Winter's Bone (Granik, 2010)

• A highly evocative independently produced

  film that offers arresting visual images that

  shift from the mundane to the mythical. An

  interesting take on a quest narrative that remains

  true to its intentions. Much to analyse in terms

  of representations of communities and gender.

  The story of Ree, a 17 year old who must

  track down her meth-addicted father who has

  skipped bail before the bondsman repossesses

  the family homestead and timber acres to pay

  off his debt. Set in the unforgiving landscape

  of the Ozark mountains in Missouri, USA.
• Cinematography

  • McDonough’s camera, not entirely settled,

  gently shifting the frame and often more

  overtly peering around the corner, nosing

  into rooms or over a character’s shoulder.

  • Use of selective focus allows for all kind

  of rich details to emerge at the surface

  even when the camera isn’t moving.

  • Shot on RED cameras. 95% of filming

  is on hand held cameras building a

  scene from single perspectives
• Mise-en-Scène

  • On location shooting in the Ozarks, landscape

  dominates. A cool frostbitten authenticity of

  winter combined with a beautiful bleakness of

  disintegrating landscapes. Local people cast

  in supporting roles with costumes sourced

  from real people. The presence of woodland

  reminds spectators of the key themes – the

  relevance of timber to this community as both a

  commodity and the ‘larder’ that provides food.

  • A generally cool colour palette with

  flashes of vibrant or more expressionist

  colour at points of high emotion.

  • Real/found locations e.g. the burnt out

  meth house.
• Editing

  • Events take place over one week. Time

  is compressed in the first third and often

  feels repetitive and real. Later scenes mix

  dream and impressionistic moments in more heady and overlapping images. Long takes provide authenticity. Wipes and invisible editing.
• Sound

  • Reclaims traditional music to challenge the

  negative ‘hill billy/deliverance’ knee jerk

  reaction to any narrative that dramatizes the

  lives of impoverished rural communities.

  The sound track and musical performances

  are achingly melancholic but affirm and

  validate the lives of marginal characters.

  • Sections of ‘empty’ soundtrack that reinforce

  Ree’s seemingly repetitive trudge to find

  someone who will lead her to her father. Limited

  non diegetic sound to give a realist tone.

  • Shifts from quiet talking to loud screams.
• Representations

  • In part a revisionist assessment of the

  ‘hillbilly’ stereotype in rural communities.

  • Strong female lead role. Ree is both a

  maternal figure to her siblings and the

  key active character who drives the

  narrative in her quest to find her father.

  • Supporting female roles offer a strong

  representation of women as resourceful,

  stoic and problem solvers in the

  community who navigate male power.
• The aesthetics of the film include the 'look and feel', which includes visual style, influences, auteur, and motifs.
• The film has a highly expressive minimal aesthetic, capturing the cold, austere Missouri backcountry and its inhabitants' love for rural traditions.
• The mise-enscène of the film cuts between natural, open, observational images and a heightened sense of the macabre in everyday objects, such as bottles lined up to shoot and fragmented close-ups of a rocking horse.
• The film employs close-ups and obtuse angles to heighten the mood in a style reminiscent of Sergio Leone's famous westerns.
• The film's climactic scene, in which Ree must travel on a midnight moonlight quest by boat to retrieve a body from the underworld, draws on Greek mythology.
• The ordeal and final task Ree must perform in the film is shatteringly brutal but ultimately gives her the means to salvation.
• The aesthetics of the film are highly symbolic, with matter-of-fact but ghoulish and visceral imagery of butchered meat and flayed animals serving to highlight both the harshness of the land and the resourcefulness of the Orzak people.
• Animals are a strong motif in the film, whether for food (deer) or to suggest vulnerability at loss of their habit (squirrels in trees, Ree giving up her horse) or as an ever-present reminder of the history and heritage of the lives of mountain dwellers.
• Vivid and frightening cattle herding scenes and charging at the auction are key scenes that use aesthetics to dramatize key themes in the film.
• Sound

  • Reclaims traditional music to challenge the

  negative ‘hill billy/deliverance’ knee jerk

  reaction to any narrative that dramatizes the

  lives of impoverished rural communities.

  The sound track and musical performances

  are achingly melancholic but affirm and

  validate the lives of marginal characters.

  • Sections of ‘empty’ soundtrack that reinforce

  Ree’s seemingly repetitive trudge to find

  someone who will lead her to her father. Limited

  non diegetic sound to give a realist tone.

  • Shifts from quiet talking to loud screams.
• Representations

  • In part a revisionist assessment of the

  ‘hillbilly’ stereotype in rural communities.

  • Strong female lead role. Ree is both a

  maternal figure to her siblings and the

  key active character who drives the

  narrative in her quest to find her father.

  • Supporting female roles offer a strong

  representation of women as resourceful,

  stoic and problem solvers in the

  community who navigate male power
• Social

  • The community is blighted by rural poverty,

  lack of opportunity, low educational outcomes

  and a sense of separation of mainstream USA

  infrastructure. Secretive and inward looking with

  an emphasis on family loyalty and ‘kin’ based

  around patriarchal power but dependent upon

  strong, resilient women. Methamphetamine use

  and addiction has had devastating consequences

  on families and individuals. The reality

  of financial insecurity, violence, domestic

  abuse and mental illness is ever-present.
• The final task Ree must perform is shatteringly brutal but ultimately gives her the means to salvation.
• The aesthetics of the film include the 'look and feel', which is characterized by a highly expressive minimal aesthetic, shot at times as still images, and a mise-enscène that cuts between natural, open, observational images and a heightened sense of the macabre in everyday objects such as bottles lined up to shoot and fragmented close ups of a rocking horse.
• The aesthetics of the film are highly symbolic, with matter-of-fact but ghoulish and visceral imagery of butchered meat and flayed animals highlighting both the harshness of the land and the resourcefulness of the Orzak people.
• The aesthetic features close ups and obtuse angles that heighten the mood in a style reminiscent of Sergio Leone’s famous westerns.
• Animals are a strong motif in the film, either for food (deer) or to suggest vulnerability at loss of their habit (squirrels in trees, Ree giving up her horse) or as an ever present reminder of the history and heritage of the lives of mountain dwellers.
• The film features a wordless standoff between Teardrop and the sheriff, filmed through the wing mirror of his truck, creating a blend of menace, self-destructiveness and an assertion of an ethic that is unrecognizable to city folk.
• Vivid and frightening cattle herding and charging at the auction and Ree’s fevered dream of ravens are two key scenes that use aesthetics to dramatize key themes in the film.
• The closing sequence in which Ree must travel on a midnight moonlight quest by boat to retrieve her father’s body is a key part of the film’s aesthetic.
• Institutional

  Based on a novel of the same name by Daniel

  Woodrell. Produced by Granik and Anne

  Rosellini through their production company,

  Anonymous Content. After several attempts

  to raise finance, the film received half its

  $2 million budget from a private equity

  deal which enabled it to go into production.

  Premiered at Sundance in 2010 and gained a

  distribution deal from Fortissimo Films. The

  film went on to take $6 million at US box

  office making it an indie hit. The film brought

  Jennifer Lawrence to wider attention.
• Winter's Bone challenges the melodramatic escapism of contemporary Hollywood with its resistance to high-octane special effects and ironic hyperbolic violence.
• Winter's Bone is a hybrid of genres, building on our understanding of Noir and western genres, but offering up a quest/odyssey narrative seeped in mythology and dark fairy-tale.
• Winter's Bone is full of mystery and suspense and is a successful example of a coming-of-age movie.
• Granik takes the traditional masculine depiction of rural life and subverts it by framing everything that unfolds through Ree’s piercing gaze.
• Granik noted that 'Winter's Bone is a feminist film about an anti-feminist world'.
• The viewer is positioned as an outsider in this film, out of place and feeling like an intruder.
• Winter's Bone is a meditation on alienated relationships whether they are communal, familial or our own detachment from this part of America.