I just saw Winters Bone. Anyone here can help me make some connections that I apparently missed in the movie? It’s driving me crazy!
It’s been a while since I saw it but what is confusing you?
1st question, how’d Teardrop know that that Ree was in the boss’s barn getting beat up?
2nd question, where’d the money come from at the end?
1st question, how’d Teardrop know that that Ree was in the boss’s barn getting beat up?
It’s not against the rules to write more than one line per post.
I’m sorry john Mace. I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. it’s been a long time since I’ve been on a chat site and I’m dying to talk about this movie!
The cash at the end comes from the bail money that was put up for the girl’s father. The amount of bail was so large that it was more than the value of the house that the girl, her siblings, and her mother was living in. The money for the bail was a combination of the lease for the house and the additional cash. Since the girl’s father was now dead, all the money went back to the girl. This means she (well, actually her mother, but everyone knew that she was really running the household) got the lease to the house and the additional cash.
I can’t remember how it went in the movie, but in the novel Gail (the girl with the truck and the kid) told Teardrop that Ree had gone to confront Thump Milton (the boss) again. I think this was true in the movie too.
Wendell, thank you. I knew that I guess but what’s confusing is that I guess since Jessup was proven dead, the original money put up plus the house didn’t make the total anyway so the bondsman just gave the original $$ back to her and didn’t make a dime? The bondsman talked about a guy leaving a sack of money…and she asked him well isn’t it still his-and this was at the end. SO, hence the confusion. UGH!
The bondsman said his firm took their cut.
One slight difference between the book and the movie. (Spoiler for book’s ending.)
At the end of the book, the bondsman is so impressed by Ree’s initiative that he offeres her a job. Under the table for now, but legitimate once she comes of age. “You’d be like gold to me” he says
did he really take a cut then? see. okay. I’m going to beat this to death and it’s not clicking for me. There was original $$ and the house put up for bond. If that was enough, then why all this hassle? I guess because he was dead and couldn’t collect the rest because it was never going to add up to the big total. Please forgive me if I’m super dense on the subject. I guess I can live with that. It’s confusing because of the ‘man coming in with a sack of money’ and she said ‘well it’s still his’…so I guess the money was Jessups. ah…just forget it.
If Jessup had simply skipped trial, the bondsman would have owed the entire bail amount to the court. However since Jessup was dead, the money goes back to the person who gave it to the bond aency, minus the bondsman’s fee. The scary guy who forked over a lot of the cash could technically claim it himself, but the bond agent figured he wasn’t going too. The bondsman took his fee, and handed the rest of the cash and the deed back to Ree, which he was legally obliged to do.
Note I am not an expert, I’m getting this from the book and movie, and from some brief googling on the subject of bail.
I got the impression that everyone knows everyone elses business. Not sure who would have told him but he would have known.
Btw, here’s my original thread about the movie.
It’s never said in either the movie or the book (which I read after seeing the movie) but that must have been an incredibly high bond, since the land and house were worth a lot of money. But the land and the house wouldn’t generate income unless it were sold, and Ree refused to do that since it had been in her family for generations. She couldn’t have signed the papers anyway, and her mom wasn’t in any mental state to do so.
Since more cash was needed to cover the bond, I always assumed that it was one of Thump’s relatives/goons that put up the money. Why? To get Jessup out of jail. He was safe in jail, because I assume they had him in solitary confinement for his own safety. Outside of jail, all bets are off. He was a man with a target on his back and sure enough, they got to Jessup. The unidentified goon isn’t going to come back for the money because that might tie him and, by extension, Thump, to the murder. It would be illegal for the bond company to keep the money, so they took their cut and gave the rest to Ree. What else could they do with it? It was technically, according to the law and the bond company’s rules, Jessup’s money.
I think Jessup himself somehow put up the bail money. He seems like a really bad guy throughout the movie but I believe he put up the house and the bail money knowing he would be killed and it would go back to his family. Why do I think this? Because when Teardrop was playing the banjo after the money was given to Ree, he said “I know who”…then he said “Jessup”. He mumbles and I had to listen a couple of times but it kind of makes sense. Maybe he did love his family and was looking after them the only way he could (remember he carved a toy out of wood for his daughter). Do you think I’m totally way off?
Teardrop was saying that he knew who killed Jessup. We aren’t told who, but Teardrop figured it out. It’s not important that we know who, but it’s a death sentence to Teardrop, because 1) if Teardrop goes after the guy to avenge his brother’s death and kills him, he’s going to prison, and 2) even if Teardrop decided not to go after the killer, whoever the murderer is, he’s going to be linked to Thump and therefore Teardrop must die, in prison or out. As long as Teardrop didn’t know for sure, he was relatively safe. That scene with the banjo is devestating once you realize the implications.