Summary
- Usha played a key role in J.D. Vance’s life, even though the film sidelines her importance.
- The film distorts the timeline of J.D. Vance’s return home after his mother’s overdose, adding extra tension.
- The adaptation of “Hillbilly Elegy” tones down the conservative agenda of J.D. Vance’s book, focusing more on family drama.
Netflix’s Hillbilly Elegy has gotten a renewed spotlight, begging the question as to just how much the biopic left out of its source material. Releasing in 2020, Hillbilly Elegy adapted politician J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, gaining generally favorable audience reviews but leaving a poor impression on critics. In the wake of J.D. Vance becoming presidential candidate Donald Trump’s running mate, Hillbilly Elegy has seen a surge of viewership on Netflix.
Starring Amy Adams as J.D. Vance’s mother, Bev, and Glenn Close as the affable Mawmaw, the film tells the story of J.D. Vance’s early life. In a fractured, non-linear narrative, the film chronicles both his childhood growing up poor in Middletown, Ohio, and his years as a young adult attending the prestigious Yale Law School. Over the course of its narrative, Hillbilly Elegy makes changes or leaves out many key details from both the original book and J.D. Vance’s real-life story.
Besides
Hillbilly Elegy,
Ron Howard has directed other films like
In the Heart of the Sea
(2015) and
Solo: A Star Wars Story
(2018).
Related What Happened To Usha, J.D. Vance’s Wife, After Hillbilly Elegy
Hillbilly Elegy chronicles J.D. Vance’s traumatic upbringing and later features Vance meeting his wife, Usha Chilukuri – where is she now?
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10 Usha Played A Much Bigger Role In His Development
J.D. Vance’s Girlfriend And Wife Was Much More Than Set Dressing
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Freida Pinto stars in the film as Usha Chilukuri, J.D. Vance’s real-life girlfriend while going to Yale who he would go on to marry and have three children with. In the film, she serves as something of an emotional anchor to Vance, helping him out during a fancy Yale dinner party in which he’s terrified of making a breach of etiquette. However, she’s sidelined when Vance refuses her help in checking up on his mother’s drug overdose, taking a backseat for the remainder of the film.
Unfortunately, the film largely glosses over J.D. Vance’s relationship with Usha, being far more centered on the strife and drama surrounding Vance’ tumultuous family life.
In reality, Usha played an even bigger role in grounding J.D. Vance in the illustrious world of Yale. Vance has gone as far as calling her his “Yale spirit guide” (via The New York Times), helping him acclimate to his newfound environment at Yale and beyond. Unfortunately, the film largely glosses over J.D. Vance’s relationship with Usha, being far more centered on the strife and drama surrounding Vance’ tumultuous family life.
9 J.D. Really Took Several Weeks To Return Home Following His Mother’s Overdose
The Timeline Of This Event Is Severely Distorted In The Film
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It can often be difficult to adapt straightforward memoirs into a prestige drama as Netflix attempted with HIllbilly Elegy, with memoirs usually being a loose recollection of stories by nature rather than a single overarching story. To help smooth this gap, the film had to take some liberties in peppering in slightly more drama than had actually happened in J.D. Vance’s actual life. As a result, the climax of the film, which sees J.D. Vance rushing back home to help with his mother’s overdose despite an important interview looming over him, was essentially entirely manufactured.
It’s true that Bev had indeed suffered from a dangerous overdose around this point in J.D. Vance’s career, and Vance did indeed return home to check his mother into a hotel room. However, in reality, he waited several weeks before doing so, with the narrow race to ensure his mother’s health while still making it back to Washington, D.C. in time for an important job interview never really happening. Hillbilly Elegy adds this ticking-clock element to raise the stakes going into the film’s final act.
8 The Book Had A Much More Political Agenda
J.D. Vance’s Book Was Much More Of A Conservative Thesis Statement
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Perhaps the most glaring change Hillbilly Elegy makes in its adaptation of J.D. Vance’s life story is the absence of Vance’s own commentary. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, down to its very title, is observant and critical of Vance’s upbringing in Middle America. The text is laden with Vance’s postulations on what he views as the destructive culture of his hometown, admonishing the book’s eponymous “Hillbillies” for not abiding by his own “pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps” mentality.
The resulting message is a conservative cry for a shift in culture, something that the film essentially does away with entirely to focus on the simple interpersonal drama of Vance’s family. That being said, echoes of this sentiment do linger throughout the film via the very nature of the story, particularly with Vance’s mother Bev acting as a stand-in for the many issues plaguing Appalchia. It’s this heavy-handed rhetoric that contributed to Hillbilly Elegy‘s brutal reviews, despite the fact that it’s drastically toned down from the book.
7 J.D. Vance’s Yale Peers Were “Intrigued” With Him
Vance’s Yale Reception Wasn’t As Frosty As The Film Made it Seem
In both the film and the book, J.D. Vance goes to great lengths to illustrate the difference in upbringing between himself and his peers at Yale Law School. In Netflix’s HIllbilly Elegy, this is shown off in a scene that takes place at a fancy dinner, in which Vance struggles to get a handle of proper silverware ettiquite before awkwardly silencing conversation when he reveals his humble roots. In truth, however, J.D. Vance admitted that Yale was a breath of fresh air for him.
While it’s true that Vance assuredly suffered from some alienation among his fellow law school students, he also admits to enjoying the environment of Yale. In the book, he describes classmates and professors as being genuinely interested in him, with his story being unique among the hordes of similar law degree hopefuls. This sits in stark contrast to the film’s version of Yale, which holds Vance in contempt as some sort of uncomfortable outcast.
6 J.D.’s Multiple Name Changes Weren’t Given Significance
Vance Was Not J.D.’s Given Name
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As with anyone, J.D. Vance’s name is tied to his identity and sense of self, something that doesn’t quite manifest in the film version of Hillbilly Elegy. J.D. Vance was born James Donald Bowman, though he later began writing under the name James David Hamel in the early 2010s. In Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. claims that he changed his last name to Vance upon marrying Usha, though in reality it seems as though this change was made at the time of his Yale graduation (via AP News).
In the film, J.D. Vance’s name changes aren’t given much significance, despite how perfectly they could’ve fit into the film as an exclamation of identity. By claiming the last name Vance, J.D. showed his appreciation for Bonnie “Mawmaw” Vance, who essentially raised him and shares protagonist status with J.D. in Hillbilly Elegy. This seems like a missed opportunity, considering that Glenn Close garnered numerous accolades as Mawmaw in Hillbilly Elegy.
5 Vance Almost Had A Full-Ride Scholarship At Yale
Hillbilly Elegy Doesn’t Tell The Full Story Of Vance’s Tuition
The adult side of HIllbilly Elegy‘s story sees J.D. Vance claw his way through secondary education, going from the Marines to Ohio State University to Yale Law School. This storyline touches base with Vance in 2011, depicting him as an exhausted student working three jobs to put himself through the prestigious university. In the film, the question of his (no doubt exorbitantly expensive) Ivy League tuition begins and ends there, but that isn’t the whole story.
In reality, J.D. Vance received a near full-ride scholarship to Yale his first year of attendance. In addition, Vance also was the beneficiary of generous financial aid, student loans, and above all else, the Yellow Ribbon program, a federal initiative which works to help veterans fund their education (via The Washington Post). Considering that J.D. Vance accepting financial aid from a government-operated program clashes with the book and the film’s financially conservative, self-actualizing narrative, it’s no wonder this detail was omitted in favor of Vance toiling over three jobs.
4 J.D. Vance Only Spent Summers With Mawmaw In Appalachia
J.D. Vance’s Childhood Isn’t Wholly Explained
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Some of Hillbilly Elegy‘s most intense drama is drawn from J.D. Vance’s chaotic childhood, which largely took place in Middletown, Ohio. J.D. Vance’s mother, Bev, is rightfully depicted as an unstable parent, with Vance frequently relying on his beloved grandmother Mawmaw for any semblance of normalcy. However, the exact amount of time J.D. Vance spent with Mawmaw was made nebulous by the film’s skipping between timelines.
It’s largely the influence of Mawmaw that influences Vance’s connection to “hillbilly” culture, permitting him to make observations about it in his original book.
In the books, Vance admits to only merely spending summers living with Mawmaw, who was originally from a rural town buried within the heart of Appalachia in Kentucky. It’s largely the influence of Mawmaw that influences Vance’s connection to “hillbilly” culture, permitting him to make observations about it in his original book. The film never outright states as much, but rather glosses over the amount of time Vance truly spends in his grandmother’s custody through its fractured narrative.
Glenn Close was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Raspberry for her performance as Mamaw in
Hillbilly Elegy.
3 J.D. Vance Worked For A Republican State Senator
One of Vance’s Most Formative Career Moments Wasn’t Mentioned
At its core, Hillbilly Elegy is a family drama that happens to be based off of a true story, picking and choosing which elements from J.D. Vance’s memoir are worthy of incorporating into this story. It’s important to note that Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis was a much more comprehensive diary of Vance’s early years, providing far more crucial details in his career development that the film glosses over. Chief among these is his time working for Republican Ohio State senator Bob Schuler.
Essentially J.D. Vance’s first brush with politics, this moment was the first step in his career that eventually led to him becoming a Republican Ohio State Senator himself. Of course, this in turn led to J.D. Vance becoming Donald Trump’s pick for the upcoming 2024 U.S. election. While Hillbilly Elegy obviously couldn’t have predicted this back in 2020, the lack of focus on Vance’s political career remains a puzzling omission, meaning the film could’ve simply created its own story in rural America a la American Rust.
2 Jamil Jivani Is Completely Left Out
Vance’s Best Friend At Yale Was Sorely Missing
J.D. Vance has credited his wife Usha in being crucial to his success at Yale Law School, but there was another friend he made along the way that seemed equally important. During orientation at Yale, J.D. Vance became close friends with one Jamil Jivani, a fellow student who would go on to become a member of Canada’s parliament. Vance and Jivani have since cited each other as being important support structures within Yale (via National Post).
Jivani and Vance’s friendship likely grew from their shared cultural isolation from their peers at Yale, with both of them being at a far remove from the institution culturally. In addition, both were rare political conservatives within the largely liberal Ivy League campus, further reinforcing one another as close comrades. Considering how much Hillbilly Elegy drives home Vance as a fish-out-of-water at Yale, it’s a surprise Jivani wasn’t a prominent role in the story.
1 J.D. Vance’s Credit Cards Never Ran Out Mid-Trip
A Facetious Detail Of Vance’s Journey Home
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Hillbilly Elegy makes multiple passes at ensuring the audience is aware of Vance’s financial status. During the climactic road trip back to Middletown in the wake of his mother’s overdose, in the film, Vance at one point attempts to pay for something, only for his credit card to get declined, surprising and embarrassing him publicly. It may be a small detail, but it’s an incredibly unlikely scene that disregards the real hardships and intelligence of poor people, who are often meticulously aware of credit card limits and bank account balances.
In Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, Vance even goes into meticulous detail on how he uses a credit card to check his mother into a hotel shortly after the film’s scene is set, surprising the clerk who is used to cash transactions. It’s incredibly unlikely that someone who is as adamant on personal fiscal responsibility as J.D. Vance is would abruptly hit their credit limit on a purchase in such a manner as the film presents. It’s safe to say that Hillbilly Elegy omitted such details for the sake of drama.
Sources: National Post, The Washington Post, AP News, The New York Times
Hillbilly Elegy 
1.5 RDrama
Directed by Ron Howard for release on Netflix, Hillbilly Elegy is a Drama film released in 2020 and stars Amy Adams and Glenn Close. The plot is based on author J.D. Vance’s memoir of the same name and follows a family as they attempt to deal with their mother’s unstable lifestyle.
Director Ron Howard Release Date November 24, 2020 Studio(s) Netflix Runtime 116 minutes