In 'Mudbound,' 'Dunkirk' and 'Darkest Hour': Our shifting views of World War II
In Dee Rees' superb movie "Mudbound," which scored four Academy Award nominations but not its deserved best picture berth, there is a flashback sequence wherein a young United States Army Air Forces veteran of World War II tells his friend that he was saved from certain death by a black fighter pilot with exquisite timing.
The veteran is white. His friend, a fellow vet, is African-American. The two are living outside Marietta, Miss., in the mid-1940s. The armed forces are still segregated. Rosa Parks has not yet refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. The civil rights movement has yet to ignite.
