MONSTER’S BALL

US, 2001, 112 minutes, Colour.
Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle, Mos Def.
Directed by Marc Forster.

Monster’s Ball was a surprise dramatic, critical and award-winning success in 2001. Halle Berry won the Oscar for best actress.

Marc Forster is a Swiss director who has worked mainly in the United States and in England. He made a film in 1995, Loungers, and then a small-budget film about pregnancy with Radha Mitchell, Everything Put Together. After Monster’s Ball he again had critical and award-winning success with his story of J.M. Barrie, Finding Neverland. His supernatural thriller Stay, was rather less successful.

This is a prison film. It focuses on several generations of men who acted as prison wardens. Peter Boyle is the older generation, a bigoted old man, racist in his attitudes, harsh and macho. Billy Bob Thornton, the central focus of the film, is the next generation – a good man, but tired, looking after his father and exasperated with him, impatient with his son. Heath Ledger is the younger generation, following in the family footsteps, but not comfortable with the work in the prison – and ultimately, killing himself.

Halle Berry is the wife of a condemned prisoner. She meets Billy Bob Thornton at the café where she works and there is an attraction leading to an affair. She becomes somewhat disillusioned when she discovers who Billy Bob Thornton really is. However, in her desperation, she stays with him, even after the accidental death of her rather obese young child.

The racist plot is also a subtext of the film, not only with Halle Berry, but with the neighbours to the warden family and the old man’s prejudice as well as the kindness of the young man.

All in all, a strong but grim drama, straightforward and frank in its representation of capital punishment, of violence, of verbal abuse, sexual relationships.

1.The impact of the film? Not a studio production? Independence and assertion by the director for his vision? Acclaim and awards?

2.The perspective of a Swiss-born director? His attitude towards the United States, capital punishment, relationships, racism?

3.The authenticity of the locations, the family house, the town itself, the streets, the café? The atmosphere of the prison, the cells? The musical score?

4.The range of issues and how they were treated: prison and imprisonment, the death penalty, executions, family generations, marriage, grief, children, sexuality, suicide?

5.The death penalty and the stance of the film, the preparation for the execution, the attitudes and behaviour of the staff, the role of the chaplain, the immediate preparation of the prisoner, the rehearsal, Sonny and his making a mistake? The execution, Sonny and the accident? Hank and his work, dedication? Sonny and his work, his not wanting to be there? The memories of his mother? His relationship with his father? His reaction to his father’s taunts? The visit of the prostitute? His killing himself? The theme of death, execution, suicide? Sadness and tragedy?

6.The title, the prison references, prisoners, the execution? The stances of staff and authorities?

7.The prisoner, whether he had committed a crime or not? The sketches? His relating to Hank and to Sonny? The drawings? The visits of his wife, his son? His getting ready for death, talk, his experience of death?

8.The family, the three generations, the generations of men? Tough, macho and sexist attitudes, the submerging of feelings, the lack of communication? The racism of Buck? The taunts? The ugly Americans? The attitude towards women, the women in the family, the mother, defeated? The father and his inability to change? Sonny and his inability to change – and killing himself? Hank and the possibilities of a different kind of life?

9.The portrait of Hank, going about his routine, the memory of his wife, the relationship with Sonny? The details of home life, meals? Prison? Relationship with the guards? Keeping an eye on his son? Morose, not reflective? His angers with his son? Especially at the execution? The theme of death, his father and his getting old, cantankerous? His going for the ice cream, the enjoyment, the meeting with Leticia? At the diner? The orders for ice cream? The accident to Leticia’s son, helping to get him to hospital, taking her home? The beginning of the relationship?

10.Leticia, her son, his size, hiding the sweets, eating them? Her relationship with her husband? The visits? The sadness? The experience of marriage? Her job, lack of money, the customers? Her being evicted from her home? At home, her reaction to the death? Work at the diner, meeting Hank? With her son, his death? Her grief, Hank helping? The accumulation of grief, her going with Hank, her breaking down emotionally?

11.Hank and Leticia, together, the common bonds, the emotional needs, the sex and the explicit and graphic presentation? How comprehensible was this unusual relationship? Based on needs?

12.Buck, boorish, his attacks, his attitude towards Leticia and her visit, the insults? With the black neighbours? Hank and his decision to put his father in a home? His desperation? Was any other alternative possible?

13.The sketch of Sonny, his life, his work, his friendliness with the neighbours, with the black children? The prostitute? The mistake at the execution? His father’s taunts, the graphic killing himself?

14.The sketches, Leticia discovering them, the truth about Hank and his work, the effect?

15.Hank and his decisions, to move out of the prison, the garage? The house, the job, his loneliness? The possibility of sharing and building a new life with Leticia?