In the scene where the protagonist Ree is asking her neighbours for information on her missing father Jessup, she finally arrives at the house of the societies patriarch Thump Milton in a last desperate attempt to learn the truth about her farther. Thumps wife Merab emerges from the door with along with a presence over Ree. Merab is standing on the steps creating a natural elevation of her over Ree instantly telling the audience of a gap in hierarchy between the two women. Ree knows that Thump is just beyond her reach but Merab denies her entry. we do not even see Thump in this scene because he is so far up the hierarchy ladder that Ree cannot even speak to him and to someone unfamiliar with the type of society seen in this film it might seem odd, why can't she see the man. The camera being at a high angle looking down on Ree shows her beneath Thump and even his wife, this is reflected through out this whole sequence as each home she visits on her quest for answers takes her further up the land and thus growing the gap in rank between her and the people she is dealing with, this is evident as the more homes she visits the more hostile the people she speaks to become as she is eventually not even allowed in the house once she arrives at Thumps residence.
This is an unfamiliar hierarchy to those from other backgrounds and if an audience had a passive viewing they would have no clue on the situation Ree finds herself in, an audience with an active viewing might be able to deduce from the dialog that the characters live in a society where law has little influence and all the structure stems from a lineage of families. Ree makes a statement about "having some of the same blood" which to outsiders would make them families but the film takes place in such a closed off and isolated community that everyone is related.
i personally found it hard to understand the dialogue between Ree and Merab during their encounter due to their accent but when i tried to watch this scene again with more of an active viewing i picked up on more dialougue and was able to piece together more information about the world than a passive viewing would allow
it would be hard for people to have an alignment with Ree in this scene because most 17 year old wouldn't be able to relate to her situation as they would be thinking about themselves and their future, not caring for others and being an adult. As evident from Merabs line about if Ree had a man, she is exspected to be married at this point, which is almost impossible for most movie viewers to relate to.
What differs winters bone from the mainstream films we see regularly is there is no clear cut good and bad characters (which is a standard of the neo realism genre) because we are not given an explanation and even when viewing actively the information only allows us to understand the characters to a certain degree. We are unable to tell who to trust and who to align with, teardrop is a violent meth head but he is close family to our protagonist and a key aid to her, whereas marab seems nice in this scene by giving Ree a drink and warning her multiple times, which makes the audience trust her, but this trust is instantly destroyed when her and the other women beat Ree down to a bloody mess, only then to help her by revealing her dads resting place and helping her retrieve the evidence she needs to prove his death and alive the conflict of the film. It is the complex layers and lives of people who live in these societies that make it hard for mainstream audiences to understand as these characters have more depth than typical movie characters and unlike another Jennifer Lawrence lead film, the hunger games, which also deals with a young girl tasked with adult duties in a society with an dangerous hierarchy, there is not enough exposition to explain this almost alien world as there is with its mainstream counterpart.
This is an unfamiliar hierarchy to those from other backgrounds and if an audience had a passive viewing they would have no clue on the situation Ree finds herself in, an audience with an active viewing might be able to deduce from the dialog that the characters live in a society where law has little influence and all the structure stems from a lineage of families. Ree makes a statement about "having some of the same blood" which to outsiders would make them families but the film takes place in such a closed off and isolated community that everyone is related.
i personally found it hard to understand the dialogue between Ree and Merab during their encounter due to their accent but when i tried to watch this scene again with more of an active viewing i picked up on more dialougue and was able to piece together more information about the world than a passive viewing would allow
it would be hard for people to have an alignment with Ree in this scene because most 17 year old wouldn't be able to relate to her situation as they would be thinking about themselves and their future, not caring for others and being an adult. As evident from Merabs line about if Ree had a man, she is exspected to be married at this point, which is almost impossible for most movie viewers to relate to.
What differs winters bone from the mainstream films we see regularly is there is no clear cut good and bad characters (which is a standard of the neo realism genre) because we are not given an explanation and even when viewing actively the information only allows us to understand the characters to a certain degree. We are unable to tell who to trust and who to align with, teardrop is a violent meth head but he is close family to our protagonist and a key aid to her, whereas marab seems nice in this scene by giving Ree a drink and warning her multiple times, which makes the audience trust her, but this trust is instantly destroyed when her and the other women beat Ree down to a bloody mess, only then to help her by revealing her dads resting place and helping her retrieve the evidence she needs to prove his death and alive the conflict of the film. It is the complex layers and lives of people who live in these societies that make it hard for mainstream audiences to understand as these characters have more depth than typical movie characters and unlike another Jennifer Lawrence lead film, the hunger games, which also deals with a young girl tasked with adult duties in a society with an dangerous hierarchy, there is not enough exposition to explain this almost alien world as there is with its mainstream counterpart.
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