The nasty fight for equal rights among racist dictators takes on new land, known as the rebellious “Free State of Jones”. Set during the Civil War, the movie tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight (Matthew McConaughey), and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. After being forced without choice to live and die for a cause that no man believed in, the group decides that war is the only true method for the futures of their women and children. Banding together with other small farmers and local slaves in the Southern territory, Knight launched an uprising that led Jones County, Mississippi to secede from the Confederacy, creating a Free State of Jones, a land where free thought and freedom reign supreme. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War and the history books. “Free State of Jones” is written and directed by Gary Ross, and is rated R for brutal battle sequences and disturbing graphic imagery.
“Free State of Jones” is the latest disappointment from a trailer that had me on the edge of my seat itching to see it. The problem with that trailer is that it chops up the best two minutes from an overstuffed two hours and fifteen minute final cut, and reveals that the overall presentation is every bit as cheap visually as it is incoherent in script transition. The film completely bored me from about the twenty minute mark of the story, where the movie decides that the brutality of slavery just isn’t enough to carry it. Instead, the film turns into a kind of Robin Hood tale with Knight building a community for blacks and whites to co-exist. I don’t have a problem with this true story aspect for the film, but is it met with an equally heart-rendering faithful story to slavery and the kinds of struggles that the black community dealt with? I don’t think so. Films like “12 Years A Slave” or “The Long Walk Home” represent so much more efficiently the kinds of harsh realities that were every day for this community. But Ross’s film tries to be too many things at once, more often than not disappointing the continuity flow from scene-to-scene. This film should’ve never been over 110 minutes with what it decided to keep in the final draft, but it left me searching for my watch on more than one occasion.
Among the many script problems is the lack of visual enlightening. I think it’s safe to say that I have never seen a movie where so much of what we are supposed to learn on-screen is told in text. This wouldn’t be a problem if it didn’t happen so much. There is no fewer than ten scenes where Ross would rather tell us about monumental stances against the confederate army than show us. Without showing us the more important things, what do we get? Well, the first act of the movie is frozen still in script development, leaving the flow for the movie very quiet and dreary with the pacing. By the third act, we are rushed along without much time to really soak in the ever-changing developments from villains who are nothing more than just cardboard cutouts. These two differences in speed storytelling gives the movie a vast inconsistency and makes me really question if this movie was originally intended to be a History Channel miniseries. Another big problem comes in the development of Knight’s two romantic relationships. The first woman in his life (Played by Keri Russell) feels very much like a sister or friendship to me. Never at any point does the film communicate that Knight is romantically linked with this woman, and he never fights to keep their union together when she leaves. The second woman (Played by the always mesmerizing Gugu Mbatha-Raw) we know is supposed to be his love interest just on the simple notion that she’s the female lead for the movie. The problem is that we never see them kiss, make love, or even show the smallest shred of chemistry. The movie reveals something noteworthy about their relationship with THIRTY MINUTES LEFT IN THE MOVIE!!! Up until then, we have seen absolutely nothing that communicates to the audience the very minute when they fell for each other. This relationship is important not only for Knight’s stance on equality, but on the very humane aspect of the film that gives the movie its only heart. Not important apparently.
One thing I did enjoy was the camera work, and the overall shot composition for the movie. While I don’t understand how this film cost a breathtaking 65 million dollars, I can say that the camera feels very intimate in a positive light. During the few war scenes there are, Ross directs them brilliantly, pitting us the audience up close in the action. The best part of all is that he didn’t need shaky-cam to do it. Every blow registers for the audience, and really packs a punch with some of the brutality that the film doesn’t hide from. The scenes with some nasty violence were some of the only points keeping me awake throughout the film, and I couldn’t be more impressed with the stunning visual violence that didn’t need blood to accompany it.
The acting is another thing that tries time-and-time-again to keep this movie above water. McConaughey’s Knight is quiet in delivery, but what he lacks in theatrics, he more than makes up for in seductive speeches. Matthew inspires us on more than one occasion, with motivational diatribes that really made it easy for me to understand how he could build a 100+ army. Mbatha-Raw also delivers another strong performance for a versatile female character. With past roles in films like “Beyond the Light” and “Belle”, Gugu is quickly becoming one of my favorite young starlets, as her gentle nature makes it very easy to fall for her character. Gugu’s Rachel feels like one of the few attempts where Ross feels comfortable engaging his audience with a character’s triumph, and there are very few female actresses in her age bracket today who can pull off the strong and sorrow of a woman quite as remarkably.
“Free State of Jones” left me with a taste of disappointment for what could’ve been. The Civil War and reconstruction of this emerging town were messy, incoherent, and lacking of any kind of spiritual heart. This is a movie that wants to tackle it all. In the end, history should never be boring if it’s told right, but arid storytelling is the first stop on the road to in-cohesive obscurity.
4/10
I read about the history of Newt Knight and the Free State before going into the movie. That clearly paid off. As scenes of the movie you could hear murmurs from the audience like “what?” or “what does this have to do with it?” Which does take a painstakingly long time to achieve the correlation at the end if you can solve the puzzle still. My fiance’s father went with me who was a history teacher but didn’t know a lot about this story and thanked me for letting him know what I read; as it helped him understand some of the key points they just fast forwarded through and wanted you to figure out yourself. I did like their attempt to try and make the violent war scenes stick out with no blood and kept the sexual encounters out of the film. We all know what kinds of misfortunes happened during this time and it was nice to see a movie about seceding from the Confederacy without over dramatizing it with uncomfortable graphic imagery. I would’ve gave the movie a 6/10, but if I hadn’t had a background about the history i would’ve went 5/10.