Mudbound

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1

-[shovel scraping]

-[Jamie breathing heavily and grunting]

[thunder rumbling]

[Henry] You better get a hurry along.

We ain't gonna make it.

Oh, we will. We have to.

[thunder rumbling]

-[sighs]

-Take a break. Come on.

My turn.

[thunder rumbling]

[Jamie] "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.

[thunder cracking]

We would get this hole dug

before the storm hit.

[Henry grunts] God damn it!

-Jesus Christ!

-What is it?

It's a slave's grave.

[Jamie] How do you know that?

[Henry pants] Shot in the head.

Must've been a runaway.

[sighs]

Well, that settles it. [sighs]

Settles what?

I ain't burying my father

in no slave's grave.

Nothing he would've hated more.

Help me up. [panting]

[thunder rumbling]

We ain't got a choice.

[thunder cracking]

[Jamie grunting]

[Henry] That's it, brother! Come on!

-[Jamie] Huh?

-[Henry] That's it!

Get you out of there!

[thunder cracking]

-Come on!

-[Jamie grunts]

-[Henry] Come on.

-[both grunting]

[Jamie] God damn it!

-[Henry] Come on, Jamie. Hang on!

-No.

[Henry] I'm gonna fetch a ladder!

-Huh?

-[thunder rumbling]

Henry!

[pants]

[grunting]

[gags] Henry!

Henry!

Henry!

[panting and grunting]

-Henry, where are you?

-Right here! I'm here!

[Jamie] That was my brother Henry.

Absolutely certain

whatever he wanted to happen would.

And his little brother...

[Henry] Jamie.

[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?

[panting]

[thunder cracking]

[Laura]

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.

[Jamie] All right. Come on, lift it up.

-[Henry] Come on.

-You know, just get... Come on! [grunts]

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

-[Henry] 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.

-[Henry] Hap!

-[Laura] Henry, don't.

-It ain't my fault what happened.

-[Hap] Whoa.

-I warned that boy. Warned both of 'em.

-[Laura] Just let 'em go.

[Henry] Hap!

Hap, can you hold on?

Can you lend us a hand, Hap?

Need to get that coffin in the ground.

Hap?

[Laura] I was a 31-year-old virgin

when I met Henry McAllan

in the spring of 1939.

[indistinct chatter]

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.

[Laura's mother] Oh, really? He tells me

that, uh, you are actually a college man.

[Henry] Engineering.

-An engineering degree from Ole Miss.

-[Henry] 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.

[Laura's mother] 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.

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