Mudbound - Review
Period pieces have always hit a special spot with me. When I was a kid I used to love history, but many parts of American history are darker than people like to discuss. Sometimes it's tough to find a way to portray history truthfully and creating a great story to fit with it. Mudbound does this, and not just well, but excellently. This is a brilliant movie by Netflix depicting a world at war, families who don't know how to progress, and the most moving part: two men broken by war who are alone in the world after returning home.
Something that immediately stood out to me about this movie is the way that no punches are pulled when depicting history. Often times movies will bend history to their whim in order to fit the story-telling, but in Mudbound's case that isn't necessary. The story begins with the classic routine of showing an out of context scene before jumping to the past to tell a story. The first half of the film revolves around two families: one white and one African-american after certain family members go off to fight in the Great War. For the majority of this half there is subtle angst between these two families as Henry Mcallan (Jason Clarke) and his family purchase the farm on which the African-american family lives and works.
There is plenty of time is spent developing this conflict that plays of quietly while once in a while a sequence will be shown involving the two men at war from each family. Jamie (Henry's brother) is a pilot, and Ronsel is Hap's (the father of the African-american family) eldest son. These sequences are rather short, but provide an idea of a different life being lived in Europe that manages to avoid many of the issues of racism in their home town. It's incredible to see these stark changes and I hoped that specifically Ronsel would stay in Europe due to how different life was for him.
When they return to rural Mississippi at the halfway point of the film, they both are broken men but in different ways. After happening upon each other by chance they become friends, which is something most definitely frowned upon in this time period in Mississippi. This change in the films subject matter is a rather rough shift but it plays very well on screen. Jamie and Ronsel become the main characters of the story and their developing friendship causes issues for both the families and each other. I found this half of the film to actually be more enthralling as there was more true conflict and the resolution was satisfying.
When I think about particularly strong characters I come back to Jamie and Ronsel. Garrett Hedlund and Jason Mitchell play these characters so well. Jason has a great range as an actor and while it's subtle on screen I can see the changes in emotion for this charcater. Whether it's pain or joy in a situation it's hard to find joy in, he plays it so well that I can't wait to see him in the future. Garrett also manages to play Jamie with a sense of a suave but scared young man. Before war Jamie is rather cocky and found attractive by women (including Henry's wife), but when he returns he is completely different. Challenged by a world with different rules, I found myself rooting for them both but I knew things were most likely not going to end happily.
Mudbound is one of the best period piece films I have ever seen. Especially being a movie that doesn't explicitly lean into war but rather the homefront and does it successfully, I found myself constantly impressed. While for many I'm sure this film will be tough to watch with what is portrayed on screen, I believe it is not only a good film but an important one. Netflix has outdone itself and I can only hope for more films of this quality movie forward.
