Susan Granger’s review of “The Free State of Jones” (STX Entertainment)
Think you know 19th century American History? Think again! Chronicling the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War, this harrowing adventure reveals the sordid truth about the so-called Reconstruction Era.
First seen as a battlefield medic in the midst of the 1862 bloody conflict, Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey) is a poor farmer from Jones County, Mississippi, who eventually becomes disillusioned with the Southern ‘cause’ he was supposedly fighting for when Confederate soldiers wantonly confiscate his and his neighbors’ grain and livestock.
So he deserts. After a harrowing chase into the swamps, he joins up with runaway slaves and, eventually, other white defectors to form a guerrilla army, waging skirmishes against the Confederacy and, in 1864, proclaiming their rebel stronghold as the Free State of Jones.
But their regional insurrection leads to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan whose hooded members are determined to re-assert white supremacy.
Writer/director Gary Ross (“Seabiscuit,” “The Hunger Games,” “Pleasantville”) consulted with numerous noted historical scholars so the ambitious, well-intentioned drama oozes authenticity, like a thoughtful, even literal re-enactment – from Newt’s viewpoint.
Matthew McConaughey’s Newton Knight epitomizes messianic heroism, teaming up with noble, neck-shackled, formerly enslaved Moses (Mahershala Ali), who deliberately endangers his life by registering newly emancipated, black voters as Republicans, and courageous Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a domestic plantation slave.
Problem is: Neither Moses’ nor Rachel’s perspectives are evident, and the epic structure is confusing because it’s intercut with a subplot, set 85 years later, involving Davis Knight (Brian Lee Franklin), a descendant of Newton, who is on trial in 1945 for breaking Mississippi’s law against interracial marriage.
FYI: Newton eventually fathered five children in his common-law union with Rachel and nine more with his beleaguered wife, Serena (woefully miscast Keri Russell from TV’s “The Americans”), with everyone apparently happily living on his 160-acre farm in Soso.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10 “The Free State of Jones” is a revisionist 7, strategically aimed at adult audiences fed up with superhero, video game and animated features.
