Winter's Bone

Roadside Attractions specialises in distributing independent films and in 2009 it released Winter’s Bone. However despite its distributor, there is more behind Winter’s Bone that indicates that it is in fact independent. The film contains realistic and confronting violence, themes which include drug use and poverty, and its low budget causes every aspect of it to be carefully planned, resulting in a very artistic film. Without the need to please a mainstream Audience, Winter’s Bone is able to focus on its strong and themes and message.
When violence is present in a mainstream film it is often very toned down or unrealistic. Realistic violence can be very confronting and disturbing to many people as they have often never experienced anything like it in their lives before. A mainstream film is trying to appeal to the widest audience as possible, and so in order to avoid loss of viewers due to this disturbing violence, the film makers will almost always create unrealistic violence which is less confronting. During a scene involving violence, the actual violence comes mostly under the category of ‘happy violence’. 100 bullets can be fired at the hero and not one will hit. They can be punched and kicked countless times and finish the fight with nothing more than a few scratches and a bit of blood. The violence within Winter’s Bone is very different to that of a mainstream Hollywood film. Winter’s Bone, being an independent film, is free from the constraints of having to please the mainstream. As a result, Debra Granik and the film’s makeup artists were able to create certain scenes with such realistic violence that it even had some shock value. One of the best examples of these is the scene in which Ree goes for the second time to visit Thump Milton but is instead beaten and taken captive. There is no foreplay and no exchange of words between her and her assailants; the assault is full on and straight forward. Ree’s struggle is realistic; there is biting, scratching