Winter's Bone is the best film about Northern Ireland that I've seen. Of course it isn't actually set in Northern Ireland, it's actually set in an Ulster Scots community in the Ozark Mountains. But the people who left Ulster for Appalachia two and a half centuries ago are virtually indistinguishable from the ones who stayed behind. As David Hackett Fischer shows in his book Albion's Seed, the Ulster Scots were the clannish border fighters who settled in Ulster around the time of the Plantations in Ireland (c. 1600), many of whom subsequently emigrated to the US in the mid eighteenth century. Jim Webb does a nice job describing the Ulster Scots in his book Born Fighting, explaining that these people were natural hunters and trackers who despised authority and who thus formed the backbone of the US Army in several wars. This is the synopsis of the film from the movie's website. I don't think it gives too much away.
Seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) sets out to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, Ree and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods. Challenging her outlaw kin's code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth.
Part thriller, part atmospheric observation piece, Winter's Bone is a great piece of work. The mountains are beautifully shot, the performances are subtle and the mood is tense and claustrophobic. Everyone is related to everyone else in this small country community and there is no firm line between good and evil. Just like in rural Ulster the one thing you are taught when dealing with the law is that "whatever you say, say nothing." Ree's journey has a gothic, fairy tale aspect but it's very much grounded in grim twenty first century reality. The film is also much more disturbing & frightening than all those tedious slasher movies everywhere in the multiplexes.
...If you want to understand Northern Ireland, ignore the Hollywood pap and watch Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday and Winter's Bone instead.
18 comments:
That looks like a good film. I really like nice scenery. Is that where the term Ozark comes from? My mum always says, "there was a bunch of bloody Ozarks in town".
I loved Bloody Sunday, which I saw within the last year. Are people who don't know of that Ulster Scots lineage going to get any of that from the movie, or is that something you would just have to know?
Thanks for the tip, it sounds like an interesting movie.
I'm in for sure. My buddy was telling me about the origin of the term "HillBilly", fascinating and relavent to this movie it seems. Thanks for the heads up. He also showed me a clip of "Hunger" where the guy is talking about killing a foal. Very moving stuff and great acting.
If interested: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2788033305/
I've read the book as well. In fact, I've read as much Daniel Woodrell as I can get my hands on, which isn't much since most of his books are out of print, but I would definitely recommended him. Ang Lee's film,Ride With the Devil, was based on Woodrell's Woe to Live On. Give Us a Kiss: A Country Noir is also an all time favorite. I'm a sucker for delicious poetic prose...obviously:).
Frankie
Could be? Depends where you live though doesn't it? If you're in London I kind of doubt it.
Seana
I think so. It's just a - slightly gothic - story set up in the high country. Most people should get it. And it looks to me as if they toned down the accents a bit so everyone can understand them without subtitles.
Glenna
Hope you like it.
Sean
Interesting stuff.
I dont know WB is still playing in the cinema but I caught it on iTunes.
Shulla
Isnt it a strange world that Daniel Woodrell's books sell in the low thousands and Danielle Steele's in the tens of millions?
It seems its a slightly derogatory term used for uncivilized people. That looks like a film to see at the cinema but ill def get it on dvd.
Book is fantastic. Hopefully the film will launch Woodrell into Steele territory. His other books are very, very good as well. Interestingly, this film was not on general release. Never showed in my local cinema. Will be straight out of the DVD store once it arrives.
Book is fantastic. Hopefully the film will launch Woodrell into Steele territory. His other books are very, very good as well. Interestingly, this film was not on general release. Never showed in my local cinema. Will be straight out of the DVD store once it arrives.
Man alive this film is amazing. I watched it on a plane recently and even that couldn;t detract from how utterly wonderful everything about this film is.
Frankie
You make a good point. I missed a lot of the cinematography because I watched it on my computer, but its still worth it.
Rob
I've read two others and really liked both of them. It was a while ago but I remember thinking that they captured the same vibe as Cormac McCarthy's early Tennessee novels.
Rob
I liked the uncle and how you never really knew whose side he was on. And the scary old lady too.
As one descended from the Tennessee Ulster Scots, I'm going to look into this one.
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