Holes

Title: Holes (Movie)

Director: Andrew Davis

Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Copyright: 2003

Genre: Fiction

Age Range: 13+

Watcher’s Annotation: Stanley Yelnats has to overcome the fates as he creates new friends at Camp Green Lake, pays back his dept to society, and breaks a family curse.

Plot Summary: Descended from an unfortunate family, Stanley Yelnats IV still fights the more than one hundred year old curse of Elya Yelnats. Madame Zeroni, a fortune-teller, cursed Elya for not keeping a promise. Stanley is arrested for stealing Clyde "Sweetfeet" Livingston sneakers from a children's orphanage. Stanley chooses to go to a juvenile detention camp, Camp Green Lake, for eighteen months. The camp turns out to be on a dried up lake bed run by Louise Walker the warden, Mr. Sir the assistant warden, and Dr. Pendanski the camp counselor. Each of the detainees are required to dig a five-foot round hole with the looming dangers of rattlesnakes, scorpions, and a poisonous yellow lizard.

            Stanley is slowly accepted into the group of teens especially after letting one of the campers, X-Ray, take the credit for finding a gold lipstick tube believed to belong to Kate Barlow because of the KB initials. Because of his knack to find things, Stanley is dubbed Caveman. He befriends Zero, Hector Zeroni, and teaches Zero how to read in exchange for help digging holes. The story flashes back to a hundred years ago when Kate Barlow, a school teacher, rejects Trout Walker, a landowner, for a black onion farmer named Sam. The two are caught kiss and the townsfolk start a riot that burns down the school. In the melee, Sam tries to escape but is shot dead in his boat by Trout. Kate shoots the sheriff for letting Trout off with murder. She kisses him on her way out to become the outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow. A curse is put on the lake and the Walker family that causes the drought ruining the Walkers.

            Louise learns of the trade of hole help for reading and bans Stanley and Hector from helping each other. Pendanski insults Hector. Hector hits him with a shovel and runs off. Louise orders Hector’s files erased from the computer. Stanley crashes Mr. Sir’s truck into a hole and heads out to find Hector. Stanley finds Hector under Sam’s old boat. Since they are in the middle of nowhere, they head to a rock formation called God’s Thumb. Stanley remembers his namesake surviving the desert by staying on the mountain. Hector passes out on the way up the mountain. Stanley carries him and sings to him as they go. They discover Sam’s onion field and stream. By nursing Hector back to health, Stanley breaks the curse. Stanley’s dad invents a way to eliminate shoe odor.

            Hector admits that he stole the shoes that Stanley was blamed for. He didn’t know they were famous until he walked off with them from the orphanage and threw them over the bridge. They landed on Stanley. The next day Hector was caught shoplifting shoes from payless. They agree it was destiny. Another flashback shows a destitute Linda and Trout Walker holding Kate Barlow at gun point for her treasure. Instead of telling them where it is, she commits suicide by yellow lizard and tells them, "Start diggin', Trout." This is why the boys dig five foot holes.

            Stanley and Hector go back to the camp and the site of the lip stick tube. They find two metal boxes filled with the Barlow treasure. Louise, Mr. Sir and Pendanski try and take the boxes, but the two kids are surrounded by the yellow lizards. The onion repels them. The Texas Assistant Attorney General and Carla Morengo, Stanley's lawyer, are tipped off about the mistreatment of the campers and head there straightaway. Will the authorities make it in time to save the treasure from Louise, Mr. Sir and Pendanski?

Critical Evaluation: Holes was a film that did very well. It also has a connection to the book of the same name by Louis Sachar. It is a story that teaches boys about being alone, learning how to become accepted, learning how to make friends, and always being upfront and honest. The sub-story is important because it tells us that it is okay to love who we love no matter the pressures from outside opinions. Sachar himself is an award winning author of over twenty-one novels in different age ranges. The book won both the National Book Award and the Newberry Medal in 1999.   

Director’s Information: Andrew Davis was born on November 21, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a director and cinematographer, known for The Fugitive (1993), Above the Law (1988) and Holes (2003).

Curriculum Ties: English, History

Challenge Issues: Interracial Relationships

Movie Talk Ideas: Curses – One could start the talk out about being cursed and constantly having bad luck leading into Stanley’s story.