Day 36 – Mudbound

Movie Title: Mudbound

First Watch / Repeat Viewing

Running Time: 2 hr. and 14 min.

Rated: R

Who did I watch with?: Flying Solo

Where did I watch it?: Home

Review:

Mudbound was written by someone who read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor and wanted to do a grittier alternative take on the story. Mudbound takes place in flashback form and focuses on the lives of a white family and a black family in the Mississippi delta during World War II.

Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke) the head of the white family leads them to become farmers leaving behind a comfortable life in the suburbs. His wife Laura (Carey Mulligan) suffers him kindly. He is not a brute, but he is not a caring man. After being swindled he is forced to gamble on the season’s crop to pull the family through. His brother (Garrett Hedlund) enlists in the air force to fight in the war. He returns a more enlightened, but broken man. A drunk, he earns the scorn of his former white brethren.

The Jackson family has a long history of tenant farming on the land they work. They do not own any of it, but are proud. They are looking to save enough money to buy land of their own. Ronsel Jackson enlists in the army and is assigned to a tank division. After fighting on the front lines and falling in love he returns to Mississippi to pick up where he left off. Unsatisfied, he befriends Jamie McAllan.

The first hour and a half of the movie is fairly paint by numbers. All of the significant plot points are predictable and the story felt like it was plagiarized. Some of the white citizenry perform small acts of kindness for the black families, but for the most part they are treated with malice. Mary J. Blige was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but I didn’t find her role to be anything particularly special. The opening flashback hints very strongly about how the movie will end and the ride isn’t especially great. The climax is graphic and heart breaking, but seems to fit Mississippi to a T for the time period.

Verdict:

It is a movie worth seeing because it can be used to view the horrors of past racial injustices in this country and see how far we’ve come, but the story isn’t especially original. Take it or leave it if you feel like you’ve been down this road enough times.

Tomorrow’s Movie: Brokeback Mountain (2005)

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Today’s Run:

Time: 14:09

Distance: 1 mile

Today I hit the road again and I feel very good. Today was the first day I ran without walking in between laps of my neighborhood. So, while the time was a little slower it it is more of an accurate time.