it exists not because it depicts a reality. If you don't believe the reality exists you are entitled to your own opinion but don't kill the messenger.

Darrell Todd Maurina| 9.2.10 @ 3:48PM

I'm a reporter in the Ozarks who ran across this review because I'm doing some unrelated research on some of the other activities of key people involved in making this movie. (And don't hold my profession against me -- I'm a hard-right conservative and have been ever since my days volunteering for Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, back when most Republicans thought he could never win the Republican nomination.)

I don't want to get into whether this movie is a feminist pot-shot at the Ozarks; it may be. But for the people who say a patriarchal rural Ozark honor culture doesn't exist in the Ozarks -- they need to go take a look at our county's court docket.

Meth cooks have taken an older tradition of lawlessness and anti-government attitudes that dates back at least to the moonshiners and have turned it into an even uglier reality that is destroying families much more than "demon rum" ever did. I've lived in inner-city environments before, and the generational poverty, children raising children, and drug abuse is just as bad in the backwoods of Missouri as I ever saw in major cities. The big difference is that extended families tend to live in the same areas for generations and don't cooperate with "outsiders" real well, so local law enforcement born or at least raised in the county are usually the only people who can get through to the local criminal element.

Branson is a nice place to visit, but it does not reflect the reality of what exists outside the glitter and glitz of tourist towns in the Ozarks.

Ace| 9.3.10 @ 4:21PM

Good comment. I especially liked that you described yourself as a"reporter" and not a "journalist". More authentic... to me anyway.

rpdc1| 1.16.11 @ 9:58PM

As one who has lived in the area for 40 years, I can attest that yours is a true and accurate "report".

rufus swan| 10.18.10 @ 9:40PM

Interesting discussion. I tried to read the book, but could not accept the author's printed dialect, although the plot synopsis was sound for this day and age.

I can verify that the movie was 'spot on' as most was filmed within a short walk from my house, and kudos to Debra for taking some direction from the locals for true authenticity. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the movie, felt the look, feel, and intent although dark, was about as true and honest as it gets.

We who live here enjoyed being part of it and don't feel sullied by its message. The diatribe of the reviewer above may play well in his circles he would be at risk of having his ............ down in our neighborhood.

larry | 10.30.10 @ 4:53AM

see the movie. simply put........AWESOME!!!!!!

Beth| 12.15.10 @ 3:22PM

The film was very well done and I really enjoyed it a lot. But -- Daniel Woodrell's novel Winter's Bone is even better! It's a quick read that absolutely pulls you into that world. He's a fabulous novelist. The man has a way with words...

Micah| 1.5.11 @ 2:21PM

I am glad to see the debate continuing over this movie, imo the best of the year, and one of the best of all time.

Having said that, I would refer to Ree as a Survivalist as opposed to a Femnist.

People may want to debate whether such a society exists and that question is answered by Debra Granik, who actually retained a "Guide" in the form of Ron "Stray Dog" Hall and the Layson family,,,,both referred to in Erin Trahans excellent article in the Boston Globe about Ms.Granik and the production.

As for family values/ bonds I tend to believe Jessup broke down from the pressure, perhaps he made a big deal that he couldnt deliver to people he didnt know too well and got caught then betrayed. Being under the influence of such anyway, one has to guess that he wasnt of a clear mind to begin with.

I believe Teardrop knew that Thump Milton arranged for the Jessup killing, and was ready to kill anyone blood or not, who would blow their cover.

That was Teardrops own torture to have to carry around, and his own fear of Thump which seemed to have lifted by the end of the film. He drove away angry, seemingly on a mission he had started the night before by bashing one of their trucks, then standing up to the officer.

The problem I had with the ending is that while Ree did "triumph" , she still had no real way to raise the family by herself with her father no longer in business.

The fantastic book by Woodrell has Ree with a job offer at the end, but the movie, while ending wonderfully, still had a lot of future doubt facing the family unless of course, Ree would then choose to join the existing "family business" .

Heres hoping justice is served for Debra Granik, and the entire cast of this heartfelt, and real movie. I dont think that the residents of the Ozarks have much to be ashamed about here. There are poor communities everywhere with similar tragic stories happening daily.

Micah| 1.5.11 @ 7:51PM

PS - Sorry for the misspellings. I truly need to find my eyeglasses more often,,, prior to typing.

Steve| 2.17.11 @ 2:34AM

Mr. Bowman's "feminist" viewpoint seems mired in one or two high-profile characters; most of the female roles are starkly realistic and non-feminist.

Steve | 2.17.11 @ 2:52AM

My apologies for double-dipping. I am compelled however tofurther submit the following:

1. In refrerence to, 'Yet she has not the slightest doubt that her father must be dead or he would have showed up. "I'm a Dolly, bred and buttered, and that's how I know he's dead," she confidently says.'

I am sorry to be the one to break it to you, but she said that in order to defuse the legal authorities. She had not yet determined if her was dead.

2. In reference to, 'There, I think, the film puts a foot wrong. It seems most unlikely that, for some bizarre but unspecified reason, Jessup would have thought he could somehow escape the inevitable retribution that everyone else in the movie automatically assumes is the lot of the snitch.'

You seem to have no research into ancient Ozark family hierarchy. Jessup was the patriarch. Highly decorated and all-powerful. The concept as presented was correct. Your lack of research is the flaw.

I will let it go at two. Suffice to say that Mr. Bowman's take is Hollywoodesque formulaic and shallow. Life, Mr. Bowman, does not follow educated formula, and I dare suggest that if you spent one winter in the high Ozarks you would succumb to over-consumption of crow.

Ozark Teacher| 1.19.12 @ 12:18AM

I am a life-long resident of the southeast Ozark region. I read Winter's Bone because I was curious to see how my culture was portrayed in modern literature. The content did not shame nor shock me. I understand that this is a work of fiction, with supernatural elements commonly found in Southern Gothic literature. I appreciated the Mr. Woodrell's work.

I especially appreciated Ree Dolley. Ozark women are a throwback to the Native American women that use to populate this area. The women I know, including myself, raise the children, clean the house, mow the grass, cook the food, and make sure their children are at church on Sunday. Men excel at hunting and drinking beer. Ree Dolley's survivalist instincts are a product of her culture.

For people who are unfamiliar with the Ozarks, please do not confuse the mountain culture depicted in this novel with "Lake of the Ozark's" or Branson. I live in impoverished, rural, and isolated mountain region. I am a teacher in a small, impoverished, rural school. I see things that make me cry at night. I had a little girl suddenly become bald on the top of her head, her parents had used kerosene to rid her of lice. Our parents often have no jobs, no teeth, and no hope for a better life because of a lack of job opportunities. Our high school graduates see college as a waste of time because the only people they know with degrees are teachers. Degrees aren't needed to work at gas stations, banks, grocery stores, home health, or the construction industry.

But twined with this bleakness is the unparalleled beauty of the Ozark Mountains and its people. Resourceful people with strong family bonds. Land that shelters, isolates, and yet invites. Thank you Mr. Woodrell for capturing the mystique of this area.