Make Your Writing As Clear as MUD
I always recommend that fellow writers look to film for
inspiration. Readers think in a
cinematic way. They are exposed to
moving images constantly. We can
learn much from the storytelling qualities of the movies. I particularly look to cinema to learn
more about writing tense scenes of dialogue and to better present pacing and
plotting. Most of the great movies
of real storytelling have to be seen at home since so few of them make their
ways onto the big screen. It is a
rare treat to be able to go to the movie theatre and see a film that is a feat
in storytelling. Nowadays the
cineplexes more often showcase the latest action thriller in which everything
is constantly being blown up. So I
was very pleasantly surprised to be able to go to the movies with my daughters
recently to see a movie that did just about everything right. Not only did it tell a beautiful,
layered story, but it also presented a way of life rarely captured on film. One of my goals as a writer is to not
only tell a good story but to also show a particular culture. I strive to preserve rural ways of life
since our modern media seems intent on either ignoring rural America or
perpetuating stereotypes that life in rural places is something only to be
escaped or ridiculed.
Mud, the new movie from Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter) is an exception on all counts.
Like
the best storytelling, Mud slowly reveals more and more layers. Just when we think we know where it’s
going, it takes us down another bend of the river.
We can learn a lot as writers by how much the story is
revealed through the dialogue and how much is revealed through silence. These are two essential lessons for
writers. The visuals are simple and stunning.
Perhaps
what I enjoyed most about Mud is that it shows a real world that few people
know, although many think they understand. Mud is set along the Mississippi River in Arkansas and
showcases a disappearing way of life of those who live and work on the
river. The sense of place is
palpable and has a profound impact on everything in the movie. Like the best stories, the action could
not happen anywhere else. That is
the importance of sense of place. Some of my favorite scenes in the movie are
those that show a character passing through town in the back of his father’s
pickup, watching as a very rural yet very New South passes by him, a New South
that is not the romantic places of pastures and plantations but one of
locally-owned Mexican restaurants, Dairy Freezes, junkyards, boat storage, new
apartment developments.
And
these are people I know. Rarely do
I see them portrayed correctly on film.
They are working hard to get by (mot people would see them as poor; they
don’t think of themselves that way, and neither should the viewer), don’t set
an awful lot of store by material things (if only the culture as a whole could
agree), and they care deeply about one another and their place in the
world. During one memorable scene
a woman and her son approach a roadblock that first appears to be a wreck. “Oh, I hope nobody’s hurt,” the woman
says, dragging out each word like a little prayer. Anyone who’s ever traveled a country road and come upon an
accident has most likely uttered these words in that same exact cadence. It’s a scene that only someone intimate
with rural life could have written and directed.
I
thought a whole lot about Beasts of the
Southern Wild while watching Mud.
They are similar in many different ways. And while I liked Beasts a lot, I also had some real
problems with it: why did those
rural people have to be dirty all the time? Why did they have to live with trash piled up in their
homes? (and I won’t even get into
the gender stuff that bothered me…the little girl always being portrayed as
masculine to show her strength (can’t strength be shown in the feminine, as
well?), the father never receiving a true comeuppance for abusing her). But in Mud, these people are living rough but not nasty, some of them even making their living off of trash (in one great scene a character says, “That junk is his liveliehood!”) but never letting it overtake their lives the way the filmmakers portray it in Beasts and so many other movies about rural folks.
While
there are many things to appreciate about Beats of the Southern Wild, it is
interesting that that film had to rely on a fantastical South to be widely
accepted, as so often is the case.
But Mud is unapologetic in presenting a rural place just as it is, with
no romanticizing or vilifying.
That’s a hard feat to pull off and a balance that can only be achieved
by an entire cast and crew who have a deep understanding of the place and its
people.
One
of the best things about Mud is how believable the characters are in expressing
their love for one another.
Several times during the movie children and parents say “I love you” to
one another. Yet it is never done
in a sentimental way. Because this
movie is dealing in the realness of life, in the best kind of drama: the family dynamic. We get the sense that we are
eavesdropping on a real rural family in the midst of high drama. It is that best sense of storytelling
that Shakespeare spoke on when he said that (paraphrasing) all of life’s little
dramas happen in the bedroom, meaning of course, that the stories we care the
most about are those that happen in people’s homes: small, intimate, real.
I could go on and on about this movie
but the main thing I will say is this:
go see it. There hasn’t
been this great a depiction of rural life in a long, long while, and it joins a
handful of other films that I think do justice to capturing contemporary life
in a rural place (the main ones that come to mind immediately: That Evening Sun, Come Early Morning,
and Winter’s Bone).
The
cast is phenomenal, too. I’ve never
been a big Matthew McConaughey fan but I will be rooting for him when he gets
his much-deserved Oscar nomination for this role. Sarah Paulson and Ray McKinnon are quietly brilliant. Sam Shepard gives his best performance
in years and Reese Witherspoon is very effective in a nuanced turn that could
have easily come off as a stereotype.
But the whole movie rests upon the backs of the two child actors, Tye
Sheridan (The Tree of Life) and Jacob Lofland (in his debut), who perfectly
capture the speech and posture of modern rural boys. These are the kinds of
boys I grew up with: tough,
vulnerable, witty, resourceful, wise beyond their years not because of street
cred but because they had seen people work hard all of their lives.
It's not a totally perfect movie (small spoilers: there is a very confusing shot toward the end and the lead boy too readily responds violently to adults; I didn't believe that little boy would punch Matthew McConaughey in the mouth) but I
loved every minute of Mud and I can’t recommend it highly enough to everyone,
but especially writers needing a boost in their creativity.
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