Mudbound
“Mudbound ditches the simplistic notion that white nationalism only hurts Black people, arguing instead that systemic racism is a poison that sickens everything around it.”
Title: Mudbound (2017)
Director: Dee Rees 👩🏾🇺🇸🌈
Writers: Screenplay by Dee Rees 👩🏾🇺🇸🌈 and Virgil Williams 👨🏽🇺🇸, based on the novel by Hillary Jordan 👩🏼🇺🇸
Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸
Technical: 4.5/5
Dee Rees’ Mudbound is a sprawling epic that boasts nuanced writing, understated but powerful performances, and memorable cinematography that envelops its rural purgatory in earthy smudges and grime. I found just one weakness, which is conceivably more of a preference: the sluggish pace. Mudbound takes us on a beautiful, cared-for trek, but at nearly 2 hours and 15 minutes long, it tells its story at a slow, Southern drawl.
Gender: 4/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
Many characters exist in this work but the leading struggles—and triumphs—occur between men or across gender lines. Still, when a rich film like Mudbound infuses every role with layers of complexity, women are lifted up as well.
In particular, we frequently see Laura McAllan (Carey Mulligan), the wife of a farm owner, and Florence Jackson (Mary J. Blige), the matriarch of the Black family living on their land. They do lean towards being defined by their male co-stars—Laura by her illicit attraction to her brother-in-law, and Florence by her hard-working husband and war-weary son. But they share also a genuine and thoughtful relationship, one that’s intertwined with race as the power dynamic between the two women remain ever tilted in Laura’s favor.
Supporting female characters also inhabit this world, helping keep this category score above average. Laura has two daughters while Florence has one, and each child sees multiple lines and scenes. Florence’s son, Ronsel (Jason Mitchell), is effectively the main character of this film (and featured in marketing), but his storyline is fleshed out through a German girlfriend who exists solely to wait for—and provide comfort to—her American soldier. Still, women are crucial to the world of Mudbound, if not its central focus.
Mudbound movie poster
Race: 5/5
I booted up Mudbound after watching Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit (2017) the night before, and the contrast was stark. Detroit tackles racism with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer while Mudbound sweeps right past the carnage, assessing the insidious effects of racism with the measured eye of a storyteller who has lived within its shackles and understands how deep its roots go.
Specifically, Mudbound shows us that racism isn’t just the terrorizing of Black people. While it does portray this aspect through a vicious Ku Klux Klan scene, Rees adds layers of complexity, such as seeing white “allies” caught up in the destruction. Mudbound ditches the simplistic notion that white nationalism only hurts Black people, arguing instead that systemic racism is a poison that sickens everything around it.
Still more impressive is the way Rees charts how injustice seeps across generations, burying underground into a network of oppression that may be less visible but no less damaging than overt slurs or abuse. After all, Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke) never so much as raises his voice to his sharecropper, Hap Jackson (Rob Morgan). And Laura treats Florence with nothing but politeness, almost kindliness. But we see time and time again that Florence is coerced into coming to Laura’s aid, often at the expense of her own family’s needs. And Henry’s “requests” of Hap are never questioned by the Black sharecropper who deeply understands the figurative boot he has on his neck.
Mediaversity Grade: A- 4.50/5
If Hollywood needs to continue its voracious appetite for race-based fables, then I hope we continue prioritizing storytellers with the most at stake in its disseminations: people of color. Specifically, women of color. Mudbound’s success is built on this foundation of lived experience.
Like Mudbound? Try these other titles set before, or during, the civil rights era.
Underground
Hidden Figures (2017)
Fences (2016)