Mudbound (2017)

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Mudbound Movie Poster

Mudbound is a American historical drama movie who released on November 17, 2017 in United Stated and directed by Dee Rees.The movie is based upon the novel of the same name by author Hillary Jordan who tells the story of two Mississippi families, a black family and a white family. They are both farmers, who struggle with life after the Second World War. The storyline is motivated by problems such as PTSD, racism, and economic concerns, giving the film a tremendously realistic and sincere feeling.

It starring :

Mudbound also received 19 major nominations in 2018 including Best Actress in a supporting role by Mary J. Blige, Best Adapted screenplay by Virgil Williams and Dee Rees and win Best Cinematographer by Rachel Morrison in 2018 New York Film Critics Circle.[1]

Plot

The McAllans are a bourgeois agricultural family. Henry McAllan grew up on a farm sold by his family when he was a teenager, has a degree and worked in Memphis, and met his wife Laura in 1939. She didn't particularly attract him, but she married him anyway. The couple have two daughters. After the war broke out, Jamie (Henry's brother) became a fighter pilot. After Henry left, Henry decided to buy land in Mississippi and lived with another family named Papi (Henry and Jamie's father). Racists, between idleness and retirement, love to launch attacks among everyone, family members or friends, but have a special contempt for blacks, and are especially happy to insult blacks with impunity.

Jamie with Jackson Family

The dramatic incident on the farm involved tensions between the Macallans and the Jackson couple, a black family. In the Mississippi Delta, Hap Jackson is the arable land of is farmer. In the past few years, his ancestors worked as slaves for decades. He longed to own the property he was working on, and the latter was forced to hand it over to the white man with a gun. When the son they owned died, the Jackson family suffered two accidents and Harp broke his leg. This causes families to rent a child from McAllans and reduce their land income. The accident means Florence can no longer work for Laura. The core relationship in the movie is the friendship between the two people after the war.

The core relationship in the film is the post-war friendship between Florence and Harp's eldest son, Jamie and Ronsel Jackson. Ronsel was happy to meet his family, but was angry at being treated as a second-class citizen in a slum in Mississippi, and Jamie has always suffered from PTSD. When Rancy was riding together on the McAllen truck, he introduced Jamie to his wife and son in Germany. At home, Pappy condemned Jamie for allowing a black man to sit with him in the front of the truck.

After entering the house, Ronsel found himself leaving the photo on the truck. Later that night, members of Ku Klux Klan picked him up and beat him. Jamie was taken to a remote farm site, Ronsel was detained and awarded a "trial" by KKK to decide whether to lynch him. When Jamie tried to defend Ronsel, others eventually overwhelmed him, forcing him to choose punishment for Ronsel: taking his eyes, tongue or testicles. Jamie is forced to witness Ronsel's physical mutilation. Ronsel was naked and found by his relatives. In revenge for Ronsel's treatment, Jamie killed his father at night.

After Henry returned home, Laura said that his father died peacefully in his sleep. Henry and Jamie dug a grave and buried their father in a muddy farm. They learned that the scene was the tomb of a former slave. Later, the Jackson family found happiness on a new farm. Ronsel, now silent, returns to Germany to reunite with his girlfriend and son.

Pros

Jason Mitchell and Garrett Hedlund in the Mudbound Movie

Johnny Brayson on Bustle said that this movie feels so real and could change how you see history "Mudbound may technically be a fictional story, but it was shaped by accounts of people who had experienced similar events and lifestyles firsthand, which explains why it feels so real."[2] His Grandmother also said to him "will never be a citizen in this country.' And what she meant by that was that this country will never see her as a first class American citizen. She’d always be a problem, or a reminder. I wanted to explore how these black soldiers are received [abroad] first as Americans then as black men. But here, they’re received only as black men, and I don’t know if they're ever seen as American." Thats why he feels this movie is so real, because at that time his Grandmother used to feel the same way.

Peter Travers on Rolling Stone also said that this movie reflects the Trump era without he being a part of it, "A fiercely intimate epic about poverty, racism, violence and a divided America, Mudbound scorchingly reflects the Trump era without being a part of it."[3]

And based on EW by Chris Nashawaty he said that telling story about race is never easy, but this movie did such a wonderful job "Telling stories about race is never easy. There’s so much baggage, so many charged emotions, it’s so easy to make a wrong step. But Mudbound is never preachy, reductive, or undercut by its own good intentions. Just the opposite. It’s a deeply felt American tale told with heart and humanity".[4]

Reference