Mudbound

You better get a hurry along.

We ain't gonna make it.

Oh, we will. We have to.

Take a break. Come on.

My turn.

"We will. We have to."

That was my brother, Henry.

Absolutely certain whatever he wanted to happen would.

The weather would dry out in time to resow the cotton.

We would get this hole dug before the storm hit.

God damn it!

- Jesus Christ! - What is it?

It's a slave's grave.

How do you know that?

Shot in the head.

Must've been a runaway.

Well, that settles it.

Settles what?

I ain't burying my father in no slave's grave.

Nothing he would've hated more.

Help me up.

We ain't got a choice.

That's it, brother! Come on!

- Huh? - That's it!

Get you out of there!

Come on!

Come on.

God damn it!

- Come on, Jamie. Hang on! - No.

I'm gonna fetch a ladder!

Huh?

Henry!

Henry!

Henry!

Henry!

- Henry, where are you? - Right here! I'm here!

That was my brother Henry.

Absolutely certain whatever he wanted to happen would.

And his little brother...

Jamie.

...would never betray him.

Come on. Come here. Come on. What's the matter with you? Huh?

I thought you were... gonna leave me down there!

Come on. Why would I do that?

Why would I do that?

When I think of the farm, I think of mud.

Encrusting knees and hair.

Marching in boot-shaped patches across the floor.

I dreamed in brown.

All right. Come on, lift it up.

- Come on. - You know, just get... Come on!

- Hang on. Just let it... Hang on. - Hold on.

- Lift it, Jamie. Lift it. - Just get a little more...

Just stop, okay? Let's set it down.

Why don't we just run the ropes lengthwise? We stand at either end.

No, the coffin's too narrow. If it falls again, it might break.

- Well, we can try. - No!

- Hap! - Henry.

- Hap! - Henry, don't.

- It ain't my fault what happened. - Whoa.

- I warned that boy. Warned both of 'em. - Just let 'em go.

Hap!

Hap, can you hold on?

Can you lend us a hand, Hap?

Need to get that coffin in the ground.

Hap?

I was a 31-year-old virgin

when I met Henry McAllan in the spring of 1939.

I lived with my parents in the house I grew up in.

My world was small,

and he was my rescuer from a life in the margins.

Oh, really? He tells me that, uh, you are actually a college man.

Engineering.

- An engineering degree from Ole Miss. - Yes.

Did you hear that, Laura? An engineering degree from Ole Miss.

My, my, my.

You know, Laura is a college graduate.

She got her teaching certificate from West Tennessee State. We're very proud.

Mm-hmm. My dear sister's the smartest one in the family.

Made better grades than I ever did. Never heard the end of it.

She is smart.

Laura, you should, uh, play the piano for us after dinner.

Hmm?

You should hear her sing. She sings like an angel.

Yeah, you should play something for Mr. McAllan later.

- Mama. Mama. - "Ave Maria." That's my favorite.

- You will love that. It's so beautiful. - Mama.

What?

I'm quite sure that Teddy did not bring

his new boss, Mr. McAllan, over to hear hymns.

Well, why don't we just ask him.

- Mr. McAllan? - Mm-hmm?

Would you like to hear some music after dinner?

I like hymns.

He likes hymns.

I was unused to male admiration and knew only that I wanted more.

It was at least a reprieve from the sincere pity

and insincere kindness directed at old maids.

- Right. - So...

He didn't feel the need to fill the air with words like I did.

He had the self-confidence I lacked.

- That's it? - Uh-huh.

Well...

I can't say I was truly in love with him then...

but I was so grateful to him, it dwarfed everything else.

My brother Jamie's coming up from Oxford next weekend.

I'd like for him to meet you.

There he is, right there.

Brother! Brother!

- You look good, brother. - Likewise.

The air up here in Memphis agrees with you.

Or is it something else?

Miss Chappell, this here is my brother, Jamie.

- Pleased to meet you. - Pleasure's all mine.

Oh, he thinks he's one of them characters in his plays.

Yes, but which play is it, dear brother? Hamlet? Faust? Prince Hal?

One of them fellas that could earn you a decent wage someday.

What do you think, Miss Chappell?

I think you're more of a Puck.

- Who's Puck? - "Lord, what fools these mortals be."

Puck's a kind of mischievous sprite.

He's a hobgoblin.

Forgive me, brother. I'm only trying to impress her.

Oh, you'll find Miss Laura is not the impressionable type.

- Shall we? - We shall.

I went ahead and told Pappy you were here today.

Uh-huh. I wanna hear. I wanna hear.

Next thing I knew, I was sucked under,

concussed and bleeding, and I was as good as gone,

another victim of the Great Flood of '27.

- I can't believe you never told me this. - There's more.

Then what happened?

Well, I saw a shimmering light,

- like a falling star. - "Shimmering."

And a great big hand reached out of it

and I thought it was God himself come to take me.

But it wasn't. It was my dear big brother, Henry.

- You saved his life. You're a hero. - Indeed, he is.

Well, what was I supposed to do, huh? Let him drown?

Here's to the future, whatever it may hold.

May you be blessed with happiness, health, prosperity,

and if she'll have you, a house full of children.

My love to you both.

Bubbly.

Would you mind terribly if I had a dance with your girl?

Miss Chappell, care to take a spin?

I'd be delighted.

Jamie saw in a different way.

And when his eyes were on me, I felt like I was no longer invisible.

Thanks a lot, guys.

- I'll be back. - Absolutely.

You look especially pretty tonight.

Thank you.

Jamie has that effect on girls.

They sparkle for him.

He likes you. I can tell.

I'm sure he doesn't dislike anyone.

Well, at least not anyone in a skirt, anyways.

Henry's marriage proposal didn't play out like I pictured it would.

He wasn't kneeling and the question came out as more of a statement.

Henry wasn't a romantic.

He was made of sturdier stuff.

- Yeah? - Yeah.

I loved domestic life.

Yielding to Henry and waiting for him to come home to me

was what I'd been put on Earth to do.

And when Amanda Leigh was born, I became hers completely.

Then came the day that changed everything.

Forever.

December 7th, 1941,

a date which will live in infamy.

The United States of America...

was suddenly and deliberately attacked...

by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation,

and at the solicitation of Japan...

Daddy borrowed Mr. Robert and 'nem truck to take me.

That's what I remember most.

The first things and the last things...

they always stick the hardest.

Thank you.

We'll be praying for you.

All right.

Don't forget about us.

Oh, I won't.

I won't. Okay?

You take care.

I will.

Y'all pitch in good around here, yeah? Help your mother, now.

- All right? - We will.

Keep them no 'count boys off Lilly May. Don't let her get old so fast.

- You just come back. - I will.

You come all the way back. You hear?

- I love you, Mama. - I love you, too, baby.

Thank you.

I can't look back.

I didn't look back.

They say it's bad luck to watch somebody leave.

I held his heartbeat in my hand.

I remember every beat.