31 likes. The first voice we hear is that of Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund), a damaged World War II veteran who has returned to work on his brother’s farm. And, crucially, we hear the thoughts of the members of the Jackson family, African-American tenants who rent portions of Henry’s land. At one point, Laura’s young children fall seriously ill. With the doctor too far away, she desperately calls on Florence to help, never mind that Florence has children of her own to care for. The current carries me along. Major kudos to Mark Furney for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown. The white farmers digging a grave for their father in the opening scene of Mudbound are about five feet down when they run into a problem: piles of bones suggest that the area has already been used as a cemetery of sorts for former slaves. The first voice we hear is that of Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund), a damaged World War II veteran who has returned to work on his brother’s farm. This includes father Hap (Rob Morgan), mother Florence (Mary J. Blige), and son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell), who also served in WWII and is having as difficult of a time readjusting to civilian life as Jamie. And so even the opening section in Memphis, which focuses primarily on the McAllans, includes lingering shots of the black servants or musicians who make this privileged society function. White men already got her, they thinking, You mine now, just wait and see what I'm gone do to you. Hedlund and Mitchell, as the war veterans who have both been traumatized and enlightened by their service, prove equally adept at hitting notes of charm and sorrow, depending on the needs of the scene. White or colored, none of em got sense enough to see that she the one owns them. What his speech leaves out is the very thing the movie makes room for: the way dirt and land and blood can mix together—as do the various voiceovers when they join in chorus at the end of the film—to form something more akin to mud. . ― Hillary Jordan, Mudbound. This includes father Hap (Rob Morgan), mother Florence (Mary J. Blige), and son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell), who also served in WWII and is having as difficult of a time readjusting to civilian life as Jamie. When these worlds do come together, the tension is always at the forefront. Said he didn't expect you'd live another forty-eight hours. I never doubted it, not for one minute, then or since. Mudbound hides nothing, particularly in a violent climax that plays as pure horror (Get Out, indeed). Set mainly on a ragged farm in 1940s Mississippi, the movie is handsomely shot and impressively assured, with the stature of an old-fashioned prestige picture. And so even the opening section in Memphis, which focuses primarily on the McAllans, includes lingering shots of the black servants or musicians who make this privileged society function. If that was a sin I reckoned God would forgive me for it, seeing as how He the one stacked the cards in the first place.”, “Florence may have sensed something, but I had no idea of what I was setting in motion the day I gave Ronsel Jackson a lift from town.”, “Jamie didn't talk to me about the war. Error rating book. Later, on the farm in Mississippi, the use of montage and parallel editing connects the McAllans and the Jacksons, who may work the same land but inhabit different worlds. Even if you start with "Chapter One: I am Born," you still have the problem of antecedents, of cause and effect. But its concerns are more urgent than that description suggests, its emotions rawer than you might expect. Now doing the same thing, she describes it as an act of love, noting that “love is a kind of survival.” If the white landowners suffer, Florence knows, her family will suffer tenfold. It's like an open doorway for him, lets him enter in and do his wicked work.”, “Daddy shook Pappy's hand, then Henry's, then hugged the children. They just as important as the medicines, sometimes even more.”, “Henry McAllan was as landsick as any man I ever seen and I seen plenty of em, white and colored both. And you try and get her to hold that baby and feed that baby but she won’t have none of it. Later, on the farm in Mississippi, the use of montage and parallel editing connects the McAllans and the Jacksons, who may work the same land but inhabit different worlds.