Fairy Tale and Film

Lawn Dogs 
(John Duigan, 1997) presents another outsider unfairly 
treated by a hostile community. Trent (Sam Rockwell) lives in a trailer 
in the woods, earning his keep by mowing the lawns of the wealthy 
citizens of nearby Camelot Gardens, an affluent gated community. 
His loneliness is eased when he is befriended by one of its residents, a 
young girl called Devon (Mischa Barton), who comes across him when 
she detours from her cookie-selling route. Intensely alienated from her 
infinitely shallow parents, Devon is a fellow misfit and the two strike up 
a touching friendship, although others soon become suspicious of his 
motives. (A grim irony in the film is that Devon is genuinely molested 
by a neighbour, an arrogant jock having an affair with her mother, 
who tries to put his hand up the young girl’s dress. When she tells her 
parents, the reaction is disbelief, followed by a nasty comment from 
her father that her heart-surgery scar would shock any boy trying to 

---

Transformations and Male Maturation 
67
cop a feel.) Small wonder, given such loathsome parents, that Devon 
prefers to spend time with a young man who accepts her for who she 
is and wants nothing in return. The innocence of their friendship is 
underscored by his naïveté. Trent is a childlike young man, much like 
Edward, yet when Devon asks why he is so badly treated he responds 
with a neat class distinction: ‘the way I see it, there are two types of 
people in this world: those who have lawns and those who mow them – 
and they ain’t never the same people’. Although he poses no threat, 
his neighbours distrust him and the local security guard is keen to 
move him on once his work is done. When petty vandalism arises in 
the neighbourhood (caused by a spoilt little kid with nothing to do), 
Trent is unfairly targeted, his lawnmower ruined. Although initially 
distrustful of Devon, he bonds with her over a mutual disdain towards 
those around them and a shared desire to do as they please. A dreamer, 
obsessed with the witch Baba Yaga, Devon tells him fragments of the 
story during sleepovers and gets him to open up, yet their friendship 
is inevitably curtailed when a misunderstanding ensues. The pair fall 
out over a dog Trent accidentally runs down, and a shocked Devon 
responds by unwittingly feeding everyone’s fears about him. Devon’s 
father and the security guard viciously beat Trent, believing he has 
abused her, yet she intervenes, using her father’s gun to hold them 
at bay, and gives Trent her dad’s cash to enable his getaway. Advising 
him to take a comb and a towel, talismans from her favourite story, the 
film acquires an overtly fantastical finale when these objects transform 
into a forest and a lake, allowing him to escape his pursuers. Just who 
functions as Baba Yaga in this tale is interesting, with Trent occupying 
the role in some ways, living an isolated existence in the woods and in 
the fear and contempt he evokes; the threatening aspects of the witch 
represented by virtually all the inhabitants of Camelot Gardens; and 
Baba Yaga’s more nurturing role played by Devon, who ultimately helps 
him escape his enemies and (hopefully) start a new life.
19
While foolish 
perhaps, in overlooking what others might think of him spending time 
with such a young girl, we recognise that he is similarly childlike, and 
although unfairly punished for their friendship, his faith in her is also 
rewarded by the everyday items she imbues with magic. Whether or not 
we interpret Trent’s getaway as real or imagined, the denouement allows 
us to see the world through Devon’s eyes and thus gain a renewed sense 
of wonder, as her imagination – inspired by a favourite fairy tale – both 
transcends and transforms reality.
If