That may be one big reason why I liked this movie so much. Every scene looked like it was being filmed from my back yard. haha It's actually quite frighting how accurately this film portrays peoples lives around here though. Pretty sad. Great acting by the way; I really liked Teardrop's character.
"Why am I Mr. Pink?"
[deleted]
Yeah, they did great portraying the way a lot of people are here. The most sad thing about the Ozarks is the amount of people who abuse drugs. There's always someone around here getting busted for meth. I hate that about the Ozarks, it's a really nice place to live after you get past all that crap.
"Why am I Mr. Pink?"
Why is everyone so agressive and miserable? Or did the film get this wrong and the reality is people in the Ozarks are open and friendly.
shareHonestly, it depends which part you're in. I grew up in Salem, MO, which is considered the 'Gateway to the Ozarks.' We where also the biggest meth distributors in the country for a short while. It was a 4,000 pop town also. That's pretty bad. So as far as the drugs and the way people acted, they where spot on. Around towns like Salem, a lot of people are on edge, but a lot are just normal, everyday nice people. Now if we're talking Branson, MO, almost everyone there is really friendly. Probably because Branson is like the old folks' Vegas, so most people get paid to act 'friendly' haha In most small towns around the Ozarks, most everyone is really friendly, a lot of churches also, since The Ozarks are in the Bible-Belt and all. It all really depends which part you're in.
"Why am I Mr. Pink?"
I grew up near Calico Rock, Arkansas which has a state prison.
There is a message board for women who have husbands or male family members incarcerated. In the Arkansas room there are posts about how prisoners' wives try to get their men transferred to Calico Rock because 'when you call there they treat you like a human being'.
So it's not all mean or unfriendly. Though it certainly can be.
Thanks for your replies skeezo912 and aksooted; very interesting. I guess everywhere has a mix of good and bad.
shareWow, good to hear.
shareI would never want to raise a child in such a horrible place. I bet the education opportunities are crap and the education is crap. Plus all of the drugs? No thanks.
Well...my other God calls - The Honorable Sheriff of Nottingham
I grew up in a town of 7,000 in the Ozarks. I had opportunities to dual enroll in college classes, I had fantastic GPAs through both H.S. and college, and I now work as an auditor at one of the most prestigious Accounting firms in the world.
My education was not crap, and I hope you never move to the Ozarks. We don't need more closed-minded people like you.
hear, hear!! ignore the closed-minded folks. they're so ignorant.
i have never been to Ozarks, but i've been in towns like it (population 514, huge meth problem)
and i thought this film did a really good job of depicting a town that made do with
what it had. i didn't feel turned off by it. in fact, i marveled at the strengths and the loyalties that
were within each unit. and i wished i had some of their skills for if we ever had an apocalyptic type of scenario. being able to kill and cook a squirrel would be so handy. :)
this film is easily one of my favorites of 2010. i loved every minute of it. it felt so genuine and authentic.
They might make cheap rat traps and make rat stew just as well. Tastes the same, is the same thing without a furry tail though. How much is ammo?
my vote history:
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13767631/ratings
The ignorance people show always astounds me!! I watch a lot of movies about a lot of different places, but I certainly don't believe everything. The lifestyle of most people in this area is nothing like this. I grew up in Northwest Arkansas and we have very good schools, over half of my class scored in the 90th percentile of national tests. We had classmates who went to Harvard, Yale, West Point and many other fine colleges. Many famous people are from the Ozarks Brad Pitt (Springfield, MO).Sam Walton was born and raised in the Ozarks, Don Tyson, J.B. Hunt. President Clinton was raised just south of the Ozarks and went to College here.
...yeah, much better to live in the city or suburbs of America where the education is crap and the drugs are even harder...
shareI would never want to raise a child in such a horrible place. I bet the education opportunities are crap and the education is crap. Plus all of the drugs? No thanks.You're acting as if big cities don't have their share of drugs and violent crime.
Probably time to emigrate then. But what country would want you? If you come from such a "horrible place" where "education opportunities are crap & the education is crap...plus all of the drugs".
Maybe Juarez Mexico might take you, or maybe Aleppo Syria, or maybe even Tehran Iran where there's lots of drugs.
Or maybe you should just remain childless eh, & do your country a favour rather than just whining about it.
Yes, my girlfriends asked this too, why everyone seemed so angry and miserable, i mean, everyone in this film was pretty much joyless, the only level headed "normal" person was the army recruiter, who dished out great advice by the way.
shareThis movie was terrific and I'm glad I saw it. I was on the edge of my seat and really felt for poor Ree and her family.
It is sad that in this day and age people live in such abject poverty and neglect. Maybe the answer is to legalize all drugs...
[deleted]
Considering he knew he COULDN'T sign her up for lack of proper age and parents to come in, he might as well give her good advice. Right? There was no percentage in it for him to try to rush her into enlisting, because she just plain wasn't eligible.
shareWow, I thought my relatives were bad people. This family makes mine look like saints.
share(why joyless?) Uh, utter poverty and meth?
shareSorry if I replied to wrong poster. I'm tryin to figure the message board technicalities out. :) I just think that Meth is a culture of its own. I grew up in Northern California. Exact same Mountain code and credo. The desperation. The poverty. The underlying ugliness of it all. The violence. They even looked right physically. Dazed and worn and on the verge of Of Go knows what. People high on Meth are out of their mind. People scoffing at the reality of chopping off hands. I think when killing is a reality, dismembering dead bodies is spot on realistic.
shareMakes me wonder what the recruiter would be saying if he was behind on his quota, circa 2005-2007.
I'm sure there are military recruiters who care deeply about people, or the net result of a troubled, potential recruit. But it would be a *huge* mistake to think the majority of recruiters operate in that manner. And from what little I read from military forums, doing recruiting is one of the worst assignments you can pull.
Everyone was angry and miserable because they were meth heads. It's a part of the ride. Being a meth addict means you are committing suicide in slow motion.
I have zero sympathy for anybody that cooks or distributes it,and would refuse to testify if I saw one killed in front of me. Good riddance to bad trash.
I have zero sympathy for anybody that cooks or distributes it,and would refuse to testify if I saw one killed in front of me. Good riddance to bad trash.People get into sh!t like that to help them get through the misery of poverty and hardship. In case you didn't notice, the area in the film was very impoverished. You're not helping the problem by dismissing these people as "trash". If they had been given better opportunities in life, they wouldn't have ended up that way.
The movie does convey the sense of institutionalized injustice that causes people in those communities to be trapped in that way of life. It was a profoundly sorrowful movie. Fabulous music though. That scene with the woman singing in the house was outstanding because of the folk music. Far richer than much of the pop-idol drivel we hear. Also, I agree that it does no favour for them to depict them as miserable and aggressive. I imagine there are a lot of interesting, unique and high-minded people who live there and enrich the lives of those who know them.
shareI've not seen the movie, but I can assure you that not everyone in the Ozarks is aggressive and miserble. You have to go to New York , Boston or D.C. for that. This is one of the best areas of the country to live- many,many happy, friendly, good down-to-earth people here. The movie must have got that totally wrong. Yes, we do have a lot of meth labs, but it only takes a handful of people to give us that bad rap.
shareHave you ever actually been to New York City or DC (I've never been to Boston and can say nothing about that area). But honestly, having visited DC with my son everyone was polite and nice. And living in New York, I can tell you that most definitely there are miserable people here, but it is a city of EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE! When I first moved here, I was lost getting to work and someone walked me there just to help. Heck, I got caught in the rain just Thursday and an old man walked up and walked me across the street under his umbrella. So no, not everyone is "miserable and aggressive" here, just the same as anywhere else.
shareI imagine the same reason Appalachia can be so harsh. Poverty does terrible things to people. Meth is big business in the south, and it makes you mean. Pot is also a popular cash crop, but those who smoke it don't generally go off the rails.
Good rule of thumb: If you find a community that's open and friendly, it's either drug-free or full-to-busting with growers. If people are hateful and quick-tempered, you've got yourself a cooking community, so watch your back (and your front and left and right sides).
Excellent advise. Stay away from speed freaks. You can't reason with insanity,and this is a form of insanity that is violent and aggressive.
shareHere here. Meth heads are very destructive; pot heads, not so much.
shareI grew up in Lake of the Ozarks, right in the middle of the state, in a town called Brumley, population 81.
This movie is disturbingly like where I spent most of my childhood, and it has gotten worse since I left in 1998. I graduated high school from a pretty nice school in a resort area, but the year afterward a meth lab blew up on the gravel road that led to my house.
Miller county is notoriously corrupt. The sheriff's girlfriend was killed and nothing ever came of it. My dad used to carry loaded weapons in his car because of the drugs and people cranked out on meth. A few years ago, he moved to Texas with my sister and I and I haven't gone back.
Not everyone is as aggressive and miserable, but a fair portion of the people who live in rural areas are.
You have never seen anyone from anywhere that isn't angry and miserable if they are meth heads. It's a part of the ride.
shareHELL, GO AHEAD AND HATE ME BUT THIS WHOLE STATE IS ONE *beep* FILTHY NASTY PUPPY MILL DRUG DEN PIECE OF *beep* I MOVED HERE 6 YEARS AGO-THIS HAS BEEN THE WORST SIX YEARS OF MY LIFE- I HAD NEVER TOUCHED HARD DRUGS BEFORE---THEN MOVED HERE AND TURNED ME INTO AN ADDICT IN 2. THANKS AS$HOLES! I WISH A TORNADO WOULD COME AND BLOW THIS WHOLE STATE OFF THE MAP. EVERYONE WOULD BE BETTER OFF AND THIS COUNTRY WOULD BE A BETTER PLACE TO BE. PERIOD!!!!!!!!!
"I always liked you Clarence....always have, always will"-Elvis(the mentor)
That is your own damn fault.
shareThis is pretty much the dumbest thing I've ever read. Get some new friends, retard.
share" I HAD NEVER TOUCHED HARD DRUGS BEFORE---THEN MOVED HERE AND TURNED ME INTO AN ADDICT IN 2."
Yeah,it was the area that did it. You had nothing to do with it. You were just laying around minding your own business,and meth came right into your house and attacked you!
Dude,you need to learn to accept responsibility for your actions and your addiction. Either that or go ahead and off yourself now and save yourself a lot of pain and grief.
...not to be rude, but how do you get past everyone around you being a drug addict/dealer? that's a pretty big "once you get past the..." for me.
shareBig dogs, loud guns.
I live in Lawrence county MO. We moved from Riverside county CA to get away from the drugs and gangs. Silly us, we moved right into meth head central. Luckly, having gone through it in CA, we knew how to handle it.
In a town of 250 (with only 5 family names), there where only two choices, church crowd or meth crowd.
So we made a third. Fenced off the yard, put 2 rotweilers in it and refeused to let people into the house. Oh and they came over to see who we where and what we had. Total strangers would show up half crocked with beer wanting in to "rap". We don't drink. Can't they come in anyway? They'd ask. Why? I'd snap, So I can watch you drink? It took about 6 months and answering the door with a gun in our hands to get our point across, but we did.
And then, we started keeping tabs on them. All we had to do was stand in the yard watching their houses long enough for them to notice and the parinoia set in. And after a few months, the meth heads started leaving. It took us about 5 years to clear out our side of town.
And I only had to shoot 1 pitbull to get my point across.
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball
Is all people ugly where you live like in the movie?. Is that caused by inbreeding?. I mean no offense, really, I´m just curious.
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hahaha Like I said in my previous comments, not EVERYWHERE in the Ozarks is horrible. Just certain parts. In the good areas, like Springfield for example, are great places to raise a family. Great schools, colleges, jobs, ect. It all depends where you go. ahaha No, not everyone is ugly here. In this film, they showed the bad parts of the Ozarks. Most people there are on drugs, on probation for various things, you name it. Also, I doubt it's from inbreeding, this ain't Arkansas. ;)
"Why am I Mr. Pink?"
The Wire did the same thing for Baltimore. Everyone now thinks of Baltimore as just a drugged out city and it was only a portion of the city it was really about. Brilliant show but bad for Baltimore's tourist industry lol. Truth as it was it didn't reflect all of Baltimore.
I think the Ozarks look beautiful. And would love to visit there.
Actually "Homicide" did that for Baltimore years ago, same writer, I guess.
You are a wise man Van Helsing, for one who has lived only one lifetime...
I wasn't sure at first where this movie was filmed. I thought maybe West Virginia until mention was made of drive down to the Arkansas border. I thought this movie was depressing, and it reminded me too much of the poor whites depicted in "Deliverance" right down to the banjo playing. The locale is certainly not a place most American's would want to live or visit. I always thought the Ozarks were supposed to be beautiful but not as shown in Winter's Bone. Too bad so many people living in that area have turned to drugs. It says a lot about America and how we are not in many ways the exceptional country right wing politicians always brag about. It's also not a good sign if the way men treat their wives and girlfriends, is the norm in that part of the country. Women are still chattel.
shareI wouldn't say that the way the men treat the women in the movie is the norm but it does happen. I'm from the Ozarks and a lot about this movie is accurate: the music they played, the clothes they wore and even the fact that drugs can be prominent in some areas. But it really is a lovely place and we're not all ignorant, ugly inbreeds. Promise. :)
And it really is beautiful here.
For the most part, the Ozarks are beautiful. It's some of the most scenicland in the country. Hills and valleys, rivers, and decades old trees cover the entire area. There are amazing sights: 100 year old houses buried deep in the woods, caves everywhere, some even with genuine arrowheads in the dirt. Our family is from there, and we float the Big Piney River often, which stretches through lower Missouri. Many of the people are fantastic and have genuine old-fashioned values. If you go to someone's house, you're offered tea, and people respect one another.
Unfortunately, there is a sizable underlying meth problem. It's usually not out in the open, but places like Joplin, which has had the distinction of being the meth capital of the world for some time, obviously has battles with it every day. Once floating a river, we noticed an old van that someone had tried to drive over a cliff to roll into the creek. It got stuck right at the top, and inside was an obvious spent meth factory. Just like anywhere, some people let their homes go to rot, some take pride in them. Some do meth, others don't. Some people don't attend much school, others do. And the ones that do, get strong personal attention from the teachers, since their classes are often smaller.
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The Blues http://www.bluescentric.com
Apart from all the drugs, and stuff, it looked nice. Farm life has always intrigued me. :]
"Grand theft horse?!"
Communities ruled by Porky (from the Porky films) lookalikes? Ugly, fat, dirty, frumpish women? Banjo players and squirrel killers? If this is an accurate portrayal of life in the sticks then i never want to leave the big city.
shareFilm loves to focus on the negative side of things, guys.
Even "Magnolia," despite its colorful locale and near black-comic happenings, is a sullen piece of cinema. "Winter's Bone" is no different.
I gotta set this film when it comes out on DVD.
It's out on DVD. I just brought it a week ago
shareCool! Stay there,and please allow me to be the first to thank you for doing so.
shareThis is kind of fun reading where everyone is from. I moved to the Ozarks from Southern Cali when I was 9, because that's where my father decided to retire to (he's originally from there, as well as the relatives a few generations back). I was actually astonished as to how accurate this film was! A friend of mine lives outside of Rolla, MO on a farm, and now have (but don't reside in) a farm in St. Clair, MO. We were talking about 'the good ole' days' and how f&#*ed up things would get on occasion (although nothing as extreme as this film with hands being delievered to the police, but we did have instances where people were buried alive and a few instances where people were tied up and set on fire), especially when it came to people like the meth dealers, the meth users, and the KKK. We actually laugh a lot of it off now in a kind of morbid way, and I'm not sure if it is STILL that way (I'm under the impression that, since the big organized meth dealers were busted, that's been lessened... I hope). But yes, in the Ozarks it feels like EVERYBODY was related to most of the city. We often joked about certain last names that were quite popular in the area (such as Voss, Dance, Bell, etc.). There didn't seem to be much variety there at times. As for the locale? The drugs aren't everywhere, but they are very prominent in the poor areas, like the old generational farms (although those are less and less common... a lot of them were bought for commercial real estate... and if you're having trouble feeding your kids and you're sitting on a couple hundred acres, why not sell most of it off?) or the trailer parks. It's much less in the rich, upper sub-urban parts of the Ozarks with the big houses. People in the Ozarks CAN be friendly. Branson definitely is, but that's what they get paid for. It used to be that people were friendly to you IF you were a straight, white Christian Republican, but anything else was considered an outsider that needed to leave town (I remember a certain mayor or a certain town SUPPOSEDLY being a KKK member. If nothing else, he was sympathetic toward them). This has, thankfully, changed quite a bit over the years, but I'm sure that mentality is still there. Someone made a comment about musical instruments... and that part is somewhat true. A LOT of the older people there seem to know at least one instrument, but it seems to become less and less with each generation. They, surprisingly, did have a lot of local rock and country artists there. The clothes were very accurate, as you don't see many girls in Ree's area wear traditional feminie clothes unless they are going out somewhere. Usually it's flannel shirts, t-shirts, and jeans (My friend and I made up an immature game when we were kids called 'Midwestern or Lesbian'. I'll let you figure out the rules). Someone made a comment about the tv's not being visible or abscent in the houses. That's not all THAT uncommon, but it is more uncommon with younger people there. When I moved, I gave my ugly, 36" box tv to a farmer I knew because I didn't want to haul it across the country when I knew I was going to buy a new flat when I had the chance. He didn't have a tv at all at that time. He had some old rabbit eared thing that broke, and that was his only tv. Someone else mentioned something about interracial dating? You don't see that much of it in the Ozarks, as that is (when I was there anyway) REALLY taboo. I remember a friend of mine out there making the comment that it would be easier to bring home a gay boyfriend(also really taboo out there at the time) than a black girlfriend, and I'd have to agree with that. When I was living out there, you honestly almost NEVER saw a black person, but I've noticied upon recent visits that I've seen black families at the Wal-Mart, so things have changed. But yes, my high school basketball team was all white, which posed for some really interesting reactions when we played for regionals.
The only thing I did take notice of, is that, strangely enough, about a third of the residents in the Ozarks have strong, thick southern accents. The rest do not. I noticed that no one in the film had a southern accent at all.
All said and done, there are some aspects that are nicer there than the cities. You don't have as strong an emphasis on money, people who are in the arts (like local theater, sketch artists, bands, etc.) aren't attention seeking whores and do it because they like it. Besides the meth stuff, not really a lot of crime. Real Estate is dirt cheap. People aren't as 'carb this, carb that' with food (and there, honestly, seem to be less obesity than in the cities), non-chain restaurants, thirty miles drives can take you twenty minutes rather than an hour and a half...
******All said and done, there are some aspects that are nicer there than the cities. You don't have as strong an emphasis on money, people who are in the arts (like local theater, sketch artists, bands, etc.) aren't attention seeking whores and do it because they like it. Besides the meth stuff, not really a lot of crime. Real Estate is dirt cheap. People aren't as 'carb this, carb that' with food (and there, honestly, seem to be less obesity than in the cities), non-chain restaurants, thirty miles drives can take you twenty minutes rather than an hour and a half...*******
Even with the damn meth problem you couldn't pay me to live in the city. Why would I give up my good & helpful friends, good yet somewhat weird neighbors, sense of community that comes from living just outside a small town, low crime rate (besides the meth), low housing prices, and the absolutely gorgeous (and large amount of) conservation area like family owned land that I live on? To get the "pleasure" saying I live in the city and am therefore infinitely more awesome than anyone who doesn't? To live in an apartment building with another families sharing my walls? To move from having real friends who are there for me to having to work at making aquaintances and building new friendships? To breathe pollution instead of fresh air (no, the meth lab pollution doesn't taint the entire countryside)? To deal with the headaches associated with heavier traffic? Thanks but no thanks.
By the way people, not everyone who lives out in the boonies is an uneducated, illiterate, inbread, redneck stooge who cooks up a batch of crank in the bathtub every few days & calls it a second job.
In my town, we had maybe one newspaper article on a murder every three years. I'm ok with meth being the only crime for which we're known. Most of the obituaries are all for people who were in their 70s and beyond, dying of natural causes.
If I hadn't moved out to the Rockies and found out what life was like without humidity, I would be perfectly content retiring in the Ozark. The rolling hills, lakes, and lush land are so amazing, and the prices for property can't be beaten.
For the most part, a lot of places are within an hour of a moderately-sized city, if not closer. That's better than Friday afternoon rush-hour in most major cities.
great post theopener80
The only thing I did take notice of, is that, strangely enough, about a third of the residents in the Ozarks have strong, thick southern accents. The rest do not. I noticed that no one in the film had a southern accent at all.
Really ?
I pity you so !
Would have to be hell living there.
warmtrooper--Buy a clue.
a) Yes, TVs are rife in poor families. However, the one house we spend the most time in, they are so desperately poor, they probably already hocked theirs for food. It's not likely to have a TV in a barn or at a cattle show. Most of the rest of the action takes place out of doors or in cars. More likely than your scornful "artsy" explanation is that introducing TVs would have cost money for licensing rights to the programs and created continuity issues, neither of which a low-budget production needs.
b) People often do speak cryptically or in vague sentences in real life, regardless of where they are from. I especially wouldn't fault Teardrop for doing so here, considering he already knows Ree knows it's kind of a death sentence for him to ascertain the killer and go looking for revenge. The less said, the better.
c) You're all bent out of shape with incredulity because ONE family assembled a few musical people for a birthday party? Sheesh. It's not like they were having a jamboree every day of the week.
d) No, not everyone is mean to her. The neighbor takes her horse in. Some of the younger women slip her info, even though they're afraid of their men or the meth head gang. The bondsman and army recruiter are kind and helpful. Most of the people who ARE mean to Ree come around and do right by her eventually, including Teardrop and Thump's wife. Don't blame the movie for your poor memory.
e) The names were probably in the source novel. Would it really have helped the movie if they were all called normal names? Quit picking at nits.
f) Everyone being related was kinda unnecessary, but again, was probably in the source novel. The filmmakers are not obliged to change the original material in order to conform to your politically correct ideas about regional stereotyping.
*"Jamboree in someone's house. I've never seen anything like this! Most people don't know how to play musical instruments, or if they did, it would be one person in a household. This insulting trashy movie makes SMissouri
look like Appalachia. In fact, I wouldn't doubt the director thinks the 2 are the same!"*
*"Everyone's related: Another insult that makes Missourians look like inbred hillbillies from Appalachia and WVirgina--what a stereotype!"*
And yet you just stereotyped everyone living in the Appalachia area (where I'm originally from) and West Virginia. When a movie takes place in a specific area, the worst of worst is almost always highlighted.....whether it's in a rural area or a major city.