HounddogDakota has a very impactful and sexual role as a character who is raped, which is what made this otherwise flawed movie famous. Great production values and a convincing sense of the 1950s Deep South, but a seriously lacking plot.
Hounddog opens with a snake slithering on a tree branch in the sweaty-hot
South of the 1950s. Cicadas are chirping loudly, water is dripping into the
river below. The Garden of Eden impression is clear. Under the tree,
Lewellen (Dakota) promises her friend Buddy a kiss if he shows his "thing."
He acquiesces, but as Lewellen suggests the large bruise on his thigh is
caused by his father hitting him, like hers hits her, he gets upset, and
would refuse his reward were Lewellen not to tenderly admit she wants to.
She puts a soft kiss on his lips, then pulls back, watching his face as if
seeking for a sign of acceptance, and worried of the opposite. There aren't
many preteen actresses who would be able to give such a look: mature,
vulnerable, and open.
Under the snake tree Lewellen runs home barefoot, through the unkempt thicket and past the
rusting car shells near her shack of a house, all filmed in gorgeous golden
hues. Beautiful photography and a great sense of time and place are among
the movie's strongest points, making every scene worth watching even if for
just that. Inside she finds a fragile, nervous lady, her father's female
companion called Ellen, whom Lewellen hasn't seen before. In a moment her
father Lou appears in the doorway, a muscular man wearing a wife-beater
shirt and an odd smile. After Lewellen has fetched beers, Lou asks her to
sing some Elvis for them. Lewellen is a huge fan of Elvis, and is known for
her performance of the song Hounddog. She does it the same way every time,
with suggestive hip waggling, pretending to hold a microphone, and
maintaining unwavering eye contact with her audience. Or as James
Berardinelli describes it, "humping, grinding, and gyrating – often
in her underwear."
You have every reason to expect the worst from Lou, yet nothing of the sort
is ever implied beyond the accusation of violence in the beginning. If
anything, he comes across as a loving father, albeit a genuinely stupid and
unreliable one. He's not a simple character, nor are most of the others.
They are complicated, colorful, and well-acted. Unfortunately, as
demonstrated by Lou's inconsistency, none come across as credible persons
that you'd identify with or care about.
Lewellen's father Lou This also applies to Dakota's character Lewellen, a girl clearly mature
beyond her age of 12, calm and resourceful. She has an important
relationship with every major character of the movie, and the story
revolves fully around her hardships. Her actions don't seem out of place in
any scene, many of which are interesting, powerful, and well executed. The
raw material is there for a great role, but the character simply isn't
written well enough. You never once see her act childishly, and one could
even argue that the adults around her are the less mature ones. She's also
capable of lying with perfectly wide, innocent eyes, and we don't see her
expressing any regrets for that. Such qualities are a problem, since it's
hard to feel compassion for one who seems so strong, and the movie depends
on that feeling in the viewer.
In contrast, Ellen is struggling to keep herself together. Her fragility is
evident from the beginning, and the impression only gets more extreme later
on. When one night Lou goes away – as he apparently frequently does, to
his daughter's distress – Ellen comfortingly invites Lewellen to sleep
next to her. Lewellen asks Ellen to take her away with her, to which Ellen
agrees after some hesitation. Lewellen is glad to believe the lie. When not
long afterwards Ellen disappears and is found by Lewellen with another man,
Lewellen shows surprising cruelty and ferocity in her verbal attack,
unexpected for the generally gentle and well-mannered girl.
Lewellen mocks Ellen for her poor excuses A major plot event occurs when Lou is driving his tractor on the field
during a storm. Lightning strikes him and he suffers major brain damage,
regressing to the level of a child. The audience is again mislead for a
while, when he hungrily sucks on Lewellen's fingers when she puts a pill
into his mouth, and later wants a goodnight kiss from her. Soon it however
becomes evident that he has lost any concept of sex along with most other
brain functions. Roles have been reversed: Lewellen must now take care of
her father.
Whether this reversal is meant to also cover sexuality is not clear. Until
now Lewellen has done nothing outside of the ordinary for one of her age,
and as sexually colored as her dancing is, she's probably not very aware of
that. If this is supposed to be the beginning of the turning point in her
sexuality, the indications are limited to vague symbolism such as talking
about her sinfulness while holding a snake in her arms. This confusion is a
frequent pattern in the movie. Perhaps the original cut, apparently more
controversial and only shown at the Sundance Film Festival, was clearer.
Lou in his mentally retarded state Lewellen's grandmother is so unyieldingly religious that she's almost like
a caricature of herself, albeit a well-acted one. For her, the music of
Elvis is certainly all sin. What she thinks Lewellen might be doing with
boys is sin. And she believes what happened to Lou is probably also
Lewellen's fault, because of all her sins. This is a harsh message to a
girl from the only remaining adult in her life, but she's not crushed by
the situation. Worse is to come, though a different movie might have
considered Lewellen's misery sufficient at this point.
When Lewellen hears Elvis is going to be performing in a local concert she
becomes euphoric. The problem is she doesn't have any money for the
tickets, nor does her father. There is however a teenaged boy who recently
witnessed her doing a sort of variation of her Hounddog dance while lying
in bed. He promises to give her a ticket if she gives him a private
performance. Once in the shed chosen for the purpose, Lewellen is told
another condition – she must do it naked. Desperate for the tickets, she
agrees, which leads into the event the movie is famous for, Dakota's
character being raped. It's tastefully filmed, perhaps even too much so to
deliver the impact it should. A far more powerful scene can be found for
example in Jena's great Bastard Out of Carolina.
Lewellen sick and feverish Lewellen falls ill, maybe from psychological distress, or perhaps for
reasons related to the mystical elements that start appearing in the second
act of the story. The opposing moral viewpoint than that of Lewellen's
grandmother is represented by Charles, a black man who works at the stables
nearby. He preaches to Lewellen about the healing power of blues, snake
magic, and other vague ideas. For the movie to make any sense, Charles'
message should connect with what Lewellen has gone through, but it does so
only marginally, which results in all the earlier misery and talk of sin to
remain devoid of apparent purpose.
When the end credits scroll, you'll likely wonder what the movie was about
and what its lesson was, because if there is one, it's garbled beyond
recognition. What you do get to take home is above all Dakota's daring
role, the type which is usually filled by much older actresses, whose
display of sexuality people more readily accept, and whose rape victim
roles aren't protested by anyone. Dakota fills the role with her usual
poise, and gets to make an impression she never has before, and never will
again.
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![[bio]](/images/common/biography.png "More about Dakota"){kind=small}
