See it at the Movies

FREE STATE OF JONES

Posted 6/30/16

* * * *

(Civil War tale based

on true story)

Matthew McConaughy gives another great performance as Newton Knight, a Mississippi farmer serving as a medic for the South during the Civil War. …

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See it at the Movies

FREE STATE OF JONES

Posted

* * * *

(Civil War tale based

on true story)

Matthew McConaughy gives another great performance as Newton Knight, a Mississippi farmer serving as a medic for the South during the Civil War. Appalled by the atrocities of war and the gaining of more wealth by the rich at the expense of the poor farmers getting killed, Knight defects after his nephew is killed.

Knight escapes to the swamps with help from a colored slave (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and slowly fathers his own army to fight the Confederate troops who have been pillaging his people to supply the army, proclaiming his growing county the “Free State of Jones.”

The movie goes on for two hours and 20 minutes, attempting to cover much of Knight’s life, but also leaving out a lot. Newton Knight is not a saint by any means. He is, after all, a deserter. And he does kill a lot of southern soldiers.

He is also a bigamist, leaving his wife and son for a Creole slave and fathering her child. History books tell us that he fathered 14 kids between the two of them, but that, and other facts of his life, are omitted from the already too-long movie. It would have made a good TV mini-series.

There are brief scenes of a trial held years later that are tied to the story. Be patient, and it will all come together.

When the war finally ends, the movie picks up the lives of the characters as they deal with reformation and the former slaves become “apprentices” to the wealthy white landowners.

Mahershala Ali plays a black man who has survived the war at Knight’s side and moves on to register the former slaves to vote, only to meet a tragic fate.

The movie tries to cover what happens after the war, hurrying the plot along with the use of black and white and sepia stills with titles.

It’s a lot to cover, but it is an important story to tell, which should inspire us to read more about this remarkable man and try to separate fact from embellishment.

Rated R, with some gory battle scenes.

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