Review #1,136: 'Free State of Jones' (2016)

Making a point of eschewing the typical Hollywood formula for historical reenactment, Free State of Jones is an incredibly sober and stoic document chronicling the plight of a rag-tag bunch of farmers, Civil War deserters and escaped slaves who group together in the Mississippi swamps to fight the Confederate army who are taxing the poor in order to keep the rich fat and prosperous. After years of glossing over their bloody history, American film-makers now seem eager to depict the grim time of slavery and how it tore the country apart, no doubt reacting to the endless news stories of racially motivated violence, which seems to be on the rise in our fearful, paranoid society.

Writer/director Gary Ross (of Pleasantville (1998) and The Hunger Games (2012) fame) takes the subject matter so seriously that he has made less of a movie than a dramatised documentary, going as far as creating a website dedicated to explaining the historical and political context of the movie, as well as highlighting just how close to real-life the film veers. Apart from an opening battle in the trenches, where Confederate medic Newton 'Newt' Knight (Matthew McConaughey) finally loses faith in the South's cause, and a gun-fight between the rebels and a band of Dixie soldiers, the film is incredibly light on set-pieces, instead choosing to give a history lesson to the detriment of character development and emotional investment.

Newt's desertion places a target on his back, so he escapes into the Mississippi swamps where no army can touch him. He is helped by slave Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), while his wife Serena (Keri Russell) packs up and leaves after the constant having taxing by Confederate soldiers leaves her unable to support herself. Newt comes across a group of escaped slaves, bonding with Moses (Mahershala Ali) who is shackled by a horrific, pronged neck brace, and soon enough they are joined by poor folk unable to cope with the Army's constant harassment, and more deserters who have realised that they are fighting a rich man's war. With some smuggled-in weapons, the unlikely comrades choose to fight back, establishing the 'Free State of Jones', where any man is welcome and gets to eat what he grows.

Eager to draw parallels to the modern-day (the film occasionally switches to a court-case 80 years after the war involving Newt's great-great-great grandson) and highlighting a neglected chapter of American history, Free State of Jones clearly has its heart in the right place. Yet Ross is so clearly wary of causing offence in our overly-sensitive times, that the film becomes an emotional wasteland. McConaughey is terrific as the salt-of-the-earth leader, but his character is never allowed to develop beyond the odd motivational speech or moment of defiance. The film is strangely observational, making the drama about the rebellion rather than the rebels themselves. resulting in an absence of emotional investment when the more personal sub-plots play out. That said, it's incredibly well-made and authentic-looking, and I felt thoroughly educated afterwards.


Directed by: Gary Ross
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, Keri Russell, Christopher Berry, Sean Bridgers, Thomas Francis Murphy
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie