This is in acknowledgement first and foremost of MUDBOUND, the intricately carved novel written by HILLARY JORDAN, a humane look at the staggering personal stakes of two families in rural Mississippi circa post World War 2 1940s. Fissures of racial identity and dependence on land claims their personal spaces and a kind of interdependence on both defines each one of them. I haven't read the novel so far but the original Netflix movie version released in 2017 which I lapped up for its emotional equilibrium deeply impacted me on a conscious and dare I say subconscious level. Particular as its characters and locations are to the period, their concerns are flung at the tattered face of our present times ( the future) and the universality of it all is applicable anywhere. Bigotry is in the now and here as it was then, let no skin tone, gender affixation or muddied mindset be spared.
Boasting of a stellar cast and a capable team integrated by director Dee Rees, Mudbound is up for every major award of the season including Oscars and the ensemble at its heart has been feted globally.
So here I construct poems based on each central character and make this compendium one that articulates their particular and universal airs through my prism of written word.
Below I leave you with the cast of competent actors who brought to stinging life Jordan's gallery of personalities. In the end, MUDBOUND is about the little trickles of compassion we store in the face of extreme thunderstorms occasioned by fate and our coterie of personal bonds. Past and present orient us with our designs for a future within this fractured era we inhabit globally. Mudbound fits the silent broil of our contemporary times.
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The cast with the character played by the actor respectively :
FLORENCE JACKSON, Jackson family matriarch- - MARY J. BLIGE.
RONSEL JACKSON, son of FLORENCE - - JASON MITCHELL.
HAP JACKSON, the Jackson family patriarch - - ROB MORGAN.
LAURA MCALLAN - - - CAREY MULLIGAN.
HENRY MCALLAN, Laura's husband - - - JASON CLARKE.
JAMIE MCALLAN, the youngest McAllan - - - GARRETT HEDLUND.
PAPPY MCALLAN, the surly, racist McAllan patriarch - - - JONATHAN BANKS.
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YOU ARE READING
SALT OF THE EARTH: POEMS BASED ON MUDBOUND.
PoetryThis compendium is a tribute in poetic form to Hillary Jordan's novel and its heart touching cinematic interpretation by director Dee Rees. It touches upon the constructs of each individual character and on timeless permutations of humanity ( and v...
