泥土之界

女主角是个31岁的老处女，当然我们由此就明白了她的老公不会是左右逢源的情场高手，没有对异性的魅力，他们的结合也只是一种凑合，反正年龄合适，差不多就扯个证结婚吧，这里真的悲哀，夫妻之间没有很烈的爱意，所以后来搬到农场生活让女主角的人生彻底灰暗，不论是孩子得了百日咳，还是她临盆在即遇到被丈夫背叛的薇拉发疯一样的逼迫，她的丈夫永远不在她身边，的确是这样吧，结了婚之后的生活更是痛苦，面对曾经倾慕的小叔子突然的战场回归，她只能尴尬的擦了擦脸上的土，她的一切都被打上泥土的烙印，一边无声反抗一边强迫自己习惯。mudbound,与其说是泥土之界，不如说是泥土之禁锢，农场上满是泥土，黑人被奴役人身安全得不到任何保证，为了有自由之身，拼着断腿永不治愈的风险也要下地干农活，白人也在为生计发愁，到处都是尸体，老鼠/鸟类/家禽，无时无刻不在昭示着这片土地给女主角带来的无力感，她左右不了什么东西，唯一能保留的只有家里的一架钢琴，偶尔的生疏弹奏让她感觉自己身上的mud被稍稍的剥离，她和mud还没有合二为一

* 本文首发于 ELLEMAN 睿士，亦发表于深焦 DeepFocus。

公开出柜的黑人女导演 Dee Rees 的第三部长篇作品《泥土之地》首映于特朗普宣誓就职的次日，当日，世界各地同时举行了声势浩大的“女性向华盛顿进军”游行活动。这部片子将二战前后的种族歧视悲剧呈现在我们生活的21世纪，讽刺的是，时至今日，黑人的权益依旧得不到保障。

不论反响如何，该片着实有着强烈的权利诉求、发出高昂的反抗之声。

《泥土之界》改编自美国著名当代女小说家 Hillary Jordan 同名获奖作品，故事背景设定于1940年代种族歧视严重的美国南方密西西比州农场。农场上有两户人家，白人农场主 Henry McAllan 一家及以种植棉花为生的黑人佃农杰克森一家。在 McAllan 的父亲，极端种族主义者搬来之前，两家大体相安无事。美国宣布参战后，Henry 桀骜不驯的弟弟 Jamie 和杰克森家的大儿子 Ronsel 前往欧洲战场，前者担任战斗机飞行员，后者则是一名坦克兵。

两人均毫发无伤地从战场上安然归来，然而，与预想背道而驰，家乡没有温暖可寻，冷漠支配了一切。Jamie 与邪恶腐朽的父亲和蛮横固执的哥哥冲突不断，只得终日借酒消愁。Ronsel 则陷入了更为悲惨的境地，在种族主义盛行的南方，他被当作下等公民看待，唯一慰藉是却是战时记忆，为国征战的荣誉感及与白人女性的浪漫的爱情，在那里，他不是下等人。

同为二战老兵，同为家乡的陌生人，两人结下了深厚的友谊，不幸的是，在“隔离但平等”的制度依旧盛行的年代，这却成了惨痛悲剧的源头。令人痛心的转折出现在故事结尾，野蛮残忍 3k 党私刑画面来的猝不及防。

影片很大程度上保留了原有的文学气息，融合了福克纳风格的写作手法，缓慢节奏中贯穿着丰沛的情感，细腻地描绘了一曲置于宏大历史背景下的家庭悲歌。通过展现多个叙事者的内心独白，使人物关系在时间的流变中纵横交织，丝丝入扣地体现人物情感，以此铺展这张复杂的关系网。开头便出现了凯瑞穆里根饰演的 McAllan 妻子 Laura 低沉忧愁的内心独白，“当我想起农场时，我会想到泥土。我的梦是棕色的。”

在这块烦闷乏味的沼泽地里，在这个偏见根深蒂固的社会里，无数弱势个体留下了步履维艰、战战兢兢的印迹，无数的苦难与仇恨被埋藏在生活的污浊中，头顶的天空格外阴郁，像一块灰色幕布，遮掩着人间疾苦。

而结尾令人震惊的静默，则使得故事余味无穷。同被 3k 党鞭打得遍体鳞伤的 Jamie 终于得以释放内心的压抑，将痛恨已久的父亲勒死，次日，匆忙为其挖了块墓地，拦住搬迁途中的黑人传教士杰克森，请求他为棺材里躺着的种族主义者做祷告，看似讽刺的情节，被克制的镜头赋予无限反思。

Topical epithets like“African-American”,“female”,“lesbian” can immediately boost filmmaker Dee Rees as a shoo-in of any awards consideration to validate the industry’s all-inclusivity dedication, but when MUDBOUND, her stirring second feature, misses both BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR nominations in the Oscar race, we can impute it to its bad luck, but never to the movie’s artistry, as both Jordan Peele and Greta Gerwig overshadow her with the same politically correct cards (race/gender) in the directorial category, and labelled as a Netflix movie, the film may have reached more audience but is also predisposed to be brushed aside by the old guards among the Academy members on the strength of safeguarding silver-screen’s sacrosanct purity, albeit changing of the form is inexorable.

Located in Mississippi during the 1940s, MUDBOUND traces relations between two families, the McAllans, two brothers Henry (Clarke) and Jamie (Hedlund), with Henry’s wife Laura (Mulligan), their two young daughters and the brothers’ father Pappy (Banks), who own a farmand the Jacksons, headed by Hap (Morgan), their tenant farmer, with wife Florence (J. Blige) and a brood of four. Both Jamie and Ronsel (Mitchell), Jackson’s eldest son are recruited in the army to fight Nazis, the former is a bomber pilot and the latter on the ground, commands a tank in the Continent. It is their experiences in the war that brings them closer, after both are lucky enough to return home alive and kicking but find themselves beset by PTSD and wanting an aim in their post-war existence, their camaraderie will be tested in a nefarious lynch mob commotion in the climax, but salvation is well-earned with Dee Rees’ conscientious endeavor, not least in her sterling aptitude of honing up an arresting narrative: horror and anguish are produced with frenetic editing in the under-lit condition, but never overstay their welcome, tendresse and pathos are dished out in apposite quotient without ever overstating their connotations.

Told intermittently through 6 main characters’ voice-overs, this tack refreshingly fleshes out each player to constitute a fantastic ensemble, every adult in the McAllans, represents one particular mindset towards the entrenched racism, from Pappy's Ku Klux Klan-infusedabomination, Banks, who can chill you to the bone with just a glance, is one’s worst nightmare in living embodiment, which should be taken as a sincere compliment; to Henry’s matter-of-fact treatment and congenital superiority, being considerably less unbearable makes it a more insidious barrier to overtake; then there is Laura’s moderate kindness and Jamie’s genuine friendship, which regrettably are not out of sheer truism or sense of justice, but on the condition of reciprocation (Florence tends to Laura's daughters when they are sick, and Jamie’s life is saved by a black fellow pilot), this faintly retrograde narrow-mindedness has become this reviewer’s pet peeve whenever racism is tackled in a fictitious creation.

Among its dramatis personae, R&B diva Mary J. Blige is the sole recipient of an Oscar nomination, her portrayal of Florence is palpably nuanced, composedly resilient and utterly lifelike (her proficiency of dispatching a rooster is very under-praised),not to mention with a puissant theme song MIGHT RIVER to render addition empathy during the closing credits (a double Oscar nominee this year). Carey Mulligan, on the other hand, is unfairly overlooked with her pitch-perfect incarnation of a neglected wife who is mired in a hopeless situation (her husband doesn’t even ask her opinion about their life-changing relocation), not just by debasing her appearance, Laura is "mud-bound” in the most literal way (ablutions conduces to her unsatisfied desire and liberation), like many women, she seizes her marriage as an escape of her spinsterhood, and has to live with the consequence to the boiling point, that incestuous impulse, it is not an easily legible role but Mulligan glows with assurance and true grit.

On the masculine front,Jason Mitchell is the unequivocal one who rallies our sympathy and investment, which he runs way with in steadfast strides. Rob Morgan, also rounds out with a memorable impression as the undeterred paterfamilias, sticking to his guns within sagacious boundaries, as forGarrett Hedlund, who is tasked with the most thrilling retaliation in the form of patricide,is much as good as you want him to be,which leavesJason Clarke takes the short end of the stick with a less showier part.

It will be a great remiss to not mention that DP Rachel Morrisonhas become the first ever female Oscar nominee in that branch owing to her finesse of designing its period-saturated, umber-hued landscape, and grabbing 4 tickets to the Kodak theater, odds are not exactly favorable to MUDBOUND, but at the very least it officially establishes Dee Rees as an unstoppable force to be reckoned with, and spearheads a belatedly surge of (black) female filmmakers on the horizon.

referential points: Steve McQueen’s 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2013, 8.8/10); Ava DuVernay's SELMA (2014, 8.1/10).

首先，我想说，不知道为何这部电影评分这么低。

一个为了祖国而流血牺牲的人，没有被敌人的炮火杀死，却最终死在了自己国家的人手里，究其原因，是因为他是个黑人，并且跟白人女人上床了，而那个白人女人还是德国人——美国人的敌人，但是对于那些自视甚高的白人杂种来说并不重要，重要的是朗索尔是个黑人。

我一直在想，为何白人如此的自视甚高呢？最近的《绿皮书》也探讨了这一问题，明明自己是个不入流的混蛋，不务正业的渣滓，却高高在上，而为国效力，才华横溢的黑人却要受到歧视呢。种族对于人类来说，我认为并不重要，重要的是每一个人能为人类做出什么贡献。

可笑的白人终有一天会为此付出沉重的代价，至少是那些带有种族歧视的白人。

而我还想说的就是，影片安排杰米杀死自己的父亲，完成大义灭亲也是合情合理，我想导演不光是给影片中的人物一个心理安慰，同时也给了观众一个愤怒释放的出口，至少在我观影时，这是我的观影期待，我渴望着复仇降临。

杰米就像是黑白之间的一座桥梁，联通着黑白两界，像一个使者形象存在与影片中，现实中当然也有这样一群维护平等的人，而寻求平等当然要付出代价，这个代价也许远比电影中的要多且残酷。

每一个民族，每一个人种，以及不同的肤色的人都会在其内部分出优劣，这种优劣是一种个体之间相比的优劣，这种优劣是普遍存在的，绝不单是从民族，种族，肤色来区分，划分的。我们只能针对每一个个体来评判其好坏，世界就是因为多彩而变得精彩，而遗憾的是，直到现在，如此现代化的社会，种族问题也依然没有完全得到解决，这种观念根深蒂固的存在于那些自以为是的人的血液里。那些丑陋的人就好像漫画《海贼王》里的天龙人一样恶心，其实他们才是最没有资格存在于这个世界上的人。

当然，说的再多也不能改变事实，甚至不能改变某些人的观念，或不能打动任何人，但这不重要，重要的是这种向往平等的斗争会不断持续下去。

不要说什么政治正确，电影展示给我们的就是真实的历史和存在于现实的一种状态，不需要借助任何政治正确之类的外衣。

女主角是个31岁的老处女，当然我们由此就明白了她的老公不会是左右逢源的情场高手，没有对异性的魅力，他们的结合也只是一种凑合，反正年龄合适，差不多就扯个证结婚吧，这里真的悲哀，夫妻之间没有很烈的爱意，所以后来搬到农场生活让女主角的人生彻底灰暗，不论是孩子得了百日咳，还是她临盆在即遇到被丈夫背叛的薇拉发疯一样的逼迫，她的丈夫永远不在她身边，的确是这样吧，结了婚之后的生活更是痛苦，面对曾经倾慕的小叔子突然的战场回归，她只能尴尬的擦了擦脸上的土，她的一切都被打上泥土的烙印，一边无声反抗一边强迫自己习惯。mudbound,与其说是泥土之界，不如说是泥土之禁锢，农场上满是泥土，黑人被奴役人身安全得不到任何保证，为了有自由之身，拼着断腿永不治愈的风险也要下地干农活，白人也在为生计发愁，到处都是尸体，老鼠/鸟类/家禽，无时无刻不在昭示着这片土地给女主角带来的无力感，她左右不了什么东西，唯一能保留的只有家里的一架钢琴，偶尔的生疏弹奏让她感觉自己身上的mud被稍稍的剥离，她和mud还没有合二为一