Mudbound (film)

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 black sharecropper family pass by in a wagon, Henry asks the father, Hap, for help. Henry seems uncomfortable asking and Hap hesitates to reply.

A few years prior, Henry buys a farm outside the fictional 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 Corp 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. 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 no choice but to accept. Florence also helps the McAllan family when their two young daughters fall ill with whooping cough; and Laura offers Florence work helping care for her daughters permanently. 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.

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 nearly drowns when he drunkenly crashes his truck into a lake. Henry leaves on a trip and tells Jamie to depart from the farm before he returns. Ronsel receives an envelope containing 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. Ronsel shares this with Jamie while driving together when their truck passes Pappy and Ronsel is forced 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 envelope which Pappy finds in the truck. Laura confronts Jamie as he prepares to leave and they have sex.

As Ronsel frantically searches for his letter, 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. 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.

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 envelope 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.

Development on the film was announced on March 21, 2016, with Dee Rees engaged as director and Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke and Jason Mitchell cast in roles.[8] On May 25, Mary J. Blige was added to the cast.[9] On May 31, Jonathan Banks and Rob Morgan were cast, and filming began in New Orleans, Louisiana and post-production started in the United Kingdom by July 2016.[10]

Dee Rees asked Rachel Morrison to focus on "the idea of the American dream vs. the American reality," so Rachel 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".[11] Rachel'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.[11] 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."[11] A. O. Scott in the New York Times on 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." [12]

Following its 2017 Sundance Film Festival premiere, Mudbound had distribution offers from A24 and Annapurna Pictures.[13] On January 29, 2017, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film.[14] 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.

• List of black films of the 2010s

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