In the Mississippi Delta, white brothers Henry and Jamie McAllan dig a grave during a rainstorm and struggle to lower their deceased father's coffin into it. When the Jacksons, a blacktenant farmer family pass by in a wagon, Henry asks the father, Hap Jackson, for help. Henry seems uncomfortable asking and Hap hesitates to reply.
A few years prior, Henry is conned out of renting a home and is forced to live near sharecroppers on a farm outside the town of Marietta, Mississippi and moves there with his wife Laura, their daughters, and his virulently racist father, Pappy. The Jackson family, led by tenant farmer Hap and his wife Florence, work the farm's cotton field and dream of owning their own land one day. As World War II begins, Jamie and the Jacksons' eldest son, Ronsel, join the United States Army Air Corps and U.S. Army, respectively. Both men experience severe war trauma in the European theater as Jamie flies B-25 bombers and Ronsel commands tanks. Ronsel also falls in love with a white German woman.
Meanwhile, in Mississippi both families continue to live in poverty and support each other out of necessity. Florence also helps the McAllan family when their two young daughters fall ill with whooping cough; and then Laura offers Florence work to help care for her daughters permanently. When the Jacksons' mule has to be euthanized, Henry offers to rent out his mule but exacts half of the Jacksons' crop in payment. Leaving the Jacksons nearly no choice but to accept, the proposed arrangement would diminish them from tenant farmers to the lower economic and social status of sharecroppers. Hap, who serves as the preacher for the local black community, falls while helping to build a church, breaking his leg and rendering him unable to work his fields. Laura sneaks money from her husband's safe so Hap can be properly treated by a doctor, much to Henry's disapproval and causing their passionless marriage to worsen. Hap recovers and prevents his family from further social decline.
When the war ends, Ronsel and Jamie return home and realize that they have changed but the Mississippi Delta has not. Jamie becomes an alcoholic and suffers from PTSD. Ronsel, accustomed to the relative lack of racism among Europeans, struggles with racism in Mississippi. They become aware of each other's difficulties and bond over their war experiences. Ronsel questions why Jamie treats him with respect, and Jamie recounts that on a bomber mission a black fighter pilot saved his life. Jamie grows close to Laura but his alcoholism worsens and he drunkenly crashes his truck. Henry leaves on a trip and tells Jamie to depart from the farm before he returns. Ronsel receives a letter and photo from the German woman with whom he had been romantically involved and learns that they had a child together and she wants him to come to Europe. The photo is of her and their bi-racial child. Ronsel shares this with Jamie while driving together when their truck passes Pappy, and Ronsel is forced to duck down to hide. Pappy confronts Jamie about him socializing with Ronsel and scolds him for his drunken behavior and sneers at Laura, claiming she has romantic feelings for Jamie. Later, Ronsel realizes that he lost the photograph, which Pappy finds in the truck. Laura confronts Jamie as he prepares to leave and they have sex.
As Ronsel frantically searches for his photograph, he is ambushed and beaten by Pappy and members of the Ku Klux Klan. Pappy brings Jamie to a barn where the Klan is preparing to kill Ronsel for fathering a child with a white woman. Jamie points a gun at his father in an effort to save his friend and is also beaten by the Klan. As Jamie is restrained, he is told to choose Ronsel's punishment for his crime — to lose his eyes, tongue or testicles; or death. Through the pain, Jamie whispers "tongue" and Ronsel's tongue is cut out. Ronsel is left bound and wounded for his family to find. Fed up, later that night, Jamie wakes Pappy who had previously belittled Jamie's war experience because he had not looked into the eyes of the people he killed during the war. Jamie looks Pappy in the eye and smothers him with a pillow. Laura lies to Henry that Pappy died in his sleep.
The following day, the Jacksons appear to be leaving with their meager belongings in the wagon when they pass Henry and Jamie who are struggling to bury Pappy. Hap accedes to Henry's request to help with the coffin and says a prayer over the grave. In a rebuke to Pappy's wickedness, Hap recites from the Book of Job, verses 14:2–12. Jamie approaches the Jacksons' wagon and gives the German woman's letter to Florence, asking her to give it to Ronsel.
Much later, Jamie moves to the city. Ronsel returns to Europe and reunites with his German lover and their son.
Cast
Carey Mulligan as Laura McAllan (née Chappell), wife of Henry
Filming began in New Orleans, Louisiana, in May 2016.[10] For the film's opening scene, artificial rain produced by rain towers was used, while actual rain was filmed for wide shots.[11] Shooting took place over the course of 29 days,[11] including two days in Budapest, Hungary, for scenes set during World War II.[12]
The production was impacted by both heat and stormy weather. On one occasion, Rachel Morrison, the film's director of photography, developed sun poisoning.[12] On another occasion, filming had to be postponed due to a nearby tornado warning.[12] A scene between the characters Ronsel and Jamie that was initially planned to take place on the side of a road was altered due to rain, instead taking place inside Jamie's pickup truck.[12]
Cinematography
Dee Rees asked Morrison to focus on "the idea of the American dream vs. the American reality," so Morrison turned to books by Farm Security Administration photographers for reference points regarding color and composition, in particular Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn and Walker Evans. Another primary source for her was a Gordon Parks essay in Life magazine in the 1950s called "A Segregation Story" – regarding color that "felt period, but it didn't feel washed-out".[13]
Morrison's term for the goal they tried to achieve is "subjective naturalism," which she describes as first of all, real, and then potentially dramatized with light at main plot points – but remaining real throughout.[13] Through that reality, the focus was on the elements in the picture and not the period itself: "The period wasn't a character in this film. The mud was a character, the weather was a character, the house was a character ... we were trying to make more of a commentary about just how tough times were through experiences."[13]A. O. Scott in the New York Times wrote of the result: "Rachel ... brings the soil, the flora and the weather to life in a way that emphasizes the archaic, elemental power of the story."[14]
Costume design
Michael T. Boyd served as the film's costume designer.[15] Some of the clothing worn by the poorer characters in the film appears dated more to the 1930s, as opposed to the 1940s when the film takes place; this was an intentional decision meant to give the impression of clothes passed down between generations of people unable to afford newer ones.[15] The military and pilot uniforms seen in the film were replicas of real uniforms.[15]
For the scene in which Ronsel is ambushed by members of the Ku Klux Klan, Boyd utilized a mixture of outfits, with "the poorer men with the feed bag-looking hoods with the eyes cut out and tied with a string and others with the full Klan regalia. I don't think it would have been as powerful a scene if I would have had them all dress in white robes. It's somehow more real and intimate; this wasn't a parade or a burning-cross meeting for show but pure intimate violence and I think the mixture added texture to the event."[15]
Release
Following its 2017 Sundance Film Festival premiere, Mudbound had distribution offers from A24, Annapurna Pictures and Entertainment Studios.[16] On January 29, 2017, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film for $12.5 million in the largest deal made at Sundance that year.[17] The film premiered on the streaming platform, as well as began a one-week theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles, on November 17, 2017.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 199 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Mudbound offers a well-acted, finely detailed snapshot of American history whose scenes of rural class struggle resonate far beyond their period setting."[18] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[19]
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising the cast and direction.[20] Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers also gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising Blige's performance and Rees' direction, saying: "The director and her cinematographer Rachel Morrison do wonders with the elements that batter the people of every race and social class in the Delta. But it's the storm raging inside these characters that rivets our attention and makes Mudbound a film that grabs you and won't let go."[21]
In 2019, The A.V. Club named Mudbound on its list of the 100 best movies of the 2010s.[22]
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