Monster's Ball
Encyclopedia
Monster's Ball is a 2001 romantic
drama film
directed by Marc Forster
, starring Billy Bob Thornton
, Halle Berry
, and Heath Ledger
, and written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. It was produced by Lionsgate
and Lee Daniels Entertainment.
The title comes from the custom in medieval England
of calling prisoners awaiting execution "monsters". The night before their execution, their jailers would hold a feast known as a monster's ball as their farewell. Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress
for her performance as Leticia Musgrove.
), a widower, and his son, Sonny (Heath Ledger
), are corrections officers in the local prison
. They reside in Georgia with Hank's ailing father, Buck (Peter Boyle
), an unwavering racist
whose wife committed suicide
. Hank's hateful attitude toward others, strongly influenced by his father, extends to his father, his son, and members of the neighboring community.
As Hank and Sonny assist in the execution
of convicted murder
er Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs
), the proceedings prove too intense for Sonny, who collapses and then begins to vomit as he is leading Lawrence to the electric chair
. Hank beats up Sonny in the jail's bathroom afterwards. Some time later, Hank drags Sonny out of bed and tells him to get out of the house. Unable to cope with the estrangement, Sonny grabs a gun. The confrontation ends in their living room with Hank at gunpoint, lying on the carpet, and Sonny in Buck's customary chair. Sonny asks his father, "You hate me, don't you?" After his father calmly confirms that he does and always has, Sonny responds, "Well, I always loved you," and then shoots himself
in the heart. Hank subsequently buries Sonny in the back garden, quits his job at the prison, burns his uniform in the backyard, and locks the door of Sonny's room up tightly. Buck calls him a quitter.
During the years of Lawrence's imprisonment, his wife, Leticia (Halle Berry
), has been struggling while raising their son, Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun
), who has inherited his father's artistic talent, but is also morbidly obese. Along with her domestic problems, Leticia struggles financially, leading to the loss of the family car and, worse, an eviction notice on her house. In desperate need of money, Leticia takes a job at a diner
frequented by Hank. One rainy night, Leticia and Tyrell are walking down a soaked highway when Tyrell is struck by a car. Leticia is left helpless on the side of the road, grasping her son and calling out to passing motorists, all of whom drive past. Hank happens to be driving along and sees Leticia cradling her mortally injured son. He initially drives past, like the cars before him, but then turns around, picks Leticia and Tyrell up, and takes them to a hospital, but Tyrell dies upon arrival
and Hank lends his shoulder for Leticia to cry on. At the suggestion of the authorities at the hospital, he drives her home. A few days later, Hank gives Leticia a ride home from the diner and after they begin talking in the car and discover the common loss of their sons, she invites him in and they drown their grief with alcohol
. They begin a relationship initially based on sex
and relief from loneliness but which later becomes emotionally supportive. Hank finds out that Leticia is Lawrence's widow, but he does not tell her that he participated in her husband's execution.
Leticia stops by Hank's home with a present for him. Hank is not home, but Buck is. Buck insults Leticia using raw racist language and implying that Hank is only involved with her because he wants to have sex with a black woman; she responds by rejecting Hank. This incident proves to be the last straw for Hank and he decides to send his father to a nursing home
; it is implied that Hank will cut him out of his life as well. Leticia is evicted from her home for non-payment of rent and Hank invites her to move in with him. She agrees and later discovers Hank's involvement in her husband's death while he is gone but is there waiting for him when he returns from town with ice cream. The film ends with them eating ice cream together on the front porch.
in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
.
reported that 120 of the 141 reviews they tallied were positive. This resulted in a score of 85% and a certification of "Fresh". Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and stated that, "The movie has the complexity of great fiction" listing it as the best film of 2001.
Acclaim was also given to Coronji Calhoun
, who was chosen from an open casting call
and was paid the minimum union scale
for his work as Tyrell Musgrove, the ill-fated son of Lawrence and Leticia. "Perhaps one of the most affecting performances of the year was given by a 10-year-old Louisiana
fourth-grader who has never acted before or studied the craft," commented Variety
reporter Christopher Grove.
Despite numerous positive reviews of the film, some black activists urged a boycott, notably Miles Willis of the "Milestones" jazz program on Pacifica Radio
's KPFT
. His statement, championed by syndicated film columnist Esther Iverem, included the following: "Imagine the seething indignation that a Jewish man might feel while watching a story in which the widow of a Nazi concentration camp victim has an intimate relationship with the SS officer that shoved her husband into one of those ovens at Auschwitz!"
Esther Iverem, SeeingBlack.com editor and film critic, stated that "you have to wonder if this is what it takes for a black woman to be named best actress … Who was the last "best actress" who did a nude sex scene?" Iverem went on to say, "Ultimately, Monster's Ball uses the legacy of racism in an unconvincing manner to belittle its impact, and its historical and present-day consequences." Iverem maintained that scores of black men were boycotting the film.
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Marc Forster
Marc Forster
Marc Forster is a German-Swiss filmmaker and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the films Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction, The Kite Runner, and Quantum of Solace.- Life and career :...
, starring Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
, Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
, and Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
, and written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. It was produced by Lionsgate
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
and Lee Daniels Entertainment.
The title comes from the custom in medieval England
England in the Middle Ages
England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the Medieval period — from the end of Roman rule in Britain through to the Early Modern period...
of calling prisoners awaiting execution "monsters". The night before their execution, their jailers would hold a feast known as a monster's ball as their farewell. Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her performance as Leticia Musgrove.
Plot
Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob ThorntonBilly Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
), a widower, and his son, Sonny (Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
), are corrections officers in the local prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. They reside in Georgia with Hank's ailing father, Buck (Peter Boyle
Peter Boyle
Peter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
), an unwavering racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
whose wife committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Hank's hateful attitude toward others, strongly influenced by his father, extends to his father, his son, and members of the neighboring community.
As Hank and Sonny assist in the execution
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
of convicted murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
er Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...
), the proceedings prove too intense for Sonny, who collapses and then begins to vomit as he is leading Lawrence to the electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
. Hank beats up Sonny in the jail's bathroom afterwards. Some time later, Hank drags Sonny out of bed and tells him to get out of the house. Unable to cope with the estrangement, Sonny grabs a gun. The confrontation ends in their living room with Hank at gunpoint, lying on the carpet, and Sonny in Buck's customary chair. Sonny asks his father, "You hate me, don't you?" After his father calmly confirms that he does and always has, Sonny responds, "Well, I always loved you," and then shoots himself
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in the heart. Hank subsequently buries Sonny in the back garden, quits his job at the prison, burns his uniform in the backyard, and locks the door of Sonny's room up tightly. Buck calls him a quitter.
During the years of Lawrence's imprisonment, his wife, Leticia (Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
), has been struggling while raising their son, Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun
Coronji Calhoun
Coronji Calhoun is an American actor. He portrayed Tyrell, the morbidly obese son of Lawrence and Leticia Musgrove in the 2001 movie Monster's Ball....
), who has inherited his father's artistic talent, but is also morbidly obese. Along with her domestic problems, Leticia struggles financially, leading to the loss of the family car and, worse, an eviction notice on her house. In desperate need of money, Leticia takes a job at a diner
Diner
A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...
frequented by Hank. One rainy night, Leticia and Tyrell are walking down a soaked highway when Tyrell is struck by a car. Leticia is left helpless on the side of the road, grasping her son and calling out to passing motorists, all of whom drive past. Hank happens to be driving along and sees Leticia cradling her mortally injured son. He initially drives past, like the cars before him, but then turns around, picks Leticia and Tyrell up, and takes them to a hospital, but Tyrell dies upon arrival
Dead on arrival
Dead on arrival or D.O.A. is a term used to indicate that a patient was found to be already clinically dead upon the arrival of professional medical assistance, often in the form of first responders such as emergency medical technicians, paramedics, or police...
and Hank lends his shoulder for Leticia to cry on. At the suggestion of the authorities at the hospital, he drives her home. A few days later, Hank gives Leticia a ride home from the diner and after they begin talking in the car and discover the common loss of their sons, she invites him in and they drown their grief with alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
. They begin a relationship initially based on sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
and relief from loneliness but which later becomes emotionally supportive. Hank finds out that Leticia is Lawrence's widow, but he does not tell her that he participated in her husband's execution.
Leticia stops by Hank's home with a present for him. Hank is not home, but Buck is. Buck insults Leticia using raw racist language and implying that Hank is only involved with her because he wants to have sex with a black woman; she responds by rejecting Hank. This incident proves to be the last straw for Hank and he decides to send his father to a nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
; it is implied that Hank will cut him out of his life as well. Leticia is evicted from her home for non-payment of rent and Hank invites her to move in with him. She agrees and later discovers Hank's involvement in her husband's death while he is gone but is there waiting for him when he returns from town with ice cream. The film ends with them eating ice cream together on the front porch.
Cast
- Billy Bob ThorntonBilly Bob ThorntonBilly Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
as Hank Grotowski - Halle BerryHalle BerryHalle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
as Leticia Musgrove - Heath LedgerHeath LedgerHeath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
as Sonny Grotowski - Peter BoylePeter BoylePeter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
as Buck Grotowski - Sean CombsSean CombsSean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...
as Lawrence Musgrove - Mos DefMos DefDante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
as Ryrus Cooper - Coronji CalhounCoronji CalhounCoronji Calhoun is an American actor. He portrayed Tyrell, the morbidly obese son of Lawrence and Leticia Musgrove in the 2001 movie Monster's Ball....
as Tyrell Musgrove - Charles Cowan, Jr. as Willie Cooper
Development
The prison scenes in Monster's Ball were filmed in Louisiana State PenitentiaryLouisiana State Penitentiary
The Louisiana State Penitentiary is a prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is the largest maximum security prison in the United States with 5,000 offenders and 1,800 staff...
in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 15,111 people, 3,645 households, and 2,704 families residing in the parish. The population density was 37 people per square mile . There were 4,485 housing units at an average density of 11 per square mile...
.
Criticism
Critics argued the film showed extreme racist ideologies that portrayed African-American males as criminal or inept and black women as whores needing a white savior. This was high-lighted by the fact of many other African American actresses refusing the role based on its plot and pornographic scenes. It was regarded as being atrocious in content; depicting a black man being executed and his wife/girlfriend romantically engaging with a knowingly racist guard who oversaw his execution. Actress Halle Berry received an Oscar for her performance which angered many African-Americans who thought she should have received the prestigious award for her performance in "Losing Isaiah".Reception
The film received some positive reviews; review website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 120 of the 141 reviews they tallied were positive. This resulted in a score of 85% and a certification of "Fresh". Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and stated that, "The movie has the complexity of great fiction" listing it as the best film of 2001.
Acclaim was also given to Coronji Calhoun
Coronji Calhoun
Coronji Calhoun is an American actor. He portrayed Tyrell, the morbidly obese son of Lawrence and Leticia Musgrove in the 2001 movie Monster's Ball....
, who was chosen from an open casting call
Casting (performing arts)
In the performing arts, casting is a pre-production process for selecting a cast of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance.-Casting process:...
and was paid the minimum union scale
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
for his work as Tyrell Musgrove, the ill-fated son of Lawrence and Leticia. "Perhaps one of the most affecting performances of the year was given by a 10-year-old Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
fourth-grader who has never acted before or studied the craft," commented Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reporter Christopher Grove.
Despite numerous positive reviews of the film, some black activists urged a boycott, notably Miles Willis of the "Milestones" jazz program on Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
's KPFT
KPFT
KPFT is a listener-sponsored community radio station in Houston, Texas, which went on the air on March 1, 1970 as the fourth station in the Pacifica radio family. Larry Lee sold the idea to Pacifica to establish listener-supported radio in Houston as an alternative to main-stream broadcasting. The...
. His statement, championed by syndicated film columnist Esther Iverem, included the following: "Imagine the seething indignation that a Jewish man might feel while watching a story in which the widow of a Nazi concentration camp victim has an intimate relationship with the SS officer that shoved her husband into one of those ovens at Auschwitz!"
Esther Iverem, SeeingBlack.com editor and film critic, stated that "you have to wonder if this is what it takes for a black woman to be named best actress … Who was the last "best actress" who did a nude sex scene?" Iverem went on to say, "Ultimately, Monster's Ball uses the legacy of racism in an unconvincing manner to belittle its impact, and its historical and present-day consequences." Iverem maintained that scores of black men were boycotting the film.
Accolades
- Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
- Best Actress: Halle Berry (Winner)
- Best Original Screenplay: Milo Addica & Will Rokos (Nominated)
- BAFTA Awards
- Best Actress: Halle Berry (Nominated)
- Black Reel AwardsBlack Reel AwardsThe Black Reel Awards began in 2000 and were designed to annually recognize and celebrate the achievements of black people in feature, independent and television films...
- Best Actress: Halle Berry (Winner)
- Golden Globes
- Best Actress in a Drama: Halle Berry (Nominated)
- MTV Movie AwardsMTV Movie AwardsThe MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...
- Best Female Performance: Halle Berry (Nominated)
- National Board of Review
- Best Actor: Billy Bob Thornton (Winner)
- Best Actress: Halle Berry (Winner)
- Screen Actors Guild AwardsScreen Actors Guild AwardsA Screen Actors Guild Award is an accolade given by the Screen Actors Guild to recognize outstanding performances by its members. The statuette given, a nude male figure holding both a mask of comedy and a mask of tragedy, is called "The Actor"...
- Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role: Halle Berry (Winner)