Hounddog (2007)

Sometimes I think that people(especially people who write reviews of movies)either forget that it's just a movie, or are reviewing based on their feelings toward the characters and subject matter. Hounddog is not a masterpiece, sure. But it's not unwatchable. At least the music is good, unlike similar movies that have a strong musical theme. Elvis is the worst music in the movie! But once again, Americans show by their reaction to this movie that violence is still a more acceptable theme than sexuality, and that rape is still not considered a violent assault, but an unwanted sexual encounter(I had forgotten about the controversy, even while watching the movie, I guess because I didn't see as sexual at all). Dakota Fanning is very sensual in this movie though, which I'm sure makes a lot of people very uncomfortable. My biggest complaint about this movie is that it's somewhat vague, until the part where they force resolve on us like a 1/2 hour sitcom. I think it's still worth watching though.

Hounddog is a movie about many things people (including the author), love to hate about the Old South. The director, Deborah Kampmeier, resorts to cliché after cliché to tell her half-baked story that I'll get mentioning in a few lines. She set the story in the south for no plot necessary reason, and layers our expectations with even more expectations. All of the young white adults are pitiable, uneducated characters who have no control over their lives. The old one is a hard-lined Christian nut, and the black people are oppressed yet compassionate because they are black. This story's only noteworthy player is Fanning's character Lewellen. She is a preteen girl, admittedly a caricature herself, who was fortunately played by someone who delights the audience with her rendition of Scout Finch.She resides with her alcoholic father and enjoys swimming in the river and Elvis LPs. She has to move in with her strict grandmother when a cartoon thunderbolt strikes her father while he is mowing the lawn. Seriously, this happens for no reason and demonstrates the film's low budget. The CG effect is laughably obvious.Lewellen is in the summer before physical womanhood. She has as much fun playing dress up as she does offering boys kisses for peeks at their penises. She is totally unaware of how much of a woman she is going to be. The director plays on her innocence and includes a scene of particular cruelty made worse by our attachment to Lewellen as enhanced by Fanning's accent and method acting.Lewellen wakes up one morning and is greeted by a lascivious milkman. The poor guy has enough pimples to fit the ugly never-going-to-have-a-girlfriend stereotype you forgot that you had. You probably forgot about it because you aren't used to directors pigeonholing their audiences into such obvious setups.The milkman entices Lewellen with the promise that he will give her tickets to an Elvis concert. He meets her in a barn and asks her to strip and perform "Hound Dog," after which he rapes her. The scene is framed in such a way that we don't see him committing the act. It is not intended to be exploitative. The camera moves over her anguished face and her hand is gouged on a nail. The blood flows from her hand so you can see the coming adulthood metaphor in case the rape wasn't sufficient.Like the lightning bolt, the rape scene isn't required. It's a slap in the face to the audience that has been encouraged to grow attached to the character. I'm not offended by the rape itself, even given the age of the victim. I'm angry that the director uses it as an attempt to resuscitate her story. This story doesn't merit putting us through it. Lewellen does get better with the help of the token black characters, and the film finally ends.Hounddog was a critical and commercial failure and may have caused the end to Kampmeier's carrier. Fanning's portrayal of Lewellen is worth watching, especially the visceral way she interprets the trauma of the rape. It doesn't mean you should watch movie, but it may provide a director with a glimpse into her range for a horror or thriller.

Southern Gothic story abounds with lots of Pre-Raphaelite imagery, and too many snakes to shake a stick at. Dakota's character is filmed in many Pre-Raphaelite shots, and she has that sense of calm longing on her face that has been made popular by the Pre-Raphaelites. In contrast, two of her main antagonists, her Grammie and her father, appear as Medieval country bumpkins in their last scene with her. It's pretty clear, there is a sub-textual analogy to the Renaissance and the Dark Ages, here. During her rape, one of Dakota's hands are pierced with a nail. This obvious Christ-like reference is strengthened later, when she appears in bed, with her white underwear bunched and puffy, as if in swaddling clothes, or even a Christ mounted in contorted agony on the cross. Snakes infest her garden of Eden. They are everywhere. The only way to survive being bitten is too spit the poison out, which she does metaphorically, when she takes a deep breathe and belts out the Blues. Visually, this Southern eden is filmed claustrophobic-ally. Besides tall grass and bushes, even the very trees work together to obscure the sun. Some have praised the Blues players as the light in Dakota's world. One reviewer rightly suggests this is patronizing, a stereotype of the magical Negroes in Vagger Bance? In any event, they free Dakota from this wicked Eden. By the way, Dakota's character is no Saint but a survivor. She knowingly lets her father be killed by not warning him about a snake.

Warning- Some of this maybe consider a possible spoiler It takes something extreme to get a 12 year old white girl to sing the blues. She was a shimmer of light being engulfed by the darkness that surround her. Everyone turned on her, her father neglected her and then became mentally challenged, her grandmother gave her no room to be "her", the stranger lady lied and turn her back on her, her childhood friends that she confined in would turn against her and even her idol Elvis kept on riding by. The only person she could trust was Charles and he was a mentor that guided her to find peace and harmony within her spirit. All her Elvis mimics weren't her true self it was just a fantasy, an escape from her daily hardships. Charles could see her for what she really is, which was an amazing beautiful gift from god that was trapped in a world of darkness. That's why Charles says 24 minutes in the film "feeling the spirits in the dark, are you?" Charles identifies her life as that of a snake charmer or medicine man that handles the venom of the snake when the medicine man gets so much of the venom in their veins they either die or become immune to it. What more poison can a little girl have then to be raped? She was bite by the snake and the venom was killing her. Charles realized this and knew her spirit was buried and suffocating from the darkness that poison her body,mind and soul. He knew the only way to bring forth that spirit was for her to do which she loved most despite all the wrong she been dealt and that was to sing "hounddog" but not to imitate Elvis with the song but to sing it from her own perspective, with her heart and soul. Dakota plays it perfectly when she first is standing their singing I can almost see the darkness around her through her body language and speech but as she sings it's like a light emerging from underneath her and rising upward completely surrounding her that takes her away from that dark place. As horrible as it seems, something like what happen to her would make a little white girl sing the blues.As for Dakota Fanning she absolutely blows my mind. I never seen a child on screen as talented as her. I just hope as she gets older that the life style that comes with being a famous actor doesn't eat her up. I personally have and will continue to enjoy seeing her grow up before my eyes on the wide screen as she continues to take on challenging roles such as Lewellen.In my opinion Dakota is the next Hilary Swank but yet innovating enough to still be in her own league.way to go kiddo!