Beasts of the Southern Wild! one of my favorite movies as of late. i love how poetic the film flows and the non-actors who blew their parts, and this film, out of the water (pun maybe intended)... also, Lucy Alibar is my neighbor's cousin, so i've got to show the love and give her props for this film. this is my first video grab (i couldn't find it online so i made my own) so i hope it's timed right. i wanted to back it up more and show the beasts approaching, but i thought to just focus on his death instead. http://youtu.be/wAjD5s9sqQk EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Hushpuppy approaches the shacko. It’s like walking the plank, but she’s unafraid, at one with her destiny. The Bathtub crew look on her in awe. They part ways to let her pass. She reaches the door, steeling her reserve. Hushpuppy opens the door. INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY Wink is curled up on Hushpuppy’s bed-- very, very thin. His eyes are closed. His chest heaves up and down in short violent breaths. Hushpuppy stands and stares. Wink looks at Hushpuppy in reverence. He knows it’s the last time. Wink motions for her to come closer. Hushpuppy inches toward him. It takes all of her might. She sits on his bed. Hushpuppy takes her to-go container from Elysian Fields out of a paper bag and pops it. She unwraps a gator nugget, dips it in hot sauce, and holds it out for Wink to take a bite. Hushpuppy watches as Wink chews weakly. She eats one herself. Wink and Hushpuppy draw it out. They don't want it to end. It takes a full minute for him to swallow the first bite, and she paces herself to finish when he does. WINK (barely audible) Real good. Wink's chest heaves up and down, harder and harder. A tear rolls down his face. WINK (CONT’D)(choking up) No crying, you hear? She holds them back, being tough for her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY No crying. Hushpuppy’s face hardens, and even as the tears fall, we see a strength and composure that only Wink could have put there. She falls into his arms and he embraces her. Hushpuppy squeezes Wink. She does not let go. She stays strong. Wink’s hand trembles on her back. She holds him as his deep, warm, heartbeat slows, slows, and stops. His weight slumps over her. She keeps on holding him, but she knows. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY Steadfast, Hushpuppy holds a torch on the edge of the Bathtub. The Turck, piled with branches, floats in front of her. She lowers the flame and lights a cloth covering Wink’s body aflame. She pushes the funeral pyre out into the current. We watch the boat flames drift into the foreground, covering Hushpuppy face with flames. She looks into them in all her grief and wisdom. The group begins a funeral prayer, playing quiet in the background as Hushpuppy contemplates the pyre. PETER T As I stand by the bayou, Everyone else joins him. EVERYONE A ship at my side starts her motors and sails for the gulf. I watch her until she disappears. “There! She’s gone!” Gone where? Gone from my eyes, that’s all. She’s just as big as when she left me. And somewhere else, other voices are calling out, “Here she comes!” And that is dying. They raise their drinks to the sky and shout in unison. EVERYONE (CONT’D) HERE! SHE! COMES! Hushpuppy gazes into the sparks leaping off the top of the fire are foregrounded in front of Hushpuppy, particles of Wink jumping into the sky. HORNS ENTER, droning low, and building into an funeral dirge. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When I relax behind my eyes I see everything that made me flying around in invisible pieces. When I look too hard it goes away, but when it all goes quiet, I see they are right here. The Turck almost disappears over the horizon. The HORNS take a hopeful turn, the melancholy of the dirge mixing with the anthem of the Bathtub. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) I see that I’m a little piece of a big, big universe, and that makes things right. Hushpuppy stands tiny on the ledge of the Earth, framed in front of an expanse of endless water. EXT. CAUSEWAY - POST-FLOOD - DAY The Bathtub gang marches across the marsh road. Hands touch the town sign, saying goodbye. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) When I die, the scientists of the future, they gonna find it all. They gonna know, once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. EVERYONE (CONT'D) We CUT WIDE to reveal that the water is rising and washing over the road. Our heroes are marching on the final sliver of land. The camera flies backwards, and our view of the road disappears into mist and churning waves. They appear to be walking on water. Hushpuppy leads them forward, into the future.

Absolutely one of my favorite novels, it had quite a profound effect on my life upon reading it (isn't that what we hope to do with our stories?). I even reference it in a script of mine. But unfortunately, the film does not do much of a job capturing the philosophical genius of Milan Kundera's thoughts and his beautiful conjecture about 'that unbearable lightness'. How does one put that philosophical prose of a page into a film? Alas, that is the difficulty and often the nature of adaptation. Kundera himself criticized the film, saying it had very little to do with the spirit either of the novel or the characters in it. Maybe certain types of books are better left as just that.