Winter's Bone-Social context

Winter's Bone: Social context

Winter's Bone relies on the understanding of its social context as much of the narrative and aesthetics of the film rely on the ideals and themes of the social context themselves. 

The main, and most prominent theme of the social context involved would be the poverty seen and the lack of opportunity and education in rural America. This plays a huge part in the cinematic ideas involved in the film and its attributes. The main representation of this would be the setting included in the film and the dull and bland colours of its aesthetic. Set in the Ozarks of Missouri, the film has an extremely rural theme, with an environment of forests and fields, creating an almost isolated feeling that is felt through the presentation of the film. This amplifies the poverty in the film as everyone in the setting is facing the same level of rural poverty to an extent. This is first seen through the opening sequence of the film in which the setting is introduced.

   

The establishing shot of the field including abandoned cars and caravans creates a scene of abandonment itself that shows the poverty of the area. The dull earth tones also creates a realistic environment in the film in which there is a natural sense to the scene. This amplifies the idea of poverty in the film as there is no iconography of wealth and opportunity for the people in the town, but rather there are connotations of isolation and bareness. This from the outset introduces the audience to the type of place that is expected from the film as they know not to expect a place like that of California and New York, and the opportunities that come from those type of big cities. This aspect of the social context is prominent in the narrative and important in understanding the situation that the main character of Ree finds herself in, as it makes the narrative of the film more realistic as that is what is mostly seen in areas of this level of poverty- violence, drug abuse etc. The low-key lighting of the shot also shows that the area doesn't draw exciting and interesting situations, but attracts dark themes.

The long shot of the Dolly's house shows the audience the personal and direct poverty that effects their family and shows a realistic view of the type of rural poverty that effects the families of the Ozarks. The dull, dark earth tones are also present in this shot of the kids jumping on the trampoline, showing how the dark situation of poverty is everywhere and involves most people. Having the tree in the forefront of the shot also follows the idea of nature having a prominent part in the film as it shows that the kids and characters don't have the opportunities of the city life. The mise-en-scene of the setting the characters live in also amplifies the rural poverty and makes the audience understand that anything bad in the narrative is going to effect the characters in a drastic way, showing them to be vulnerable in the story, and therefore heightening the tension and suspense of the film.

 
The sequence then follows with a medium shot of the children in the film outside their house. The mise-en-scene of the positioning in shot is significant in the fact that the railings of the porch almost mimics the bars seen in jail cells, and is heightened in the meaning by the children being behind them. This connotes to the audience a sense of entrapment in the film with the characters and that the children are trapped in the life and environment that rural poverty is a consequence of. This is significant in the understanding of the film as it mirrors the ideas seen in the social context where the factors such as poverty, lack of opportunity, drugs and and financial insecurity impact families in a drastic way and keeps them in the cycle of poverty which they have trouble escaping. This understanding brings another level of spectating for the audience as they can visualise the life in which these characters find themselves in now and what they will find themselves in later, connecting with the characters even more and understand why they do the things they do.

Overall, just from the starting sequence of the film, Winter's Bone shows spectators how social context is important in understanding the narrative of the film and its overall presentation as it clearly shows the type of film that is about to be seen by the audience, as well as the impact that it's going to have on the spectatorship for the audience.