Post by klep on Feb 5, 2018 7:38:57 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/5: Mudbound
2017 CATCH-UP WEEK!
"When I think of the farm I think of mud.... I dreamed in brown." - Laura McAllan
America likes to think of itself as a special place. Here we are all equal, here our fruits are born from our labors, and anything is possible for a person who is willing to work hard and stay focused. In America every person is free, and every person has opportunity.
It's a lie though. It's in particular a lie white men tell themselves to avoid facing the truth. For our nation's entire history we have oppressed and persecuted women and people of color. And every advance in civil rights has required a desperate struggle against white men to bring it about.
Dee Rees' Mudbound knows this, and wants to remind us of it. The film covers a period of time primarily on a farm in Mississippi during World War II. Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke) has dragged his family down from the city to work on his family's old farm, which he has newly repurchased. He has done this without consulting his wife, Laura (Carey Mulligan), whom he treats more like a possession than a person. Throughout the film he makes decisions for her without seeking her input, and erroneously insists he told her about his ideas beforehand. Not once is he interested in her desires, and the sacrifices she makes for his dreams go unnoticed and unappreciated.
Henry treats the black tenants on his farm similarly. He never asks them for anything, he only tells them what to do. What concerns or plans or even actual obstacles they might have aren't given a second's thought by Henry, who only cares about his own plans. The Jackson family has tilled the land for generations, even owned some once before it was stolen from them at gunpoint. But that earns them no favors from Henry, and 80 years after slavery ended Jackson family patriarch Hap (Rob Morgan) still has no choice but to obey. Hap still maintains hope that one day, he'll scrape together enough for his family to have their own land once again.
But we repeatedly see how difficult a prospect that is. Every little setback threatens to permanently derail their plans, or leave them destitute. The donkey gets sick, and Henry forces them to rent his. Hap breaks his leg, and Henry pressures him to work anyway. Most heartbreakingly, the Jackson family matriarch Florence (Mary J. Blige) makes the sacrifice so many black mothers had to make, losing time with her own children to take care of someone else's. "I won't be working for them," she says, "I'll be working for us." But it's small comfort.
But if only poverty were all the Jacksons were facing. Their eldest Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) enlists in the military to fight for his country, and while he is decorated as a war hero, he comes back home to find his medals, his achievements, his rank are meaningless. Overseas he was a liberator, he was respected, for the first time he felt treated as an equal.
But back at home, he's thrown back in the gutter by the white men who refuse to relinquish their status, and who threaten violent retribution for his audacity in considering himself a person.
I wish I could tell you the story has a happy ending, but that wouldn't be honest. It is at best bittersweet. The Jacksons do get their farm, but only after Ronsel is mutilated for his audacity in having a white girlfriend overseas. Laura's ambitions are buried so deeply by Henry's possessiveness that she doesn't realize she loves Henry's brother until it's too late. Their dreams and desires all get mixed up and trampled in the mud, and they must make do with what they can salvage.
Henry's fine though. He's a white man. He'll always be fine in America.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/12: Roman Holiday
ROMANCE WEEK!
Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so it seems a good time to watch this beloved romance starring Gregory Peck and the inimitable Audrey Hepburn. Join us next week for our discussion of this Oscar-winning classic. Roman Holiday is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is only free for Prime members with a Starz add-on.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 2/6: Wet Hot American Summer
This week the podcast looks at the works of David Wain with his new film A Futile And Stupid Gesture and this classic comedy. Join us Wednesday for a thread on the older film, which is available for rent on Amazon Video, where it is free for Prime members with a Starz add-on.
2017 CATCH-UP WEEK!
"When I think of the farm I think of mud.... I dreamed in brown." - Laura McAllan
America likes to think of itself as a special place. Here we are all equal, here our fruits are born from our labors, and anything is possible for a person who is willing to work hard and stay focused. In America every person is free, and every person has opportunity.
It's a lie though. It's in particular a lie white men tell themselves to avoid facing the truth. For our nation's entire history we have oppressed and persecuted women and people of color. And every advance in civil rights has required a desperate struggle against white men to bring it about.
Dee Rees' Mudbound knows this, and wants to remind us of it. The film covers a period of time primarily on a farm in Mississippi during World War II. Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke) has dragged his family down from the city to work on his family's old farm, which he has newly repurchased. He has done this without consulting his wife, Laura (Carey Mulligan), whom he treats more like a possession than a person. Throughout the film he makes decisions for her without seeking her input, and erroneously insists he told her about his ideas beforehand. Not once is he interested in her desires, and the sacrifices she makes for his dreams go unnoticed and unappreciated.
Henry treats the black tenants on his farm similarly. He never asks them for anything, he only tells them what to do. What concerns or plans or even actual obstacles they might have aren't given a second's thought by Henry, who only cares about his own plans. The Jackson family has tilled the land for generations, even owned some once before it was stolen from them at gunpoint. But that earns them no favors from Henry, and 80 years after slavery ended Jackson family patriarch Hap (Rob Morgan) still has no choice but to obey. Hap still maintains hope that one day, he'll scrape together enough for his family to have their own land once again.
But we repeatedly see how difficult a prospect that is. Every little setback threatens to permanently derail their plans, or leave them destitute. The donkey gets sick, and Henry forces them to rent his. Hap breaks his leg, and Henry pressures him to work anyway. Most heartbreakingly, the Jackson family matriarch Florence (Mary J. Blige) makes the sacrifice so many black mothers had to make, losing time with her own children to take care of someone else's. "I won't be working for them," she says, "I'll be working for us." But it's small comfort.
But if only poverty were all the Jacksons were facing. Their eldest Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) enlists in the military to fight for his country, and while he is decorated as a war hero, he comes back home to find his medals, his achievements, his rank are meaningless. Overseas he was a liberator, he was respected, for the first time he felt treated as an equal.
But back at home, he's thrown back in the gutter by the white men who refuse to relinquish their status, and who threaten violent retribution for his audacity in considering himself a person.
I wish I could tell you the story has a happy ending, but that wouldn't be honest. It is at best bittersweet. The Jacksons do get their farm, but only after Ronsel is mutilated for his audacity in having a white girlfriend overseas. Laura's ambitions are buried so deeply by Henry's possessiveness that she doesn't realize she loves Henry's brother until it's too late. Their dreams and desires all get mixed up and trampled in the mud, and they must make do with what they can salvage.
Henry's fine though. He's a white man. He'll always be fine in America.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/12: Roman Holiday
ROMANCE WEEK!
Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so it seems a good time to watch this beloved romance starring Gregory Peck and the inimitable Audrey Hepburn. Join us next week for our discussion of this Oscar-winning classic. Roman Holiday is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is only free for Prime members with a Starz add-on.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 2/6: Wet Hot American Summer
This week the podcast looks at the works of David Wain with his new film A Futile And Stupid Gesture and this classic comedy. Join us Wednesday for a thread on the older film, which is available for rent on Amazon Video, where it is free for Prime members with a Starz add-on.