I thought the depression ended with WWII. I suppose there are places in the country where economics is irrelevant; life is just gonna suck no matter what you do. And with that, please welcome Mudbound, the honorary Requiem for a Dream recipient for most depressing film of 2017. Huzzah!
A tough watch from beginning to two-hours-and-fifteen minutes later, Mudbound tells the story of two families struggling to make farming work in 1940s rural Mississippi. Henry and Laura McAllen (Jason Clarke and Carey Mulligan) deliberately uproot themselves plus gramps and a pair of small children from comfortable small town life to try their hand at mud. “Life was just too easy, people; it should be much, much harder.” Ten minutes in, Henry realizes he’s been swindled and instead of moving into the comfortable two-story house he bargained for, he has to settle for ranch-hand quarters: a three-room shack in the middle of a dirt swamp. Oh, but don’t fret over the McAllens, being white, they have it much better than their black counterparts, the Jacksons.
This, I suppose is the essence of white privilege – the McAllens get taken for a ride and drop as low as they can get … while the Jacksons have struggled for generations just to rent from the McAllens. Hap and Florence Jackson (Rob Morgan and Mary J. Blige) still pick cotton in the fields as their ancestors have done for years upon years upon years. This is a time and place in which Whooping Cough proves near fatal and racism is never not a thing. The latter is exacerbated by Pappy McAllan (Jonathan Banks), who’s formal wear comes with a pointed hood.
For the entirety of the first hour of Mudbound, the only thing that kept me going was knowing that detestable sack of shit Pappy was going to die; the opening flash forward told me so.
In fact, finding a rooting interest in this film proved quite a difficulty – the camera stays mostly with the white family led by Henry, the best of which could be said about the man is that he isn’t as racist as his father. In turn, Laura proves more enabler than heroine. On the dark side of the mud pit, it is easier to champion Hap and Florence; they are, simply, better people than their pale counterparts. And yet, there’s constantly a sickening deferentiality built into the DNA of the setting. It doesn’t stop at the farm, the town, or the state; it’s also in the script and on the screen – the trials of the McAllens are bigger than the trials of the Jacksons no matter what reality says.
In hour two, I finally found something to enjoy about Mudbound when the respective family war heroes return: Bomber Captain Jamie McAllen (Garrett Hedlund) and Tank Sergeant Ronsel Jackson (Jason Mitchell). These two bravely form a default friendship for, well, being the only two who can understand what the other has been through. This is the best part of Mudbound and nothing else comes close … but this
relationship, too, is doomed to be a casualty of circumstance.
Mudbound is long, painful, and not entirely well plotted. It’s like Fast Times at Ridgemont High if you substituted Ridgemont High for fifty acres of muck and Jeff Spicoli for a dead mule. The film reflects upon post-war Mississippi, but it is obscenely translatable to our generation. Ronsel returns from the war a decorated hero. In Europe, he was welcomed as a liberator and a champion of good. Back where he grew up, however, he is just a … look, don’t make me say it. Point being – can you not see the parallel? To the undying racism in parts of the United States, a black man can never win no matter how successful, generous, or selfless. One particular man can, say, attempt to bring affordable health care to every single man, woman, and child in the nation only to have his attempts forever attacked and his legacy happily erased in the most self-destructive manner imaginable. To men like Pappy McAllen, slavery under Nazi oppression is superior to acknowledging equality; millions of racists today care only about re-white-ing American history (at any cost). The tale says 1940s, yet this couldn’t be more 2017 if it wore a MAGA insignia.
****
Mary J. Blige (as matriarch Florence Jackson) has taken a nomination for this role, which I suppose makes sense if movies don’t matter to you. I don’t find Blige unworthy of an Oscar nod otherwise, but reflecting upon Mudbound, I’d say Florence Jackson doesn’t rank top five among the most memorable roles in this film. I’m not kidding. When is the last time you could say that about an Oscar nominee? Now I understand that after that disgusting all white/blonde magazine cover earlier this year, there’s an intense desire to keep diversity among the nominations. I also understand a desire not to go for the obnoxious alternatives like Hong Chau for Downsizing or Tiffany Haddish for Girls Trip. Here’s my alternative: how about Betty Gabriel for Get Out? She’s the pulse of the mystery in an awesome film and her repetition of “No … no no nononononono …” might be my favorite reading of all 2017.
♪You dig dirt
But she digs muck
And maybe the crop won’t fail
If you have luck
And so you hoe
Till the day you die
This place full of mud
It’s gonna make you cry
I’ve had the mumps
The grippe and a jinx
One thing for sure
Mud stinks yeah yeah♫
Rated R, 135 Minutes
Director: Dee Rees
Writer: Virgil Williams and Dee Rees
Genre: Post Depression depression
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who hate to smile
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Happy sunshine fairies
♪ Parody Inspired by “Love Stinks”
