Free State of Jones: A real take on America history

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, Keri Russell

Rated: 4/10

This one from the American Civil War and on one Mr Newton Knight’s heroics against the Confederacy is a detailed piece of faction presented in slow, sometimes tedious detail, especially for a viewer as far removed from American history as an Indian Art student.

However, despite the prolonged but simple warfare on horses, in Mississippi’s swamps and around the 19th century, Free State of Jones is a free spirited mount on fault lines of America, the racism, the fight for liberty and a vision of a free State that took centuries to arrive.

Matthew McConaughey in the saddle as Knight, an Army deserter who builds a force with fellow deserters and renegade Black slaves, is the film’s finest ploy though it would have been welcome if the southern swagger of the language was tackled with running English subtitles.

 The film is long and spans a period ofmore than a century, juxtaposing it against a court case being fought by Knight’s son against his right to marry a white woman under the segregation laws that long succeeded America’s declaration of equality. The gritty yet languorous fight against the system by a seasoned McConaughey is refitting in portions and punctuated with moments and speeches that talk of equality and liberty of men. Knight, whose white wife deserted him, lived and bore a son with a slave woman who was constantly abused by her master who Knight finally hounds out of the town, burning his land produce and compelling him to move further south.

But it is not about his romance but the struggle of an entire population setting under White laws and a racist society where tilling the land for nothing, dying in poverty and braving the excesses of the Confederacy soldiers was the order of the day till Knight shows them the “free State of Jones” and makes them learn the art of freedom.

A niche film for Indians though a brave and detailed slice of history with very few cinematic liberties. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 3 July, 2016