Over the weekend I sat down to watch a film I had been itching to watch for some time. It starred one of my favorite actors and put him in a period of time I had always taken a great interest in. That period being one of the darkest in the history of this great country of ours... The Civil War, and the actor is Matthew McConaughey.

The film is called: "Free State of Jones".

Plot:

The film starts with a battle between the Confederate soldiers and the Union soldiers. The Confederates appear to be severely outmatched and outnumbered. Rows of men are mowed down by cannon fire and bullets. Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey) is a nurse on the Confederate side charged with bringing back the wounded soldiers to the medical tents where doctors do their best to save them. 

After seeing one of his family members, just a young boy, killed in the line of battle Knight decides he has had enough fighting a war he doesn't believe in for a side that he doesn't support. That disenchantment grows when he learns that Confederates are stealing crops, livestock, and other resources from the local farmers... 

Knight becomes a deserter, which at that time was punishable by death if caught by the Confederates. He hides out in the swamps and encourages others who don't believe in the war to join him. Quickly his hideout in the swamp numbers well into the hundreds as many feel the same way he does. The Confederates try several times to bring him to "justice" and extinguish the militia they have brewing, but because of their location it is very difficult for an army to go in and get them. It becomes guerrilla warfare, and Knight's militia is very skilled at it. Very quickly Knight has become a major thorn in the Confederate's side. 

Officially declaring separation from the Confederate South, Knight writes to the Union North for help and supplies. Unfortunately the North cannot send them the amount of supplies they are requesting, which leads Knight to claim that they are a militia without a country, hence they name themselves "The Free State of Jones Mississippi".

Shortly after this, the war ends and all the slaves are declared free men. A few years later they are given the right to vote. The film shows what it was like for most African Americans at this time, even though they had the law on their side, that part of the country still did not recognize it and they faced great prejudice and persecution in just about all aspects of their lives. Even their votes weren't counted fairly. 

Knight ended up falling in love with one of the women who was helping him... an African American slave named Rachel. 

This further angered many of the white folks in the area who still pledged their allegiance to the old ways of the South. Knight and Rachel went on to have several children together and the movie skips ahead to their great great great grandson who is arrested for marrying his long time "white" sweetheart when it is revealed that he is "1/8th black". He is tried and sentenced to 5 years in prison. The conviction is quickly overturned by the Supreme Court, however, as they don't want an immediate amendment to the segregation laws. 

The film ends at this point leaving the viewer to digest all of the outlandish atrocities that went on during this time period in our great country...

Reception:

The film hasn't done all that great at the box office. With a budget of $50 million, the film has only grossed $24 million to date. 

It scored a 7/10 on IMDB.

But, it only received a 47% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

I would imagine the DVD sales, as well as streaming sales, will start to bring in the income for the film as word gets out how interesting and shocking this story truly is. 

My Review:

Overall, my biggest takeaway was the amount of knowledge about this particular time period and place I was able to obtain. The film is based on true events and although the actual sequence of events in the film are only loosely based on true events, the things that happened during that time frame are all factual. 

I thought the film was very interesting. It had a great cast and shed some light on a time period that seems to get skipped over quite often in Hollywood. Even the history books don't make much mention of this time period and how brutal it was. If you deserted, you were shot, if you fought back, you were shot... it didn't matter if you believed in the war or not, you were going to die for it anyways. 

I think the film could have done a better job explaining some of the events and showing truly how awful it was. Instead they tended to focus more on the relationship between Knight and Rachel, which was fine, just not how I would have done it. 

Overall, I would rate this film a 7 out of 10. The cast and story setting give it the high rating for me. I just wish they would have done a better job showing how terrible it truly was for just about everyone in that area. This truly was a fascinating story, but I think it could have been done a little better when making it into a movie. However, any time I can walk away from a film and learn something, I feel like it was a good film and film worth watching...

If you like action and excitement this might not be the best film for you, although there is still a good amount of it. This film is more about drama and story telling. There is an amazing story to tell here... you just have to let it unfold.

So, my recommendation is... watch the film and learn something about our history! :)

Live well my friends!

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_State_of_Jones_(film)

Image Sources:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1124037/mediaindex?ref_=tt_ov_mi_sm

Follow: @jrcornel