"The Beasts of the Southern Wild" - The Brave Don't Run

The beautifully shot film, "The Beasts of the Southern Wild," in many ways parallels the Nat'l Book Award Winner, SALVAGE THE BONES.  Both main characters are young motherless girls, with drunkards for  dads & both live in ramshackle poverty. The girls yearn for a mother's love or any tenderness. Both must cope with the danger and carnage of Katrina.  The film's heroine and narrator, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) is only 6 and left to mainly fend for herself. This results in a near catastrophic explosion.  But Hushpuppy is a survivor and wise beyond her years.  "The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right."  She understands "everybody loses the thing that made them, that's nature."  Fortunately, Hushpuppy has the guidance and support of a female teacher to a few ragamuffins in the Delta.  The teacher tells her students, "the most important lesson I can teach you all is to care for those smaller than you."  Hushpuppy's father (Dwight Henry) tries to teach his daughter how to survive on her own and warns her not cry.  I implore you to see this heartwrenching movie and dare you not to cry.  Despite the harsh settting and at times, the father's brutal treatment, there is a familial bond of love that cannot be shattered nor the indinomitable spirit of Hushpuppy be diminished.