Mudbound Netflix Movie Review

Mudbound (2017)

Watch Mudbound on Netflix
Written by: Virgil Williams and Dee Rees (screenplay by), Hillary Jordan (novel)
Directed by: Dee Rees
Starring: Jason Mitchell, Garrett Hedlund, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jonathan Banks, Rob Morgan, Mary J. Blige
Rated: R

Plot
Two men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war. 

Verdict
This draws a line from discrimination in the past to discrimination today. It weaves a story of two families struggling to survive as farmers. Their lives are full of the typical drama hard up families have, but being the deep South racism is prevalent. Two soldiers who fought in the war are treated very differently based just on skin color. The culminating scene is tough to watch. It's a well directed and acted movie with great cinematography, though the first few scenes can be disorienting.
Watch it.

Review
Originally premiering at the Sundance film festival, the first few scenes jump around a bit chronologically. We start with brothers digging a grave after the events of the movie, jump back to before the movie, then jump into the future just before the events of the movie. With no lead in to the jumps, it takes a minute to figure out where you are.

There's a lot of strife in the movie, between Henry and his dad, between both of them and Jamie, between Jamie and his brother's wife, and between Ronsel and everyone else because he's black. He comes back from fighting World War II, hailed as a hero overseas to the same discrimination he faced before. He thought things would have changed, that fighting for his country would have made a difference. It didn't. He meets Jamie, also a soldier, and they strike up a friendship.

Henry buys a farm with Ronsel's family renting from them. At first you think that Henry is okay, and that just his father Pappy is racist. Pappy is played by Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad), and he embodies crotchety, racist old man. Henry asks Hap to help him movie in, letting him ride in the cab despite Pappy's protests. When Pappy and Ronsel get into a disagreement, with Pappy telling Ronsel to use the back door at a store, you think Henry is going to side with Ronsel, but he doesn't. Ronsel has the last word talking about what he did for their country, but is later forced to apologize to keep the peace.
Henry expects Ronsel's family to just bend to his will. While he has a vested interest in their success as farmers so he can collect rent, it also forces them into a situation they can't escape.
As the movie progresses you want Ronsel to get some vengeance. You know one way or another this movie is going to bring these families together, only to tear them apart.

Pappy and his friends decide to teach Ronsel a lesson. It's a terrible scene. From the reasons to their mindset to what happens, it's disgusting. I wondered how far this would go, and while it doesn't get explicit, it also failed to make the scene clear. I wasn't sure what the "punishment" was. It easily could have been made clear without being explicit.
I hoped the movie would turn into some kind of revenge movie with Jamie hunting down everyone involved Liam Neeson Taken style. The movie easily pushes you into that mindset because what happens is so terrible. The movie doesn't break that way.

Having watched the entire movie, book ending it with the grave digging scene has a lot of impact. You wonder why Ronsel's family helps with the grave, but like they've done previously they are trying to keep the peace. We now know what happens if you act out of turn. As long as ignorant people outnumber sane people, you can't fight it. I like how this ends at least, it's not completely depressing, but it's still harsh.