Themes: Domestic Abuse, Families in Crisis, Down on Their Luck
Main Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ron Eldard, Jena Malone, Glenne Headly, Lyle Lovett
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Accomplished actress Anjelica Huston, daughter of John Huston, made her directorial debut with this absorbing, often wrenching story of child abuse in the 1950s American South. Based on a novel by Dorothy Allison, the film (narrated by Laura Dern) tells the tale of Bone (Jena Malone), a poor white girl so named because she was born right after her mother survived a terrifying car crash. While Bone is still a small child, her single mother, Anney (Jennifer Jason Leigh), meets and marries the sweet Lyle (Dermot Mulroney), and the two add another daughter to the family before Lyle dies in an auto accident. Anney is next courted by the less good-natured Glen (Ron Eldard), who takes out his rage on Bone both physically and sexually, as Bone becomes even more disillusioned at her mother's inability to get away from her monstrous husband. Set in South Carolina in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Bastard Out Of Carolina touches on many aspects of life, family, and hardship amidst the poor white of the South. TNT owner Ted Turner refused to air the film, ostensibly because of its difficult subject matter, but the film goes out of its way to handle its material with as little exploitation as possible. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
Review
Based on the novel by Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Carolina marks the directorial debut of acclaimed actress Anjelica Huston. Originally a made-for-TV movie, this disturbing family drama premiered on the Showtime cable network after TNT declined to broadcast it due to the dark subject. The topic of child abuse is inherently unsettling, yet Huston refused to sensationalize the depictions of violence. The painfully realistic abuse does become almost unbearable to watch, but it thankfully surpasses becoming exploitation by treating the characters with compassion. Given their situations in the poverty-stricken Deep South, the actors also do a reasonable job of not resorting to "white trash" stereotypes. Especially memorable is the screen debut of promising star Jena Malone, who portrays Bone with an amazing range for a child actor. Though the grim realities and graphic violence are difficult to endure, Bastard out of Carolina is a haunting portrait of a touchy subject that is often given the schmaltzy after-school-special treatment. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Anjelica Huston - Director, Eva Gardos - Editor, Van Dyke Parks - Composer (Music Score), Van Dyke Parks - Songwriter, Nelson Coates - Production Designer, Anthony Richmond - Cinematographer, Gary Hoffman - Producer, David Hankins - Sound/Sound Designer, Anne Meredith - Screenwriter, Medusah - Key Hairstylist
It won the Emmy Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or a Special (Linda Lowy) and was nominated Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Special (Anjelica Huston), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special (Glenne Headly), and Outstanding Made for Television Movie (Amanda DiGiulio, Gary Hoffman). It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.[1]
Ruth Anne, nicknamed "Bone", is a young girl growing up in Greenville, South Carolina. Born out of wedlock to 15-year-old Anney, Bone lives with her mother and their extended family in a poor part of town. Anney loves Bone, but is still very much a child herself, tired out from working and needy for attention and adoration. Bone and Anney nearly always have to face the shame of the "ILLEGITIMATE" stamp on Bone's birth certificate. Later, when the county courthouse burns down, Anney is at last able to get a copy of Bone's birth certificate without the shameful designation "ILLEGITIMATE" stamped on it. After her kind, hardworking first husband, the father of Bone's half-sister, is killed in an automobile accident, Anney remarries a man named Glen, who seems attentive until Anney's and Glen's baby dies at birth.
Glen first sexually assaults Bone, while waiting in the car for the birth of his child. Frustrated by the loss of his eagerly-anticipated son, Anney's inability to have more children, and his own inability to manage his temper and maintain steady employment, Glen begins to physically and sexually abuse Bone regularly. Anney is saddened by her new husband's behavior towards her child, but does not leave him.
One day, Bone's aunt discovers lashes on her legs and alerts the girl's uncles, who beat Glen unconscious. Bone goes to live with her aunts, and eventually tells her mother that she is allowed to love Glen, but that Bone will never come home to him again. Eventually, Glen comes around while the aunts are out, telling Bone that Anney refuses to come home without her, and trying to force her to come back. When she fights him, he punches her and then rapes her. Anney discovers them and breaks a bottle over Glen's head, carries Bone away while screaming at Glen, but eventually returns to him anyway.
In the end, Bone is allowed to stay with her Aunt Raylene and Uncle Earle, far away from the reach of those who would harm her. Her mother visits one final time to deliver to her the copy of her birth certificate without the mark of "ILLEGITIMATE" that had plagued Bone her whole life.
Her mother kisses her forehead, like she used to, and tells her that she will always love her, before driving away to rejoin Glen. Bone remains with her Aunt, and with this final, tearful goodbye, she cries for her mother's sacrifice and for the freedom she has at last achieved.
Her final words are voiced in the narration by Laura Dern.
"Who had Momma been? What'd 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 wouldn't know, that I was already who I was gonna be. Someone like her, like my Momma. A Boatwright. A bastard. A bastard outta Carolina."
