Beasts of the Southern Wilds (FILM REVIEW)

Beasts of the Southern Wilds 

Beasts of the Southern Wilds is an enrapturing and disturbing film written and directed by Behn Zeitlin and co-written by Lucy Alibar following the story of a young girl named HushPuppy living out her life in the Bathtub, an impoverished “town” outside of an industrial city. HushPuppy tries to navigate her world as her father’s health fails and storms arise on her water-side home. Beasts of the Southern Wilds does not shy away from the beauty and horror of the life the people of the Bathtub live as we watch them struggle and thrive in their small community. Its powerful imagery draws a question from the audience of cultural difference as many may feel the need to intervene or help the Bathtub community. It begs the question: do we as a modernized industrial society have any right to help people born outside of what we consider normal? (Zeitlin, 2012) 

From the very first images we see of HushPuppy many might feel disturbed by her attire, lack of supervision, and uncleanliness. HushPuppy lives in a house by herself beside her father’s house at 5 years old. She feels in charge of her own destiny and does her own work around the small farm her and her father share. She lives in a dirty home by herself that later catches on fire while she’s trying to cook. It's normal in the Bathtub culture to leave children unsupervised for long periods of time because this is how they learn in this strange society. (Zeitlin, 2012)  Many people in western and industrial culture would be repulsed by the idea of leaving a child to their own whims and would want to intervene but is that right? Are we as a society allowed to intervene upon a different culture and tell them how to live their lives. Many would say yes because there are children involved who might be in danger, but very few of the Bathtub children would like living in our industrial society. 

There are many scenes in this movie with gorgeous imagery of how life in the Bathtub is wonderful. Hushpuppy says that the Bathtub has more holidays than anywhere else in the world. This is a community of independence and celebration. Even when the storm comes many people in the Bathtub don’t want to leave because this is their home. They care more about staying within their society than going into the world that they see as inferior to their own. They don't want to be saved. 

In a review by Thomas Hackett he claims the film is racist and romanticizes poverty. “Beasts does something more pernicious than simply celebrate poverty. In casting social workers and public health officials who presume to think that a six-year-old girl should be fed, clothed, and looked after by adults as villains, the film tells us that we needn’t worry, that the poor just want to be left to fend for themselves.” (Hackett, 2013). He believes that it is right to intervene upon the Bathtub because children are being neglected and poverty is never something to celebrate. The social workers are villainized in the movie but it is important to remember that this film is from the perspective of Hushpuppy. From the scene where we see Hushpuppy talking to her absent mother’s shirt as a way to cope with the loss of her mother it is obvious that this world is viewed through her eyes. 

When social workers and health care workers come into her life at six years old and tell her she needs to change it would be very frightening for her. She would villainize these people in her head because the Bathtub is all she’s ever known. When she is forced into a refugee camp after the storm destroys the Bathtub she is afraid and uncomfortable with everything around her. The Bathtub children don’t like the life before them the same way the adults hate it. (Zeitlin, 2012)  From our perspective we would see these people as heroes rescuing these poor people from a desolate home and bringing them to safety; but from their perspective they are being stripped of their freedoms and trapped in camps where they don’t feel like they belong. It may seem cruel to allow people to live in the way people live in the Bathtub but it is their choice to live that way. If their children decide to leave the Bathtub in search of something better that should also be their choice.

It comes naturally to see a culture that is different as wrong and bizarre but it must be remembered that this is the way these people live. It is wrong to take away the right to live the way a person wants if they aren’t causing anyone any harm. The people of the Bathtub are close, they look out for each other and take care of each other in their small community. This is their world and we are just an onlooker peering in. What may seem unhygienic and disgusting and unhealthy to us is a normal way of life to them.

In short, Beasts of the Southern Wilds is a deeply intriguing film with masterful imagery that brings many moral questions to its viewers. The rights and beliefs of different cultures such as the culture of the Bathtub are important to take into account when helping in a disaster. It is not right to assume these people are ill or savage because they live a lifestyle that they consider more freeing to them. All these points are made very clear through the perspective of Hushpuppy, a brave and curious girl who remains hilarious and wonderful to watch until the very end. 

Citations: 

Zeitlin, Behn. “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 5 July 2012, www.imdb.com/title/tt2125435/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt. 

Hackett, Thomas. “The Racism of 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'.” The New Republic, 19 Feb. 2013, newrepublic.com/article/112407/racism-beasts-southern-wild.