Debra Granik’s 2010 film Winter’s Bone is an impeccable look into Appalachian life and culture in the Ozarks of Missouri. Winter’s Bone follows Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) as she navigates family conflict, raises her young siblings, and tends after her sick mother. When it is revealed that Ree’s father, Jessup Dolly, posted the family home to pay for a portion of his bail, Ree knows that she must find him in order to escape homelessness. Here, she is sent on a trek across her hometown and faces physical abuse and intimidation tactics from her own distant relatives. Winter’s Bone is a gripping Southern Gothic tale of a young girl forced to grow up because of her harsh environment. When looking at the modern Southern Gothic genre, in film rather than novels, one realizes the common theme of the supernatural causing the audience to view the south in a jaded fog. This supernatural theme pulls away from the novelistic tendencies that were popularized by writers such as Truman Capote or William Faulkner. Debra Granik perfectly embodies the honesty of classic Southern Gothic writers in Winter’s Bone allowing for the film genre to evolve into a shockingly accurate one due to her naturalistic style when approaching filmmaking. Winter’s Bone is a classic glimpse into a Southern Gothic within a modern context through its honest and heart-wrenching depiction of familial struggles and decay.
At the beginning of the film the audience watches as Ree tends for the household. Here, she cooks breakfast for Sonny (Isaiah Stone) and Ashlee (Ashlee Thompson), brushes her sick mother’s hair, and lurks through the hallways of her high school without entering the classroom. Ree’s father, Jessup, is never seen nor mentioned until Sheriff Baskin (Garret Dillahunt) waltz towards Ree and announces that if her father misses bail, the family home will go to a bonds man. The introduction to Ree is eerie, dark, and desperate. From the get-go one can notice that she is not a normal 17-year-old girl but instead the primary caregiver and homesteader for her impoverished family. This brief introduction is nothing in comparison to the familial struggles that follow as she travels all through town, on foot, in order to find her meth-cooking father.
The theme of familial struggles is a key aspect of Southern Gothic literature as it presents the presents the idea that family is ingrained in Southern culture and ideologies while still presenting large amounts of conflict and tension for the reader. Winter’s Bone brings this aspect forth in a unique way through the realization that all the characters Ree is in conflict with are members of her extended family, while she fails to see the flaws of her immediate family as a survival instinct. The first inkling of this conflict can be found through the individual that eventually becomes her only supporter, Teardrop (John Hawkes). When Ree visits Teardrop begging to know where her father is tensions are high and reach their peak when Teardrop chokes her. Teardrop assaults Ree as an intimidation tactic and a means of protection. Despite his temper and addiction, he understands that Ree could die if she continues the search for Jessup but others in her family seek to cause bodily harm because they are responsible for the death of Jessup. Although Teardrop terrifies Ree, he later becomes her only companion against her extended family.
Ree’s extended family particularly her cousin’s grandfather Thump (Ronnie Hall) and his wife Merab (Dale Dickey) are the most cold and terrifying members. When Ree hunts down Thump, after being threatened not to do so, she is met with a gang of women who beat her, so much so that she passes out. The intentional characterization of Ree’s extended family is important because their hostility towards her comes from the fact that Jessup was a snitch. In these abusive moments, the audience realizes that Winter’s Bone hits the point of the traditional Southern Gothic through the tension her family presents. Ree’s dynamic with her extended family is an unflinching harsh reality on the cycle of abuse and the normalization of such abuse in Southern culture as many Southerners, especially in the Southern Gothic genre, deal with issues on their own terms. The presentation of Ree’s family appeals directly to Southern Gothic text, but the showcase of decay is one of the most gripping.
One of the most defining characteristics of the Southern Gothic genre is the showcase of decayed environments and Winter’s Bone is no exception. Debra Granik intentionally shot real homes in the Ozarks that presented the intense poverty and unstable condition of the homes in the community. As Ree walks through her town, one cannot help but notice the multiple rotting barns, the old toys, and trucks that grace the land of each townsperson. Through placing these elements in the mise-en-scene, one cannot help but recognize its emphasis on the despair and hopelessness in the Ozarks. Through emphasizing this physical decay, the audience is able to recognize a major Southern Gothic theme of the isolation and alienation rural Southern communities experience because of their decaying residence. The overgrown forests, rusted cars, and decomposing homes present a world where everything is falling apart, which parallels Ree’s situation. Each character is physically cut off from society leading to the presentation of a community on the brink of collapse that seems natural, because it is brutally realistic. Here, the harsh conditions paired with Ree’s lonesome search are the perfect match because both are struggling to survive.
Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone is a gripping film that gives the audience an entry to the innerworkings of the Ozarks through the eyes of a Ree Dolly. One can view Winter’s Bone as a Southern Gothic masterpiece because of its presentation of the familial dynamics and decay that exists in the rural South. As the film breaks away from the typical Southern Gothic movie, through its lack of a supernatural elements, the audience can see its ties to original Southern Gothic novels. Winter’s Bone is an excellent example of how the Southern Gothic film can adapt to a modern context with an authentic approach that shows a haunting reality.
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