''Mudbound'' is a 2017 American

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...

film directed by

Dee Rees Diandrea Rees (born February 7, 1977) is an American screenwriter and director. She is known for her feature films '' Pariah'' (2011), '' Bessie'' (2015), '' Mudbound'' (2017), and '' The Last Thing He Wanted'' (2020). Rees has also written and d ...

. It was written by Rees and Virgil Williams, who based their screenplay on the 2008 novel ''

Mudbound ''Mudbound'' (2008) is the debut novel by American author Hillary Jordan. It has been translated into French, Italian, Serbian, Norwegian, Swedish, and Turkish and has sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide. The novel took Jordan seven years t ...

'' by

Hillary Jordan Hillary Jordan is an American novelist. She grew up in Dallas and Muskogee, Oklahoma and now lives in Brooklyn. She received a BA from Wellesley College and an Master of Fine Arts, MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. and has writte ...

. It stars

Carey Mulligan Carey Hannah Mulligan (born 28 May 1985) is an English actress. She has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award. Mulli ...

Garrett Hedlund Garrett John Hedlund (born September 3, 1984) is an American actor. His films include ''Troy'' (2004), '' Friday Night Lights'' (2004), '' Four Brothers'' (2005), ''Eragon'' (2006), ''Death Sentence'' (2007), '' Tron: Legacy'' (2010), ''Country ...

Jason Clarke Jason Clarke (born 17 July 1969) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series '' Brotherhood''. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film r ...

Jason Mitchell Jason Mitchell (born January 5, 1987) is an American actor. Mitchell started his career acting in minor roles in films such as the action-thriller '' Contraband'' (2012), and the neo-noir ''Broken City'' (2013). He is best known for portraying ...

Jonathan Banks Jonathan Ray Banks (born January 31, 1947) is an American actor. Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Chillum Heights, Maryland, while attending Indiana University Bloomington Banks did theatre. In 1974, he moved to Los Angeles where he be ...

, Rob Morgan and

Mary J. Blige Mary Jane Blige ( ; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Often referred to as the " Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and " Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Award ...

. The film depicts two

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veterans – one white, one black – who return to rural

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

each to address racism and

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...

in his own way. The film premiered at the

2017 Sundance Film Festival The 2017 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 19 to January 29, 2017. The first lineup of competition films was announced November 30, 2016. Awards The following awards were presented: * Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – ''I Don't Feel at ...

on January 21, 2017, and was released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

and in

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on November 17, 2017. Critics praised its screenplay and direction, and the cast's performances. At the

75th Golden Globe Awards The 75th Golden Globe Awards honored film and American television of 2017, and was broadcast live on January 7, 2018, from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST by NBC. This Golden ...

it received nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Blige) and

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

("Mighty River"). At the

90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...

, the film earned four nominations: Best Supporting Actress for Blige;

for Blige,

Raphael Saadiq Raphael Saadiq (; born Charles Ray Wiggins; May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to fame as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! In addition to his solo and group ...

and

Taura Stinson Taura Stinson is an American songwriter, producer, musician, composer and author. Stinson has co-written songs for artists including Deborah Cox, Cynthia Erivo, Kelly Rowland, Destiny's Child, Kelis and Jennifer Hudson. She has also written song ...

(Blige became the first person to ever be nominated for both acting and songwriting in the same year); Best Adapted Screenplay for Rees and Virgil Williams (Rees became the first Black woman to ever be nominated) and Best Cinematography, which made

Rachel Morrison Rachel Morrison (born April 27, 1978) is an American cinematographer and director. For her work on '' Mudbound'' (2017), Morrison earned a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, making her the first woman ever nominated in that ...

the first woman to ever be nominated in the category.

Plot

In the Mississippi Delta,

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

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 Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

sharecropper Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

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 is conned out of renting a home and is forced to live near sharecroppers on a farm outside the town of Marietta,

and moves there with his wife Laura, their daughters, and his virulently

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

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 The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

and

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, respectively. Both men experience severe war trauma in the

European theater The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with the ...

as Jamie flies B-25 bombers and Ronsel commands

tanks A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine ...

. 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 The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

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 Whooping cough, also known as pertussis or the 100-day cough, is a highly contagious bacterial disease. Initial symptoms are usually similar to those of the common cold with a runny nose, fever, and mild cough, but these are followed by two or ...

; and then 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

. 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 A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

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 The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

. 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 The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars ar ...

, 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

as Laura McAllan (née Chappell), wife of Henry *

as Jamie McAllan, brother of Henry *

as Henry McAllan, brother of Jamie *

as Florence Jackson, wife of Hap * Rob Morgan as Hap Jackson *

as Ronsel Jackson, son of Hap *

as Pappy McAllan, father of Jamie and Henry * Frankie Smith as Marlon Jackson * Kennedy Derosin as Lilly May Jackson * Elizabeth Windley as Amanda Leigh McAllan * Piper Blaire as Isabelle McAllan * Jason Kirkpatrick as Orris Stokes * Kerry Cahill as Rose Tricklebank * Oyeleke Oluwafolakanmi as Cleve *

Kelvin Harrison Jr. Kelvin Harrison Jr. (born July 23, 1994) is an American actor. He is the recipient of such accolades as a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for a British Academy Film Award, Gotham Award, an Independent Spirit Award. He began his caree ...

as Weeks *

Lucy Faust Lucy Faust is an American actress. Originally from New Orleans, she performed as part of the Southern Rep theater company, before making her name in ''Mudbound'', '' The Revival'', ''Looking for Alaska'', '' The Devil All the Time'', '' Midnig ...

as Vera Atwood *

Dylan Arnold Dylan Arnold (born February 11, 1994) is an American actor. He is known for playing Noah in the romantic drama ''After'' (2019), and its sequel '' After We Collided'' (2020), Cameron Elam in '' Halloween'' (2018), and its sequel, ''Halloween Ki ...

as Carl Atwood * Samantha Hoefer as Resl * Geraldine Singer as Mrs. Chappell * Henry Frost as Teddy Chappell * Claudio Laniado as Dr. Pearlman * Charley Vance as Sheriff Thacker

Production

Development on the film was announced on March 21, 2016, with

engaged as director and

and

cast in roles. On May 25,

was added to the cast. On May 31,

and Rob Morgan were cast, and filming began in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, Louisiana and post-production started in the United Kingdom by July 2016.

Cinematography

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 Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange' ...

Arthur Rothstein Arthur Rothstein (July 17, 1915 – November 11, 1985) was an American photographer. Rothstein is recognized as one of America's premier photojournalists. During a career that spanned five decades, he provoked, entertained and informed the Americ ...

Ben Shahn Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''. Biography Shahn was bor ...

and

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

. Another primary source for her was a

Gordon Parks Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and film director, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particu ...

essay in ''Life'' magazine in the 1950s called "A Segregation Story" – regarding color that "felt

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

, but it didn't feel washed-out". 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. 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." A. O. Scott in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' 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."

Release

Following its

premiere, ''Mudbound'' had distribution offers from

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

and

Annapurna Pictures Annapurna Pictures is an independent American media company founded by Megan Ellison in 2011, that specializes in film production, live theatre production, television through its Annapurna Television division, and video game publishing through i ...

. On January 29, 2017,

acquired distribution rights to the film. 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

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, 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." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising the cast and direction. Writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'',

Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...

also gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising Blige's performance and Rees' direction, saying: "The director and her cinematographer

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." In 2019, ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' named ''Mudbound'' on its list of the 100 best movies of the 2010s.The 100 best movies of the 2010s
. ''

''. November 18, 2019.

Accolades

References

External links

''Mudbound''
at

* {{Dee Rees 2017 drama films 2010s historical drama films African-American drama films American historical drama films American World War II films English-language Netflix original films Films about the Ku Klux Klan Films about post-traumatic stress disorder Films about racism Films about veterans Films based on American novels Films directed by Dee Rees Films scored by Tamar-kali Films set in Germany Films set in Mississippi Films shot in New Orleans Patricide in fiction 2010s English-language films 2010s American films