Lai Cheuk Yin Arthur

3035571486
CLIT2007
Beasts of the Southern Wild – one-page journal
I want to talk about the hospital scene and the following escape scene, since these scenes
totally subverts the audience expectations about civilization. We would normally think help
from hospital, doctors, “civilized people” as something beneficial, especially when the father
is sick. But here, it’s more like an oppression towards our protagonists, something that
separated them from their home, the nature, by giving them help and giving them
materialistic help.

It begins with a shaky camera and dim lighting, a few medium close up fast cuts showing the
father and Hushpuppy getting captured or “evacuated” from their home. Then, we cut to the
brightly lit wide shot of hospital, with cars and well-made road, the first shot of civilization in
the movie. The camera is still handheld, but it’s not shaky anymore. In fact, the whole movie
is shot with handheld, and it adds to the authenticity of the movie, and is very much related to
the theme of “nature”, since it will seem artificial if there’re more stabilized shots in the
movie. In the hospital, the lighting is very bright, and it’s mostly with white color, unlike the
previous scenes in Bathtub, where there’s more colors and less bright. Just like what Hush
puppy narration says, this is like a fish tank with no water, the colors stripped away from the
scene signifies how civilization takes nature away from human.

Then with a very low angle close up, showing the power of the doctor, when he’s telling the
father of his disease. After some fast cut between close up of Hushpuppy and medium shot of
the father fighting the doctor. Hushpuppy is dressed up as a doll, a very materialistic look
compared to the whole movie. And her body language is very different from people around
her, like she’s being tied up by the dress. Then a close up of the dying father from out of
focus to correct focus, Hushpuppy and her father sees each other. Followed by extreme close
up shot of her father being forced to take some medicine in a room, and Hushpuppy peeking
at him. Hushpuppy then compare how “civilized people” treat “humans” with sickness and
how they treat sick “animals” back in Bathtub. Civilization ties sick humans to the wall, but
people in bathtub, closer to nature, put them on a boat, and burn their bodies, letting them go
instead of tying them up. This is just like how they treat people in Bathtub after they blow up
the wall, they captured them and bring them to hospital “for their own good”, instead of
letting them be in their natural habitat.

After a bunch of shaky camera shots and fast cuts, Hushpuppy and the people in Bathtub
already escaped from the hospital, trying to get back to their home, the nature. Father tried to
trick Hushpuppy to get on the bus and get away from him. After a few shaky close up of
hushpuppy fighting back, hushpuppy got off the bus and pushed father onto the ground,
visually showing hushpuppy is getting stronger and more independent, or that father is very
weak now, compared to many previous scenes, father is usually standing and taller than
hushpuppy, except in that scene where he fainted. We see a high angle of the father vomiting
blood, showing he’s small and weak and dying, then they return to Bathtub.

In this sequence, we can see how nature, or Bathtub, is their true home, where there is less
control by humans, where they struggle to survive under the power of nature, but they’re
happy and grateful and work together to survive. However, in the civilized world, although it
is safer, the control over other people is greater. Like they captured Hushpuppy and her
father, but they may think they’re evacuating them or rescuing them. The movie also
metaphorically talked a lot about environmental issues, like how human affects the nature and
changed the nature, the melting of glaciers, hurricane Katrina are also effects under global
warming. And how civilization make people think they’re not animals anymore. It can be
 Lai Cheuk Yin Arthur
3035571486
CLIT2007
Beasts of the Southern Wild – one-page journal
suggesting how we should find our “wildness” (that big pig monster) back, and get back to
nature.