Movie: Free State of Jones

Free State of Jones:  not your typical American Civil War movie.  Matthew McConaughey stars as Newton Knight, a poor farmer from Jones County, Mississippi.  The opening scenes portray the violence of battle you would expect from a civil war film but, thereafter, the story becomes much more than a military tale.  From the time Knight decides to take his nephew’s body home and desert his Confederate regiment, the film concentrates on Knight’s struggle to forge a free state for both white and black people.  This film is based on a true story about an individual who leads an armed rebellion against the Confederacy and much of the cinematic telling is accurate.  Gary Ross is the director and screenwriter.  Jones County is comprised of significant swamp land, which provides plenty of cover for those slaves escaping to freedom early on.  When the Confederacy issues an edict that exempts sons of farmers owning 20 or more slaves from the draft, the individual white farmers of Jones County choose to throw in with Knight and the runaway slaves and fight the Confederacy.  The romance between Knight and Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a domestic slave who supplies fugitives with supplies from the plantation house, is true.  Running through the film is a story from 1948 about a descendent of Knight who, because of his 1/8^th  Black heritage, is prosecuted for marrying a white woman.  The period of poor white farmers and former slaves working together is short lived.  This 139-minute film ends with scenes of the Reconstruction and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.  Smithsonian Magazine (March 2016) has an article about how controversial a figure Newton Knight remains to this day in Jones County.  There are strong performances by Mahershala Ali as Moses and Brad Carter as bad guy Confederate Lieutenant Barbour.   McConaughey’ s performance is excellent and he may earn another Oscar nomination.  Cinematographer Benolt Delhomme also deserves mention as his ability to connect us with the physical environment is an integral part of the story.  This film tells of a history I was previously not aware of so while being entertained, I received a lesson about our nation’s past.  This is a film worth seeing.