Mudbound Page #2

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came out as more of a statement.

Henry wasn't a romantic.

He was made of sturdier stuff.

[speaks indistinctly]

[sighs]

-[Laura shrieks]

-[Henry laughing]

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

[Laura] 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.

-[Amanda cooing]

-[gasps]

[President Roosevelt on radio]

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...

[Ronsel] 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.

[Lilly] Don't forget about us.

Oh, I won't.

I won't. Okay?

[Marlon] You take care.

I will.

Y'all pitch in good around here, yeah?

Help your mother, now.

-All right?

-[Ruel] We will.

Keep them no 'count boys off Lilly May.

Don't let her get old so fast.

[all chuckle]

-You just come back.

-I will.

You come all the way back. You hear?

[mutters]

-I love you, Mama.

-I love you, too, baby.

Thank you.

[engine starting]

[Florence] 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.

He was warm and alive.

I know every place in him...

and it was all I could do

to not look back.

No, I don't have favorites.

I love them all equally.

Every mother does.

[all singing gospel]

[Florence]

But during all those four years...

all that time he was gone...

I only prayed for him.

God will forgive me.

[Hap] Come on, now.

Dig that hole in there.

[grunting]

[panting]

Come on, Ruel. Let's go. Come on.

Keep going.

Supper's gonna be ready when we get in.

[Hap] What good is a deed?

My grandfathers and great uncles,

grandmothers and great aunts,

father and mother,

broke, tilled, thawed,

planted, plucked, raised,

burned, broke again.

Worked this land all their life,

this land that never would be theirs.

They worked until they sweated.

They sweated until they bled.

They bled until they died.

Died with the dirt of this same 200 acres

under their fingernails.

Died clawing at the hard, brown back

that would never be theirs.

All their deeds undone.

Yet this man, this place, this law...

say you need a deed. Not deeds.

Calvin Augustus got his land here...

and then Bud Leo bought land here.

Now I figure

there's a couple acres right here.

If only fences can be put up with lead.

They get taken down with lead

all the time.

Won't be too much longer, Papa, will it?

Around this time next year,

I'm gonna have me

about 50 acres of cotton,

50 acres of oats, 50 acres of rice.

Fool, rice don't grow here.

[Hap] Never call your brother a fool.

[Ruel] I'm gonna grow some anyway.

That's why I'm not gonna be no farmer.

I'm gonna be a stenographer.

-A ste... what?

-It's kind of like a typist.

-They don't allow no colored typists.

-Your sister will be the first.

[Henry grunting]

[Laura sighs]

[Henry panting]

Honey, by the way...

I bought a farm in Mississippi.

And we'll be moving there

in three weeks' time.

It's 40 miles south of Greenville.

Big old...

porch, fig tree...

Girls are gonna love the four bedrooms.

But we love this house.

But now they get their own room each

and Pappy gets his own space.

Pappy?

Honey, now Mama's gone,

we gotta look after him.

We got 200 acres of fertile land.

Imagine that.

-You're mighty quiet.

-I'm mighty surprised.

[grunts] You always knew

I wanted my own farm someday.

-No.

-I told ya.

Henry, I had no idea.

-I'm--

-I would have remembered that.

[exhales]

Well, I'm telling you now.

You're gonna love it.

You will. Wait and see.

Hmm?

[Henry] Honey.

[Laura and girls singing]

Sweet hour of prayer

That calls me from this world of care

Sweet hour of prayer

Sweet hour of prayer

That calls me from this world of care

Sweet hour of prayer

[girls giggling]

[Henry] Huh?

-[Isabelle] I like the porch a lot.

-[Amanda] Yeah.

[Henry] Huh?

Yeah? Who's gonna get which room?

Come on, come on. Come on. You, too.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

You wait up there, huh?

You're gonna get the best room

for yourself, huh?

Is that it, huh? [laughs]

Huh?

[softly] What's 'round the back

over there?

There should be a key right under the mat.

-Go on. Get it. Get it.

-[Orris] Who the hell are you?

We're the McAllans.

New tenants of this house. Who are you?

Orris Stokes.

I'm the new owner of this house.

Well, I rented this place off

of George Suddeth just three weeks ago.

Suddeth sold me this house last week.

He didn't say nothing about no renters.

Well, looks like I'm gonna have

to refresh his memory, huh?

-He left town three days ago.

-I gave him a $100 deposit.

-You get anything in writing?

-No, Pappy, I shook on the deal.

I gave him $100, cash,

right there in the front room.

Had dinner with him and his wife. I did.

I showed him--

-Y'all best be getting on.

-I showed him pictures of my little--

You got swindled, boy. Damn fool.

You damn fool.

Never thought a son of mine would be

so damn stupid.

Come on, we can stay on the farm.

There's a house there.

We're gonna stay on the farm.

We can make it work. Come on.

[Pappy] Out there with the n*ggers

and the farmhands?

There's no place in town big enough

for all of us, Pappy.

Believe me, I checked.

Huh? Come on, sugar.

[horn honking]

[Henry] Honey! This is it!

This is our land, honey!

[whooping]

[children laughing]

[Hap]

One of my great uncles, Uncle Willie,

got ahold of a piece of land

down Reconstruction.

He had a deed.

Four white men on horses rode up one day,

aimed a pistol...

said he was dead.

My uncle's good deed,

torn into 40 pieces

and thrown to the wind.

And so I ask, what good is a deed?

That mule made me a share tenant,

not a sharecropper.

And had me dreaming

about having my own piece of land.

Maybe that's where the problem started.

[Ruel]

You'll be coming to us for all your food.

We're gonna be getting

all your stenographer money.

Nuh-uh.

'Cause I'mma be in California or Chicago,

where all the good colored jobs at.

-War gonna be over by then.

-No, it won't.

[cutlery clatters]

-But Ronsel might be home early.

-I don't want him home early.

-Early means--

-He ain't coming back early.

Y'all finish up.

Get these dishes rinsed off before bed.

[banging on door]

[banging continues]

Howdy.

Evenin', mister.

McAllan. Henry... Henry McAllan.

-You're Hap Jackson.

-Yes, sir.

My family and I, we just arrived.

I'll need your help to unload.

-So you're the new owner?

-I am.

Thought y'all weren't comin'

until next week.

Need to get unloaded,

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