Mudbound

Mudbound is a 2017 American historical drama film directed by Dee Rees. It was written by Rees and Virgil Williams, who based their screenplay on the 2008 novel Mudbound by Hillary Jordan. It stars Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Jonathan Banks, Rob Morgan, and Mary J. Blige. The film depicts two World War II veterans – one white, one black – who return to rural Mississippi each to address racism and PTSD in his own way. The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2017, and was released on Netflix and in limited release on November 17, 2017. Critics praised its screenplay, direction, and performances. At the 75th Golden Globe Awards it received nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Blige) and Best Original Song ("Mighty River"). At the 90th Academy Awards, the film earned four nominations: Best Supporting Actress for Blige; Best Original Song for Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson (Blige became the first person to ever be nominated for both acting and songwriting in the same year); Best Adapted Screenplay for Rees and Virgil Williams (Rees became the first African-American woman to ever be nominated) and Best Cinematography, which made Rachel Morrison the first woman nominated in the category. Plot In the Mississippi Delta, white brothers Henry and Jamie McAllan dig a grave during a rainstorm and struggle to lower their deceased father's coffin into it. When the Jacksons, a black sharecropper family pass by in a wagon, Henry asks the father, Hap, for help. Henry seems uncomfortable asking and Hap hesitates to reply. A few years prior, Henry is conned out of renting a home and is forced to live near sharecroppers on a farm outside the town of Marietta, Mississippi and moves there with his wife Laura, their daughters, and his virulently racist father, Pappy. The Jackson family, led by tenant farmer Hap and his wife Florence, work the farm's cotton field and dream of owning their own land one day. As World War II begins, Jamie and the Jacksons' eldest son, Ronsel, join the United States Army Air Corps and U.S. Army, respectively. Both men experience severe war trauma in the European theater as Jamie flies B-25 bombers and Ronsel commands tanks. Ronsel also falls in love with a white German woman. Meanwhile, in Mississippi both families continue to live in poverty and support each other out of necessity.