Film, with child rape scene, will be released

In 1996, then-aspiring filmmaker Deborah Kampmeier wrote a screenplay called "Hounddog," a story about the hardships a young girl faces living in the South, and how her love of music helps her cure those wounds. From the beginning, the film was intended to include a scene in which the main character, Lewellen, is raped. At a recent Q&A, Kampmeier related the story of her struggle to get the film financed, made and distributed. For years, every time she found someone to provide the budget, she would be asked last minute to remove the rape scene, and when she wouldn't, the financers would back out. Even after she put the project on hold to work on another film, Virgin (2003), and that film won numerous awards, financers refused to support her film with the rape scene as planned. Months after she managed to secure Dakota Fanning in the starring role, production was finally allowed to start. However, protests from various organizations nearly forced production to halt midway, interrupted the post-production process numerous times, and nearly succeeded in having both Kampmeier and Fanning's agent and mother arrested. Meanwhile, Kampmeier endured allegations of being a child pornographer, and received numerous death threats. Finally, after twelve years of struggle, the film will see limited release on Sept. 19, with the rape scene as originally intended.The film is a powerful, if not particularly well made, experience. It takes place in a very rural area in the South, and centers around Lewellen (Dakota Fanning), an Elvis lover quite mature for her age, her friend whom she shares some innocent, childlike sexual tension with (Cody Hanford), and her abusive father who becomes mentally retarded after being struck by lightning (David Morse). That the latter two are referred to as simply "Buddy" and "Daddy" respectively, demonstrates how much the film is very much entirely about Lewellen. She is a precocious girl, witty and self-sufficient, and supported by a fantastic performance from Dakota Fanning. However, she is not enough to save the movie from a significant amount of boredom during its first half. Before the rape scene, the movie is a slightly amusing but terribly uninteresting day-in-the-life style portrayal of life in the South that continuously has the audience asking itself why it is watching this film.

The rape scene a bit more than halfway through the film changes everything. The scene itself is as difficult to watch as they come, although one has to admit that that is more because it is child-rape, than because it is particularly well executed. It's certainly not bad, but some of the techniques it uses, like lightning flashing the rapist on and off the screen forebodingly, feel a bit cheap considering the subject matter. That is not to say, however, that it is exploitative; that it is certainly not, and the film handles the material with the utmost respect, even if not utmost aptitude.

Following the rape, the film cannot help but take a complete turn in tone, even if the action is not much unlike the first half of the film. The empathy for Lewellen, and the disgust at what happened to her, leave the viewer shocked for the rest of the film, almost despite of what may actually be on the screen. The film goes on to poke at some questions of what it means to be a mother, and what growing up without one can lead to. The film ends by using Lewellen's love for music as a means for her to come to terms with what has happened to her, and although it provides some teary-eyed catharsis, it arguably ends on more hopeful a note than it has earned.