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?"
Heard that. In fact, I lived right there in that area -- in Forsyth for a while and in Branson, later in Springfield, and knew a lot of people along the very roads they used in the film. They got it mostly right in the film, for sure, although I think they probably overemphasize the isolation of these people from the outside world. Not all that much of it these days, and hasn't been for a really long time. That overemphasis was related to one of the only real flaws in the film -- the feeling that no character had any life outside of what served the plot, no other actions or connections to other people in any way.
It's true that there are some really isolated, clannish, unpleasant people in that region, but then, there are people like that everywhere, and these characters in the film were probably a little unrealistically too much that way. But it wasn't a huge inaccuracy -- more of an exaggeration, I think -- and it doesn't really detract from the film or its themes, one of which is certainly the degradation and extremity which, inadvertently or not, is caused by a life that becomes enfolded in drug production and abuse. They got a lot of the "feel" right, better than any other film I've ever seen set in (or about) the Ozarks.
Just a followup: I also had some family friends who lived up near Lake of the Ozarks, quite a distance from where I did, but still in the hills (just north of Richland). They had land in the family that they'd had for at least a hundred years, and within walking distance there were at least a dozen families related by blood -- over that hill, down that holler, downstream that way, etc. Some of them were on land that had been in the family since the Civil War or before. So it really isn't that unbelievable at all that in the film, Ree walks from place to place with almost everybody related by blood, whether distantly or not.
Also, I remember distinctly that when I lived up there in the mid-1980s, one of the guys I worked with as a landscaper was talking at lunch one day about how the area had become the "world capital of meth." That was the first time I'd ever even heard of meth, or of people manufacturing it in their own garages or sheds. I did know people grew weed all over the place, including out in the national forests where it would be hard to prove who had planted it unless you caught them in the act of harvesting, and that some of the weed patches, just like the old moonshine stills, were booby-trapped -- that was sort of well-known, that you wanted to be a little careful when you were out in unfamiliar parts of the woods.
Yes I agree. It's realistic. Beautiful Missouri scenery
shareLooks like an absolutely beautiful place to live.
Send lawyers,guns and money/The *beep* has hit the fan
I will grant that the region has a lot of poverty, and apparently a lot of methamphetamine is made there, but I still don't buy that the people are solemn, dark, soulless, and amoral as depicted in the movie -- I think that's Hollywood's rather snobbish assumption. I've been all over this country, including areas of poverty like Indian lands, and nowhere are the people like that. Xenophobic towards outsiders, yes, but not monstrous psychos like in the movie
shareThis was adapted from a "rural noir" novel-Hollywood's snobbish assumptions have little to do with the characterizations. It's the meth that warped people. Not the region. The story could have been set in any area of the US where meth manufacturing and usage is out of control.
Send lawyers,guns and money/The *beep* has hit the fan
...but not monstrous psychos like in the movie...Monstrous psychos who occasionally play some nice music in between cooking up the meth. I too was blown away by the fact that virtually everyone else besides Ree is portrayed as being...
dark, soulless, and amoral.
Yeah, John Hawkes was soo friggin good in this movie! But then again he was friggin good in "Deadwood" also! Terrific actor all around!
"Today is the tomorrow I was so worried about yesterday"--Anthony Hopkins
Filmed entirely on location in Christian and Taney counties, Missouri.
shareMy only knock is they didn't show how beautiful some of that country is. It could be because it was winter, but I ride (motorcycles) through there a lot and there are some vistas that literally make your jaw drop.
Amy: I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!