Popcorn and Inspiration: Film Review: ‘Free State of Jones’: The ’Braveheart' of Mississippi

Mark Jackson
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The year is 1863. Former blacksmith Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey) steadies an ex-slave’s head against a mangrove tree in a Mississippi swamp and starts slamming the steel bolt on the medieval, 4-pronged “punishment collar” the runaway slave had been forced to wear.

Mahershala Ali (L) and Matthew McConaughey star in “Free State of Jones.” (Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC)
Mahershala Ali (L) and Matthew McConaughey star in “Free State of Jones.” Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC

That particular sound of freedom carries a long distance in a Southern swamp, and immediately—explosively—a hunting party with dogs in full-cry is on the warpath to suppress it. Knight, making a run for it, gets run down by a German shepherd and viciously lacerated.

Christopher Berry (L) and Matthew McConaughey star in "Free State of Jones." (Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC)
Christopher Berry (L) and Matthew McConaughey star in "Free State of Jones." Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC
After his bite wounds are healing later, the group of swamp-dwelling ex-slaves Knight has befriended chuckle: Guess dem dogs likes the taste o' you, much as dey likes the taste of us.

Civil War

Matthew McConaughey stars in “Free State of Jones.” (STX Productions, LLC)
Matthew McConaughey stars in “Free State of Jones.” STX Productions, LLC

Knight, a battlefield nurse, deserts the Confederate Army after his nephew dies in his arms. He’s had it; he hauls the boy home on horseback to his grief-stricken mother.

He’s watched the Confederate Army ransack Southern farmers’ crops and livestock to feed troops, and force those farmers’ fearful 5-year-olds to fire flintlocks.

He’s watched wealthy slave-owners and their sons sidestep the draft. They had cotton to pick. Or rather, they had slaves to pick cotton. He‘d watched starvation rule the day—for the poor. He’d watched his fair share of the 600,000 deaths in the American Civil War.

Matthew McConaughey stars in “Free State of Jones” (STX Productions, LLC)
Matthew McConaughey stars in “Free State of Jones” STX Productions, LLC

Uprising

Thus the stage is set for “Free State of Jones,” a cinematic re-enactment of an obfuscated historical fact about an insurrection in Mississippi by a swamp-squatting commune of poor whites, their pistol-wielding wives, and escaped slaves, who utilized guerrilla warfare (much like the Seminole Indians in their Floridian swamp strongholds), and were led by above-mentioned fed-up farmer and proto-socialist—Newt Knight.
Mahershala Ali (L) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw star in "Free State of Jones." (STX Productions, LLC)
Mahershala Ali (L) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw star in "Free State of Jones." STX Productions, LLC

The film covers 14 years, during which Knight swells his swamp army with both blacks and whites. Needless to say, during a time of virulent racism, this arrangement doesn’t sit well with many of the whites therein, but Knight declares them equals. In his mind, the war is split only by a rich–poor divide. “We ain’t got no country. So we'll be our own country.”

Matthew McConaughey stars in “Free State of Jones” (STX Productions, LLC)
Matthew McConaughey stars in “Free State of Jones” STX Productions, LLC

Two Stories

Knight had become involved with a former house slave (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), during the swamp years. His story, from war nurse to insurrection leader, is paralleled by vignettes from the narrative of his great grandson, Davis Knight (Brian Lee Franklin). In 1948, Davis’s black ancestry comes to light, and he was convicted of miscegenation on Dec. 17 of that year.

He’s one-eighth African-American. It only took one drop of black blood for Jim Crow law to apply. However, what wasn’t immediately clear was whether he was the descendant of Newt’s white wife (Keri Russell) or of Newt’s black mistress. Son of son of son of Knight was supposed to do five years in prison, but didn’t, because the state couldn’t prove beyond reasonable doubt, the state of his blood.

Mahershala Ali (L) and Matthew McConaughey star in “Free State of Jones” (Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC)
Mahershala Ali (L) and Matthew McConaughey star in “Free State of Jones” Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC

What You Get

Since “12 Years A Slave“ raised the quality bar on the telling of American antebellum slave stories, the wealth of heretofore hidden and obscure narratives is starting to come to light. However, like ”12 Years,“ these stories are best served when not directed by Americans. The subject matter still apparently carries too much shame in America and Hollywood for such a story to not end up being told from a white, savior perspective, that inevitably serves up large portions of  proselytizing. That being said, ”Free State” is definitely well intended.
Like “12 Years,” it’s got unflinching brutality, that, in the hands of a lesser director, could easily have become slave-brutality porn. And while it’s definitely over-long, extending beyond the end of the Civil War, through Reconstruction, the racial terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan, and Jim Crow laws, one is left with the impression that director Gary Ross did his darnedest to do right by the material. Matthew McConaughey carries the whole movie on his back, powerfully.

Was Knight Right?

As Knight points out, while he’s definitely anti-war and an avowed abolitionist—it’s the class struggle of it all that really stuck in his craw.
Matthew McConaughey (L) and Christopher Berry star in “Free State of Jones” (Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC)
Matthew McConaughey (L) and Christopher Berry star in “Free State of Jones” Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC

The Declaration of Independence claims all men are created equal, but the capitalist U.S. government ultimately came down hard on Knight’s notions of economic equality.

Nevertheless, his ideas were a sign of the times—the Paris Commune uprising was happening around the same time; Knight was basically, unbeknownst to himself, a socialist. He'd have had a rude awakening, could he have witnessed the bloody deeds eventually done in the name of Karl Marx.

Newt Knight (Matthew McConaughey) leads a swamp uprising in “Free State of Jones” (Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC)
Newt Knight (Matthew McConaughey) leads a swamp uprising in “Free State of Jones” Murray Close/STX Productions, LLC

The latter portions of “Free State of Jones” hint at harrowing future cinematic tellings of gothic racial terrorism and the long, dark reign of the Ku Klux Klan. We realize how much we cherish the ideas of equality and freedom. It’s difficult to argue with some of Knight’s maxims, especially, “Every man is a man,” and, “You cannot own a child of God.” “Free State of Jones” is basically an American swampland “Braveheart.” Fighting for freedom is always a noble cause.

‘Free State of Jones’ Director: Gary Ross Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell, Mahershala Ali, Jacob Lofland, Sean Bridgers Running Time: 2 hours, 19 minutes MPAA Rating: R Release Date: June 24, 2016 Rated 3.5 stars out of 5
Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson
Film Critic
Mark Jackson is the chief film critic for The Epoch Times. In addition to the world’s number-one storytelling vehicle—film, he enjoys martial arts, weightlifting, motorcycles, vision questing, rock-climbing, qigong, oil painting, and human rights activism. Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Williams College, followed by a classical theater training, and has 20 years’ experience as a New York professional actor, working in theater, commercials, and television daytime dramas. He narrated The Epoch Times audiobook “How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World,” which is available on iTunes and Audible. Jackson is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
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