Winter's Bone

Question 1

What is the significance of sound in Winter’s Bone?

Answer 1

• Reclaims traditional music to challenge the negative ‘hill billy/deliverance’ knee jerk reaction. The sound track and is melancholic.
• Sections of ‘empty’ soundtrack that reinforce Ree’s seemingly repetitive trudge. Limited non diegetic sound to give a realist tone.
• Shifts from quiet talking to loud screams.

Question 2

What are the representations like in Winter’s Bone?

Answer 2

• 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 character who drives the narrative.
• Supporting female roles offer a strong representation of women as resourceful, stoic and problem solvers.
• Deeply toxic portrayals of masculinity.

Question 3

What is the social context for Winter’s Bone?

Answer 3

• The community is blighted by rural poverty, lack of opportunity, low educational outcomes and a sense of separation.
• Emphasis on family loyalty based around patriarchal power but dependent upon strong, resilient women. – Meth 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.

Question 4

How is the cinematography significant in Winter’s Bone?

Answer 4

• McDonough’s camera gently shifts the frame and often 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.
• Shot on RED cameras. 95% of filming is on hand held cameras building a scene from single perspectives.

Question 5

What is the significance on mise-en-scene in Winter’s Bone?

Answer 5

• On location shooting, landscape dominates. A frostbitten authenticity of winter combined with a bleakness of disintegrating landscapes. Local people cast
  in supporting roles with costumes sourced from real people.
  – 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.

Question 6

What is the significance of editing in Winter’s Bone?

Answer 6

• 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.

Question 7

What is the significance of the aesthetic of Winter’s Bone?

Answer 7

• highly expressive minimal aesthetic.
• close ups and obtuse angles heighten the mood reminiscent of westerns.
• Teardrop’s standoff filmed through own wing mirror creating a sense of self-destructiveness.
• boat scene draws from greek mythology, themes of salvation.
• visceral imagery of butchered meat.
• frightening imagery of cattle to dramatise themes.

Question 8

What is the significance of spectatorship and ideology in Winter’s Bone?

Answer 8

• WB challenges the escapism of contemporary Hollywood films.
• Hybrid of genres.
• Breaks typical masculine depiction of rural life.
• Viewer positioned as an outsider, a mediation on alienated relationships.