“Beasts of the Southern Wild” … including aurochs and a six-year-old

Last weekend’s movie extravaganza, part two: In my last post, I mentioned seeing a bunch of movies last weekend. One of them was the Sundance prize-winning film, “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” To get right to the point, you really want to see this movie!

Hush Puppy is a six-year-old girl who lives in an impoverished and idyllic community (which is her whole universe… she’s six!) at the end of the end of a Louisiana bayou. This is the story of the universe through her eyes. Which is to say, it’s the story of the universe as understood/imagined by a six-year-old mind, with all its egocentrism and certainty, and its confusion of reality and fantasy. The gift to those of us watching is that we get to listen in on her six-year-old musings as she both contemplates and creates her universe. Hush Puppy is, at least in her imagination, a “beast” of sorts, proudly proclaiming, with her father’s encouragement as she flexes her muscles, “I am the man!”

Aurochs in Lascaux Cave, France 

The other beast in this southern wild is the legendary aurochs, an extinct relative of modern cattle famously shown in prehistoric cave paintings. Actually, the aurochs in this case is a beast of Hush Puppy’s imagination, so it doesn’t have to be true to science. And it's not. It looks like a cross between the prehistoric bull and the huge hogs that live in her yard, consuming everything in sight. That’s the license given by a six-year-old mind. So is Hush Puppy’s certainty that her history and that of her community will be the topic of future scientific discoveries.


Hush Puppy’s universe, real and imaginary, is threatened by nature, human intrusion, and human frailty. And it is sustained by her own imagination and the resilience and support of her father and their community. This isn’t your everyday “feel good” film, but it is delightful and uplifting, even as it’s realistically sad and hard. My own feeling on leaving the film was lingering curiosity: What happened next? Who did Hush Puppy grow up to be? What happened to her community? What—or who—will be the next aurochs in her life?

So go. You’ll love it. If you have any doubts, read this New York Times review.

Go ahead … enter the mythic, real world of a six-year-old child confronting the mythic, real beasts of her southern wild universe.