Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Mudbound Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 2, 2024

Films as disparate as The Best Years of Our Lives and Coming Home have documented what might be termed the plight of vets returning stateside from the battlefield. As viscerally disturbing and moving as those two and any number of other similarly themed films have been, they probably pale in comparison to Mudbound, which takes the "returning vets with problems" aspect to a whole new level by having one of the returning vets be a black man who has to deal not just with the PTSD he experiences courtesy of his wartime memories, but also the prejudice he encounters in his native Mississippi. Mudbound definitely flirts with a soap operatic ambience, but it is buoyed by some extremely effective performances and an evocative production design that depicts the hardscrabble lives of both white and black southerners trying to make lives for themselves against considerable odds.

Mudbound opens with a rather calamitous vignette which sees brothers Henry (Jason Clarke) and Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund) desperately attempting to dig a grave during a torrential downpour, one which almost ends up drowning Jamie in the hole he's been digging. It turns out the brothers are getting ready to bury their father, but they need some help lowering the casket into the ground, and when a black family which includes Hap Jackson (Rob Morgan) and his wife Florence (Mary J. Blige, Academy Award nominated for this performance) drives by in a horse drawn cart, obviously off for greener pastures, Henry asks for a little help, which seems to "trigger" the Jacksons in some yet unknown way. The story then rewinds several years to document the two families' histories, though it actually takes a while for the Jacksons to show up in the tale.

One of the interesting conceits of the film, and one which evidently mirrors a multitude of narrators in the source novel from which the screenplay was adapted (a novel I admittedly have not read), is how, in the words of director Dee Rees, voiceover duties are "passed off" from one person to the next, and that allows several of the focal characters to more or less introduce themselves. That includes Laura Chappell (Carey Mulligan), who is, as the flashback gets under way, being "courted" by Harry, and who is soon married to him with two young daughters. Harry just kind of willy nilly announces he's moving the family to Mississippi, and that is ultimately where the Jackson family enters the fray.

While Harry and Laura would hardly even qualify for being middle class, let alone wealthy, they're at least relatively better off than the Jacksons (even after a stupid mistake by Harry "demotes" their financial stability) , who end up working Harry's land, without the benefit of ownership. There's already some pretty virulent racial subtext at work that is personified by Harry and Jamie's father Pappy (a riveting if disturbing Jonathan Banks), who doesn't make his hatred for "lesser" races known and who unsurprisingly is revealed to be an "active" member of the Ku Klux Klan in one of the film's most horrifying emotional climaxes.

While Harry, Laura, Hap and Florence all interact, what's rather interesting about the second act of Mudbound is how it slightly shifts the narrative to Jamie and Hap's son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell), who both end up in the European theater of World War II, and both of whom return from battle in understandably roiled condition. Perhaps due to that as well as their physical proximity, Jamie and Ronsel end up befriending each other, which leads to some calamitous results in a region and era where interracial relationships of any kind were not exactly tolerated.

This is an undeniably ambitious, novelistic film which was, according to some of the excellent supplements on Criterion's disc, shot rather quickly. That shooting schedule may have only helped the performances achieve a rather poignant urgency, and the cast shines throughout even when events become more and more histrionic, with some grotesque incidents that at least hint at a Southern Gothic flavor. In a way, it may be unfair to even lump Mudbound in with other "returning vet" stories, since it obviously has so much else it wants to explore. That denseness may occasionally offer some stumbling blocks, but the emotional impact of the film can hardly be understated.

Mudbound Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mudbound is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is the very rare release from Criterion that does not include even a bit of information about the transfer in the insert booklet. Instead, there's a brief description on the back cover which states this was culled from a "new 2K digital master supervised by director Dee Rees and director of photography Rachel Morrison". Morrison is on hand in a very interesting and informative interview included on this disc, where she overtly states she would have preferred to have shot Mudbound on film, but that budgetary and scheduling constraints required a digital capture (by Arri Alexa cameras). In what may surprise some videophiles, Morrison also overtly states that she wanted a bit of digital noise in her captures, while also adding a textural layer of digital grain to attempt to get things as close to looking like film as possible. Even Morrison may hedge her reaction to the results while offering her overall approval, but one way or the other this is a very handsome looking presentation that does have some appealing depth and texture. Grading tends to favor yellows, beiges, ochres and similar tones, and there's almost a sepia ambience throughout the presentation. Detail levels fare best in better lit environments, as should probably be expected, and if there's one slight deficit to the presentation, it may be the relative lack of detail levels in quite a bit of the darker material which tends to become more and more prevalent in the third act in particular.

Mudbound Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mudbound features a nicely immersive Dolby Atmos track that offers some noticeable verticality from the get go (or at least near get go) as a violent storm overtakes the brothers as they attempt to dig a grave. There is a wealth of ambient environmental material in the many outdoor scenes, where the buzz of insects or rustling of breezes can waft through the side and rear channels. A really evocative score by Tamar-Kali is also nicely placed in the surround channels (Blige contributes a closing credits song which got her a second Academy Award nomination, the first time one person has been simultaneously nominated in the Supporting Actress and Best Song categories). All of the music is nicely burnished and full bodied. Dialogue (including quite a bit of narration) is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Mudbound Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary is by co-writer and director Dee Rees.


• Take It When You Got It (HD; 23:38) offers some behind the scenes footage and a number of interesting interviews.


• Iron Sharpens Iron: The Women Crafting Mudbound (HD; 15:54) highlights the many women who helped maked the film, including Dee Rees, editor Mako Kamitsuna, composer Tamar-kali, and makeup artist Angie Wells.


• Rachel Morrison (HD; 28:35) was the film's director of photography and is featured in this 2017 interview conducted by Jim Hemphill at an American Society of Cinematographers event.


• David J. Bomba (HD; 17:05) features the film's production designer.


• Teaser (HD; 2:02)


• Trailer (HD; 2:07)

Additionally, Criterion provides another nicely appointed insert booklet, with an interesting essay by Danielle Amir Jackson.

Mudbound Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mudbound may verge on the hyperbolic as it wends it way through a very dense, novelistic story, but it provides more than one gut punch along the way as it documents a time in America's history we may not have entirely moved beyond. Technical merits are first rate, and the supplements very enjoyable. Highly recommended.