Review of Mudbound (2017) by Omar L — 27 Jan 2018

The pain and hurt that America has inflicted on its own people is still with us today. This nation, as a society, isn't defined so much by its accomplishments, but by its struggles to overcome the shameful deeds of its past. America's legacy as being (among) the winners of World War II is looked upon as separate from its legacy for producing such men as Dr. King.

I had the fortune of meeting a few Tuskegee Airmen during my time in the Air Force. The heroism of those men is seen as confined to their time in the skies, and, after proving themselves, the ugliness of what those men had to endure from the nation that sent them to fight is to shameful to even consider. When I talked to one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the anger and frustration of what he went through after coming home from the war rang loud in his voice as he told me his story.

Mudbound is one such story. America's relationship with racism and with war are combined in this tale that doesn't have so much as a story but an exploration of two families that lived in a crappy rural area, their lives touching due more to their proximity to each other than by their family members' participation in the war.

As we shake our heads at the events that occur during this movie, we don't just feel the frustration of the characters, but we feel an inner frustration at those who people can't understand that when they say "Make America Great Again" and refer to the Greatest Generation who won World War II, they ignore the ugliness of lack of greatness American had.