Some will argue that they don’t make bastards [or sons of bitches] quite like they do down South. Good Ole Boys. Rednecks. Poor white trash. Bubbas.
Of course that’s just a personal prejudice. Though, sure, maybe not.
In particular however when the folks who have to weave in and out of their lives are from “the wrong side of the tracks”. Lives that are often bursting at the seams with “tough choices”. Sometimes then it’s not a matter of winning or losing but of losing more mercifully.
And when you’re struggling to raise an “illegitimate” child in the midst of all this, it just ups the ante all that much more.
In other words, this ain’t the only kind of bastard in the film.
Still, some bastards of the first kind are considerably more sons of bitches than others. For example when it revolves around the abuse of children. Still, even here, expect your reaction to be embedded in the particular frame of mind you bring to the film. Or, as one reviewer put it, “…it is not a movie with pat answers and predictable solutions, but manages to show the complexities involved in each situation. There are no cardboard characters either, as in real life not everyone is totally good or evil, though their actions may dip into either category from time to time.”
But there will always be folks who watch films like this and figure, fuck it, they aren’t worth caring about anyway. But even if you hold tight to these prejudices regarding the adults, how the hell can you inflict them on the children as well.
Though some no doubt will.
IMDb
[b]Ron Eldard spent a lot of time playing sports with Jena Malone so they would both feel comfortable performing the scenes in which he is physically abusing her. He claimed that in no scene did inappropriate contact with Malone take place, and that for scenes in which he appears to grab her by the throat, he is actually only holding her by his fingertips. Eldard was adamant that the graphic depiction of sexual abuse and rape was a necessity for the film.
Originally produced for Turner Network Television, the network ultimately rejected it due to scenes of sexual abuse. It was subsequently picked up by the Showtime channel.[/b]
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastard_o … lina_(film
trailer: youtu.be/za1Ys7Fcrcg
BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA [1996]
Directed by Anjelica Huston
[b]Bone [narrating]: “People pay for what they do, and still more for what they allow themselves to become. And they pay for it simply; by the lives they lead.” James Baldwin.
…
Bone [narrating]: The day I was born started off bad and only got worse. I guess I was lucky I got born at all.
…
Bone [narrating]: I got the nickname Bone from Uncle Earle. He took one look at me and said, “She ain’t no bigger than a knucklebone.” Neither aunt Ruth nor Granny could write very clearly and they hadn’t bothered to discuss how Anne would be spelled. So it wound up three different ways on the form. As for the name of the father, Granny refused to speak it after she’d run him out of town for messing with her daughter. Aunt Ruth had never been sure of his last name anyway. They tried to get away with just scribbling something down… but if the hospital didn’t mind how a baby’s middle name was spelled… they were definite about having a father’s last name. Granny gave one, Ruth gave another, the clerk got mad… and there I was, certified a bastard by the state of South Carolina.[/b]
That particular demographic in other words.
[b]Granny: Ruth Anne’s all right, but Mattie Raylene would’ve been better. ‘Course nobody bothered to ask me.
Anney: Nobody bothered to ask you? Nobody bothered to ask me. It’s my baby.
Granny: That’s your own damn fault for sleepin’ three whole days.
Anney: I had a concussion, Mama!
…
Anney [talking to Bone as a baby]: I don’t care what they say, Bone. I won’t have anybody call you trash. That stamp on your birth certificate, it’s one they already got for me. No good. Lazy. Shiftless. I work my ass off over other people’s peanuts… and they look at me like I’m a rock on the ground. No matter how hard I try, I still can’t get away from it. One soft-talking, black-eyed man fixed that. He set a mark on me. And set a mark on you. Don’t you worry, Bone. You’ve got me now, and I’ve got you. We’ll stick together, the two of us.
…
Ruth [to Anney after Lyle dies]: Nothing else will ever hit you this hard. Now you look like a Boatwright, now you’ve got the look. You’re as old as you’re ever going get, girl. This is the way you’ll look till the day you die.
…
Bone [now a young girl]: Granny, something’s burning! Something big.
…
Granny: There’s something wrong with that boy, Anney. He’s always looking at me out of the sides of his eyes, like some old junkyard dog trying to steal a bone. And you’re the bone he wants.
Anney: So? What’s wrong with that? You want me to spend the rest of my life working my ass off until I dry up and can’t even imagine marrying again?
Granny: Earle says he’s got a temper on him.
Anney: Earle’s one to talk. Besides, do you know a man who doesn’t have a temper?
…
Anney: What do you think, honey? Think I’m doing the right thing?
Bone: I don’t know.
Anney: I think I am. I hope I am. Sometimes I just get so tired, you know. Sometimes I just want somebody strong to stand by me. Stay with me.
Bone: I’ll stay with you.
Anney: I know you will, Bone.
…
Reese: Why can’t we go, Bone? Why can’t we?
Bone: 'Cause it ain’t for children.
…
Anney [after Earle stops the truck]: What are you doing, Earle?
Earle: Giving you a chance to change your mind.
Anney: Hellfire, Earle, I’m not going to change my mind. I’ve got a man who loves me.
Earle: He loves you alright… Like a gambler loves a fast racehorse, or a desperate man loves whiskey.
Anney: You’re just jealous.
Earle: Maybe I am.
…
Glen: Doctor says it’s gonna be a while, but she’s doin’ just fine. I know she’s worried. She thinks if it’s a girl I ain’t gonna love it. It’ll still be our baby. Even if she did have a girl, we’ll just have another soon enough. I’ll have my son. Anney and I will have our little baby boy. I know it. I just know it. Come here.
[he puts Bone on his lap]
Glen: Your Mama’s going be alright. And I love you Bone. I know you don’t believe me, but I do. We’re going to be happy. Real happy. Everything’s going to be alright.
[all this time he is using Bone to masturbate]
Glen: Get in the back, Bone. Go on, go to sleep.
…
Glen [to Bone, weeping, after Anney miscarries]: Your Mama’s going to be alright. But she won’t have no more babies. My baby’s dead. My boy. My boy…
…
Bone [narrating]: Moving gave me sense of time passing and everything sliding…as if nothing could be held onto anyway. It made me feel, ghostly unreal, unimportant. Like a box that goes missing, turns up but you realize you never needed anything in it anyway.
…
Anney [after Glen grips Bone on the arm]: Oh, Jesus, Glen. You don’t know your own strength.
Glen: I guess I don’t. But Bone knows I’d never mean to hurt her. Bone knows I love her. Hell, Anney, I love all of you. You know that.
Bone [narrating]: No, he never meant to hurt me. Not really, I told myself. But more and more those hands seemed to move before he could think. My dreams were full of long fingers, hands that reached around door frames, crept over the edge of the mattress, fear in me like a river, like the ice dark blue of his eyes.
…
Anney: Soda crackers and ketchup! You’re so casual about finding another job, but I feed my girls that garbage while you sit on your ass all day, smoking and telling lies.
Glen: I was out looking for a job all day.
Anney: How many? How many people did you see?
Glen [hesitantly]: A lot.
Anney: Not my kids. I was never gonna have my girls know what it was like. I was never gonna have them go hungry or cold or scared. Never, you hear me? Never!
…
Anney [to Bone after Glen had beaten her]: What did you do, honey? What did you do to make him so mad?
…
Glen [to Anney]: I never meant to beat her that bad. I swear I didn’t. I would never. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, baby.
…
Reese: You made him mad, Bone. You better be careful.
…
Bone [narrating]: Glen always found something I’d done, something I had to be told. Something he just had to do because he loved me so much. I lived in a world of shame. I hid my bruises as if they were evidence of crimes I had committed. I didn’t tell Mama. I couldn’t tell Mama.
…
Anney: Something’s wrong with her, Glen.
Glen: She’s just accident-prone. She’s always getting into something. Falling out of trees, falling off the porch. Lucky she’s such a hard-headed brat.
Anney: Maybe I ought to get her some vitamins, or something.
…
Doctor: How’d she break her coccyx?
Anney: Her what?
Doctor: Her tailbone, lady! Her ass! What you been hitting’ this child with, or maybe you just been throwin’ her up against the damn wall!
Anney: What are you sayin’? What are you sayin’?
Doctor [to Bone]: Do you wanna talk about it, honey? How 'bout we ask your mama to leave, and then, maybe you can tell me what happened, okay?
Anney: Let me have my girl!
Doctor: This child’s been beaten! This child’s been beaten, and I’m gonna call the authorities!
…
Bone [narrating]: We stayed at Aunt Alma’s until I got better but Daddy Glen said he couldn’t live without Mama’s love. She made him swear he would never lay a hand on me again.
…
Ruth: Has he ever touched you, honey? Has he ever messed with you? Down here, honey. Has he ever hurt you down here?
Bone [shaking her head]: No
Ruth: Are you sure?
Bone: Yes.
…
Bone: Auntie, do you believe in god?
Ruth: I sure as hell do.
Bone: Good, because I’ll be a gospel singer someday.
Ruth: All right, then. Carry on, little Bone. Turn up that radio.
…
Dee Dee: You don’t know what it’s like, Bone, getting out on your own, then being dragged back home. You wait a few years, get yourself a sweetheart, a job that pays your own money, stuff you like to do that your mama says is silly or sinful. Just about everything I like in this world is silly or sinful. But then, mama, I don’t care. I got my car and I got my own plans, and as soon as that car is paid for you can bet your ass I’ll be gone again. Next time the devil himself ain’t gonna be able to drag me back.
…
Glen [belt in hand as Bone pulls up her dress]: Don’t you say a word. Don’t you dare.
…
Raylene: Earle, get in here! Bring Wade and Travis with you!
Earle: What’s the matter, Raylene? Raylene, what the hell are you screaming about?
Raylene [showing them how badly beaten Bone is]: Look at this, look at her.
…
Anney [watching the men beat Glen]: He loves Bone. He loves her. He does. He loves us all, Mama!
…
Raylene: I did run off to the carnival alright, but not for no man. I never wanted to marry nobody. I like my life the way it is, little girl. Looks like you’ll make yours out of pride, stubbornness, and too much anger. Better think hard, Ruth Anne, about what you want and who you’re mad at. Better think real hard.
…
Grey: I’ve been thinking.
Bone: 'Bout what?
Grey: Remember when you were telling me and Garvey about the living dead? Remember?
[Bone nods]
Grey: Well…I been thinking maybe our daddies are the living dead. I been thinking maybe they just take turns.
Bone: Maybe.
…
Anney: I wouldn’t ask you to come home unless I knew you’d be safe, Bone. I promise you.
[Bone shakes her head]
Anney: What? What are you saying?
Bone: I won’t go. I’ll stay at Raylene’s. I think she’s glad to keep me. I’ll stay somewhere. But once you go back to Daddy Glen, I can’t go with you.
…
Bone [narrating]: Mama didn’t try to stop me when I walked away. She just watched me go. At Raylene’s the days were a gift, long and warm. The nights, quiet and cool. I slept dreamlessly and woke up at peace.
…
Glen: I talked to Anney, you know, and she’s comin’ back. She promised. She said she just needs a little time, time to make it up to you. She loves you more than I can understand. You know what your mama told me? She’s not coming home till you come home too. You’re gonna have to tell her it’s alright. You’re gonna have to tell her that we’ll be together, again.
Bone: No. I don’t wanna live with you no more. I told mama she can go back. I told her she could. But I can’t. I won’t.
Glen: You won’t? You won’t live with me no more? You are still a child! You don’t say what you do! I’m your daddy! I say you what to do!
Bone: No.
Glen: I want you to try to be reasonable, girl. I want you to tell your mama, I want you to stop all this nonsense, before you make me really mad.
Bone: I’d rather die than go back living with you!
…
Glen: Anney is going to come back to me. I know it. She just needs a little time, I understand that with everything that’s happened. But if she wasn’t coming back to me, I would kill you. You know that. I would break your neck.
[then he kisses her hard on the lips…then he rapes her]
…
Glen [to Anney after she rescues Bone]: Don’t go, I can’t live without you! Kill me! Please, baby! Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!
…
Raylene: Bone, I know you don’t understand this. I barely understand, myself. No woman should have to choose between a baby and her lover. Between her child and her husband. We all do terrible things to the ones we love sometimes and it eats us up, but we do them, just the same. You want to know about your Mom, I know. I can’t explain that to you. I can’t. I don’t know where she’s gone. None of us do, but I know she loves you. Don’t doubt that. And she’ll never forgive herself.
Bone: I hate her.
Raylene: You’ll forgive her.
Bone: I hate her.
…
Anney: Bone, I never wanted you to get hurt. I never thought it would go the way it did. I never thought Glen would hurt you like that. And I just loved him. You know that? I just loved him so much. I couldn’t see him that way. I couldn’t believe. I couldn’t imagine. You don’t know how much I love you, honey.
…
Bone [narrating] Who had mama been? What had she wanted to be or do before I was born? Once I was born her hopes turned, and I climbed up her life like a flower reaching for the sun. Her life had folded into mine. Who would I be when I was 15, 20, 30? Would I be as strong as she had been? As hungry for love? As desperate, determined and ashamed? I wasn’t old but I was already who I was gonna be. Someone like her, like my mama, a Boatwright, a bastard, a bastard out of Carolina.[/b]