For several years now, I have wanted to go to the Colorado State Fair that takes place mid-August through Labor Day weekend about 2.5 hours away in Pueblo, Colorado (if any of you remember the federal government's public service announcements from the 1970's where you wrote away with a self-addressed stamped envelope to request various brochures, yes...THAT Pueblo).
Unfortunately, the timing has never been just right - I've been travelling, the weather's been to hot, it was too close to my transfer or, last year I was too pregnant to walk more than twenty-five feet.
This year was no different. We had all our plans set to drive down on Sunday, but two babies had other plans...they were crabby and tired and the last thing we needed to do was take them on a 5-hour round-trip car ride. So, maybe next year...
Instead, my DH agreed to watch the Twinks and I went to the movies! I sometimes miss those days...when I would spontaneously leave work a little early to visit the independent movie house near downtown.
Upon the recommendation of a friend, I went to see Beasts of the Southern Wild. The movie is about a rag-tag group of far-below-poverty-level socitety outcasts living in a swamp just outside New Orleans. The focus of the movie is on a six-year-old beautiful african american girl who needs to learn to live life on her own.
I am not sure if the movie's creator ultimately intended his audience to walk out of the theater feeling happy and uplifted because it was evident that this little girl will somehow survive, but from almost the opening scene my heart felt broken and sad.
In my eyes, it was a bunch of uneducated drunks raising children they didn't really want in a swampy, smelly, unsanitary garbage dump. The kids were often neglected, hungry, abused and loved only between fits of rage. All I could think about was the last five years of my life...how much our hearts burned to start our family, the sacrifices, uncertanity and heartache we faced along the way, and how much I loved our two little human beings that I knew would be waiting for me when I arrived home.
I am not a violent person, but I wanted to jump through the screen, grab many of the characters tightly around the neck, shake them back and forth and scream at the top of my lungs. Don't they know what a special gift they had been given?! Why do they think that it's perfectly ok to neglect their kids, not provide basic food, clothing and shelter for them, trap them in filth and pass out drunk night-after-night?!
Knowing that there are so many loving, stable homes out there, why didn't these adults make the ultimate sacrifice and put these kids up for adoption? It brought me back to our screwed-up foster system and the messed-up belief that the best place for a child is always with his or her birth parents. Bullcrap!Bullcrap! Bullcrap!
I know things are never going to change in our society, but I can still wish that every child is wanted, loved, protected and valued.
7 comments:
what a passionate review - I'll have to watch for this film when it comes out on dvd. Yes-it is so disheartening that the most loving, caring people seem to have a hard time getting pregnant while drug addicts have no problem. Drove me crazy when I was trying to conceive and working at the health department certifying women for WIC. Eventually one of the reasons I resigned from the job. Glad you got out of the house for a couple of hours - I miss those days too!
I understand your thoughts, and even had some of them myself watching this movie, but in the end, I believe you missed the point. BOSW is not supposed to be a movie that exists in our current plane of reality. It was intended to skim on the surface of reality, but ultimately, it is magical realism, fantasy. The characters are violent, abusive, and noble...they are bizarre plays on the American dream for true independence and industriousness. They may live in poverty, but this is not a film about poverty. Did you notice not once did anyone talk about or handle money? There is no currency in this world, it is not our world where raging poverty, often paired with abuse, is always underscored by money. There is also no race in this world, another "tell" that it is not ours, where race factors are almost always deeply tied to poverty. This is not a movie with a targeted intended message, like the hunger games, which offers a scathing take on how war and poverty destroy the lives of young people- this is a stylized movie interested in moving between fantasy and dreams, dystopia and utopia, and the power of the human spirit in all its flawed, abusive, glory.
Thanks for your review. I live in a rural, poverty-sticken town...don't need to watch it on a movie! To answer your question as to why these folks don't give their children up for adoption...simple. If they did so, they would forfeit their checks (based on number of children), free housing, free healthcare, free food, free baby supplies (carseats, etc.), and a host of other "free" social services. Whether the movie is about money or not, I don't know. What I do know though is that these "families" exist in our real world and it's all about the monitary "perks" of having a child! Makes me sick...
It's funny how differently we look at things now, isn't it? So many things bother me that didn't used to. I'm especially affected by seeing large numbers of "unwanted" babies and I think of all the people I know who are so desperate for just one of them and it really breaks my heart. It did before, but now it's even worse.
I'm in Canada so things are probably a bit different, but our system is so broken. A friend of mine, his sister's 3 kids got taken away from her. The older two were adopted by other family and friends, the youngest was just a couple of years old and no one stepped up for him. My friend thought about going through the adoption process so he could adopt him, which would have taken him about 6 months they figured (he's already done it once to adopt his other sister's kid who got taken away as well... yeah, I know), but he was told that since the kid was the perfect adoptable age that that would be too long and for my friend not to bother. It's now a few years later, the kid still hasn't been adopted. I'm not really sure why, but someone sure dropped the ball. There is nothing wrong with him except an incompetent mother, so it's not that he has such high needs that no one wants him. Ridiculous.
Anyway, that story is a long way of getting around to saying that knowing what I know about the system, I'm not sure that I would feel that my kids were going to a better place unless I could do a private adoption and pick who they were going to, which hardly ever happens for some reason.
Turtle - Today, I could never work at a helth department, foster care system or other job where I am exposed to the sad realities of our society. I do appreciate the people whose hearts are big enough to hold those kinds of jobs though.
Cindy - You bring up some good points. I thought the film iteslf was beautiful and the acting was academy-award worthy.
I definitely noticed that there were many good things about this society - there were no color lines, the community was extremely close-knit, these people knew how to rejoice in life and celebrate for the pure sake of celebrating. It was also clear that even though Wink couldn't really care for his daughter, Hushpuppy, on another level there was a deep love and sense of guilt in his heart...he simply did the best he knew how.
When I was in my early 30's, I took a life-changing trip to the Amazon in Peru. Through a series of events, it worked out that I travelled alone and the week I visited, I was the only tourist staying at my lodge and I got to see a slice of life many tourists never do.
It was on this trip that I realized that the "American" way of life may not be the only way or best way.
I saw kids whose families have little or no money, they rarely attended school and live in "villages" who raise them. They swim naked with pirranahs and caymans in the Amazon, catch fish, pick fruit or butcher one of the chickens who run below their lean-to's when they feel like it is time to eat. They will never know hunger.
They build their homes from items found on the land and will never be "homeless". They cheer for their parents who play soccer until well after midnight by the light of a few strung-up light bulbs hooked to a generator on a weeknight. There is no time in this socitey.
Supply boats float down the river and become the local "Wal-Mart". When the families need money, they fish, find something valuable like turtle eggs or a rare medicinal plant, pick fruit or make something they can sell, take a 3-day-and-night slow boat ride to the "city" and sell their natural resources.
Most of these children have never been, nor will they probably ever go, beyond the city. They don't have TV, cell phones, video games, or computers (except when they go to the city), yet they are healthy and gloriously happy.
Lucy - You are right. My head knows it, but my heart wishes things were different.
Sounds like a really interesting film and it must have been so nice to get out and enjoy a movie on your own - a nice treat!
Wow, love your description of the communities in the Amazon. From my American existence (though I actually live abroad) it seems....like fantasy. Sounds very similar to the sort of world the movie aimed to create.
Post a Comment