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| Free State of Jones -They never even got a star on the flag. |
Written by: Leonard Hartman (story), Gary Ross
Directed by: Gary Ross
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, Keri Russell
Rated: R
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it. Read my previous movie reviews!
Plot:
A disillusioned Confederate soldier deserts his unit during the Civil War and returns to Mississippi where he leads a militia of deserters, runaway slaves, and women against a corrupt local Confederate lieutenant and general.
Verdict:
This is a Robin Hood underdog story set during the civil war, using the backdrop of slavery and racism to bolster the message. Newt Knight willingly flaunts authority and refuses unjust taxation by the Confederate soldiers. It does a great job of building the world and characters instead of relying on non-stop action. It's easy to root for Knight and his army because his fight easily echoes all the way to present day. The solid script is bolstered by the good directing and acting.
Watch it.
Review:
The Civil War was brutal and we see that first hand in the first few images when a man is shot in the head, his skull and brain misting into the air. The opening serves to reinforce why military medic Newt Knight (Matthew McConaughey) is disillusioned with the war. It puts us in his world of maimed and dying soldiers, but the rest of the film isn't as graphic.
Newt can't stand to see mere boys conscripted into the army and families robbed blind to feed the soldiers and the war. He returns home and makes a stand. His war with the South escalates and he recruits run away slaves, deserters, and women.
The movie does a good job of building the mood and time period. We see sweeping shots of farms and swamp land with authentic looking buildings and many extras.
Little moments like Knight and Moses (Mahershala Ali) talking in the woods one night help give the characters depth. Each of the main characters have well defined goals which gives them purpose. In just a couple of seconds we see that Rachel (Gugu Mbathe-Raw) wants to learn reading. Not many current films take the time to slow down and provide those details.
Knight is certainly the hero of the story. When he's told too much noise will bring the hounds, he asks, "How many hounds?" Hounds bring men, and he asks, "How many men?"
Knight is an underdog you're more than ready to stake for a win.
Throughout the movie quick clips of a related story line in 1960's Mississippi make the point that the victories of the Civil War didn't carry over. The slaves that thought voting privileges would give them equal footing were wrong. I realized after the first clip the point this sequence was making and it wasn't necessary. It leads to an all too obvious conclusion that Newt's story reaches anyway, it interrupts the main story, and it stretches this movie to 2 hours and 20 minutes.
The scope of this movie is broad, getting into reconstruction and the rise of the klan. While the scenes from the '60s drive home the point that even 100 years later discrimination still exists despite the promises of politicians, it feels tacked on just to make sure I got the point and contributes to a muddled ending. This movie already has a lot to say and a stronger ending would have been closing with the presidential voting tally. That scene has inspiring imagery that is quickly deflated when you see the vote tallies in text and realize the election was rigged. Instead the movie keeps going, feeling like it needs to spell everything out.
The ending doesn't change the fact that this is a solid film, even if it is Robin Hood in a new setting.
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