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What are the main themes in the movie Heading South?
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The main themes of the movie "Heading South" include the socioeconomic divide between middle-aged American women and young Haitian men, sexual and romantic liberation, and exploitation. The women seek emotional fulfillment through sexual tourism in Haiti, while the Haitians view them as exploiters. The film explores the subjugation of Haiti by the U.S., highlighting themes of power dynamics and economic disparity, as illustrated through the relationships between the characters.
There are several main themes to French director Laurent Cantet’s 2005 film Heading South, chief among them the vast socioeconomic gulf separating the story’s three middle-aged female characters and the young Haitian men with whom the women pursue sexual relationships.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Poverty there is overwhelming. Hope is illusory. For Ellen, Brenda and Sue, the sexual and romantic opportunities in Haiti, where life is cheap, are unmatched back home in the United States. The theme of romantic and sexual liberation for these women are summed up well in comments by Ellen, the oldest of the three, who comments when reflecting on the Haitian man who is the subject of her lust, and that of Brenda as well:
“I turned 55, last month. There's nothing in Boston for women over 40 . . . I've checked out every bar in that goddam, stuck-up...
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city. And there's nothing there that's even close to Legba. How was such a handsome boy born here? On this dungheap.”
These women view Legba and the other Haitian men they pursue as a means to fill a vast emotional void in their lives. For the men, on the other hand, the American women are representatives of a powerful, lurking menace that exploits their small nation and supports the venal dictators who rule over them. This, then, is another of the film’s main themes: subjugation and exploitation of Haiti by the hemisphere’s reigning power, the United States. In the film’s most blatant exposition of this theme, Albert, another of the Haitians, describes his perception of the United States and those who travel to Haiti to exploit its people:
My whole family fought the Americans during the 1915 occupation. I think my father never shook a white man's hand. He saw them as lower than monkeys . . . My grandfather didn't bother with that. To him, a white man was an animal, period. When he talked about "the white man," he really meant Americans. The invaders, occupiers, people who dared to tread on Haitian soil. If he knew I was a waiter for Americans, he'd die of shame. This time, the invaders aren't armed. But they have more damaging weapons than cannons: dollars!
Ellen, Brenda, and Sue are sexual tourists, wealthy (at least relative to those they visit for sexual purposes) foreigners who travel to a poorer country to satiate their sexual appetites. They long for romance and sexual liberation. To them, Legba and the others are a means to an end. To the Haitians, they are a natural resource little different than the oil, minerals and cheap labor that Europeans and other “whites” historically exploited. These contrasts constitute the major themes of Heading South are proved the film’s narrative.