Director Gary Ross
Staring Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali
Rated MA
Score 2/6

A disillusioned Confederate army deserter returns to Mississippi and leads a militia of fellow deserters, runaway slaves, and women in an uprising against the corrupt local Confederate government.

It should be noted that Free State of Jones is credited as “based on the books The Free State of Jones by Victoria E. Bynum and The State of Jones by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer”
I really wasn’t that impressed with this one and right off the bat I’ll say that if you’re after a big loud period action movie than I would recommend that you look elsewhere, for a movie to watch. The story of Newton Knight (considering I knew nothing of the man before watching the movie) was enough to attract to go watch the movie at the friendly neighbourhood cinema but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this would have been a better documentary then a feature film because there was very little (if any) tension to drive the movie forward. Now sure the movie’s second plot line about Newton’s great-great-great grandson, who is arrested under Mississippi’s miscegenation laws 85 years after the war was a nice touch by the filmmakers but it didn’t do anything to ratchet up the tension.
In the past I’ve talked about how judging by their previous work some filmmakers aren’t qualified for some movies this was certainly the case with director Mr. Gary Ross who also wrote the screenplay.