Bastard Out of Carolina movie storyline. Ruth Anne, nicknamed “Bone” Boatwright, is a young girl growing up in Greenville, South Carolina in the 1950s. Born out of wedlock to Anney, Bone lives with her mother and their extended family in a poor part of town.
Anney loves Bone, but is still very much a child herself, tired out from working and needy for attention and adoration. Bone and Anney nearly always have to face the shame of the “ILLEGITIMATE” stamp on Bone’s birth certificate. When the county courthouse burns down, Anney is happy that a copy of Bone’s birth certificate no longer exists.
After her kind, hardworking first husband, Lyle Parsons, the father of Bone’s half-sister, is killed in an automobile accident, Anney remarries a man named Glen Waddell, who seems attentive until Anney’s and Glen’s baby dies at birth. Glen first molests Bone while waiting in the car for the birth of his child.
Frustrated by the loss of his eagerly-anticipated son, Anney’s inability to have more children, and his own inability to manage his temper and maintain steady employment, Glen begins to physically and sexually abuse Bone regularly, beating her in the bathroom. Bone wakes her mother up in the middle of the night, barely able to walk because of the immense pain she is in.
Anney takes her to the hospital, where the doctor berates Anney for beating the child so badly that her coccyx is broken. The only thing Bone says is ‘Mama.’ Anney takes Bone to the car, leaving the hospital against the doctor’s wishes, and slaps Glen’s hand away as he tries to comfort the girl. Anney is saddened and angered by her new husband’s behavior towards her child and takes Bone to her sister Alma’s house to recuperate. However, once Bone is better, Anney returns to Glen after he swears to never touch Bone again.
While reading with her mama at the cafe, Anney asks Bone to go and stay with her Aunt Ruth since she is very sick. Ruth asks Bone about Glen and if he has ever hurt her. Bone says no and the two grow close listening to gospel music on the radio. After a visit from Dee Dee, Ruth dies of sickness. At Aunt Ruth’s funeral, Bone’s Aunt Raylene finds her in the bathroom and when she tries to take her to a bed, she discovers lashes on her legs and alerts the girl’s uncles, Earle, Wade, and Travis, and another man, who beat Glen unconscious.
Bone is sent to live with her aunts, and eventually tells her mother that she is allowed to love Glen, but that Bone will never come home to him again. Eventually, Glen comes around while the aunts are out, trying to force her to come back. When she fights back, he punches and then rapes her. Anney discovers the rape and breaks a bottle over Glen’s head, causing him to bleed, pulls and kicks him off of Bone, then carries her out of the house to her car while screaming at Glen.
Glen stumbles out of the house after Anney, screaming his apologies and saying he can’t live without her. Anney yells at him to stay away and puts Bone into her car. When Glen gets his hand on Anney, she pushes him away and gets into her car. Glen then leans against the car door and repeatedly smashes his head against it, screaming for Anney to kill him. Instead, she strokes his head in forgiveness, believing he will never hurt Bone again. Ultimately, Anney returns to Glen.
Bastard out of Carolina is a 1996 film made by Showtime Networks, directed by Anjelica Huston. It is based on a novel by Dorothy Allison and adapted for the screen by Anne Meredith. Jena Malone stars as a poor, physically abused and sexually molested girl. In 1997 the theatrical and video releases of the film were banned by Canada’s Maritime Film Classification Board. The video was eventually granted release upon appeal.
The film won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or a Special (Linda Lowy) and was nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Special (Anjelica Huston), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special (Glenne Headly), and Outstanding Made for Television Movie (Amanda DiGiulio, Gary Hoffman). It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
Directed by: Anjelica Huston
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ron Eldard, Glenne Headly, Lyle Lovett, Jena Malone, Dermot Mulroney, Christina Ricci, Diana Scarwid, Susan Traylor, Grace Zabriskie
Screenplay by: Anne Meredith
Production Design by: elson Coates
Cinematography by: Anthony B. Richmond
Film Editing by: Éva Gárdos
Costume Design by: Van Broughton Ramsey
Set Decoration by: Burton Rencher
Art Direction by: Nelson Coates
Music by: Van Dyke Parks
MPAA Rating: R for strong depiction of sexual and violent abuse, including a rape scene involving a young girl.
Distributed by: Showtime
Release Date: December 15, 1996
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