The Free State of Jones

What do you do if your government is corrupt and treats widows and orphans with contempt? In “The Free State of Jones” about Newton Knight, we see how one man, with a combination of common sense and theology, answers this question by leading others in a small revolution against the Confederacy during the Civil War.

As the Civil War is just beginning, Newton (Matthew McConaughey), a Confederate soldier, transports the wounded from the battle field until a horrifying event compels him back home to Mississippi to deliver a body for burial. After Newton returns to his family, he’s labeled a deserter and discovers that women and kids are being victimized by Confederate officers demanding one-tenth from every farm’s crop/livestock, though they take much more. To fight this, Newton gives guns to little girls and their mom. He is then forced to hide in a swamp with runaway slaves. Newton unites with them and other renegade soldiers to form a tribe like Robin Hood and his Merry Men, stealing from the rich soldiers to feed themselves and care for the poor. During these years, Newton falls in love with a former slave, Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).

Growing up watching movies, I’ve usually gotten the impression that all the Confederates were the bad guys because they wanted to keep people enslaved, but this movie paints a more complicated picture. We see poor Southerners being drafted into the war by wealthy lawmakers, who are exempt from fighting if they own a sufficient number of slaves. You might expect that the story would end with the announcement that slavery has been abolished and a joyful celebration, but in this movie the end-of-war announcement is just depicted with a whisper. Then we see how the Reconstruction after the war brought more problems to former slaves, as landowners captured people again to serve as their “apprentices” in the cotton fields.

Usually, movies have a dramatic arc in which tensions rise against a protagonist until he/she finds a way to overcome the conflict during the story’s climax, followed by a resolution to set injustices right. But the filmmakers of “The Free State of Jones” seem to care less about entertainment than sharing a comprehensive view of history connected with Newton Knight’s family—even including events from the 1940s influenced by decisions in the 1860s. The movie remains captivating, despite repeated jumps into the future, because director Gary Ross helps us empathize with people caught up in this era of huge change. Many references are made to the Bible—about reaping what you sow and how human beings should consider themselves children of God, not slaves. It seems clear that Newton Knight believes the Bible, and when he witnesses injustice, he sees himself and his followers as instruments of God’s judgment. For instance, it’s terrible to watch children crying as they’re about to be hanged by Confederate villains for associating with Knight, but it gives the filmmakers license to later show Knight strangle a Confederate in a church pew.

Thinking about whether I’d take a teenager (maybe 15+) to “The Free State of Jones,” I would say that the movie has value because it offers an alternative perspective of the Civil War and race relations before, during, and after Reconstruction. Knight doesn’t go through a formalized divorce from his first wife, who has left him, before commencing a marriage-like relationship with Rachel, so one could argue that he committed adultery by starting a family with her. It was impossible for them to marry at that time. For many reasons, I think Newton Knight’s story was still worth telling, so it would have been wrong to leave out this part of his story. It is told without explicit sexual references or scenes.

Because the film is about war, there’s a lot of violence, and some of it is quite graphic. There’s violence against animals, too. Characters in the film often use the “n” word in reference to both black and white people to describe someone who’s very subservient. One woman describes being raped often over many years, and she has just been whipped for protesting. The movie caused me to wonder how I would respond if I was being forced to fight for a government that endorsed slavery. It reminded me of how recently America has not been a “land of the free” for all races and classes.

It’s not a masterpiece of cinema as much as it’s a history lesson brought to life, and it’s often hard to tell where the story is heading because the filmmakers have just chosen a few key highlights of Newton Knight’s life. Perhaps, like Ross’ last film, “The Hunger Games,” it’s intended to inspire a new generation of Americans to question their government leaders and hold them accountable when they treat the poor with contempt. You’re not going to walk out of this movie feeling great about America’s record on race-relations, but maybe you’ll be upset enough to teach the next generation to keep their eyes open for tyranny.

Violence: Heavy to Extreme / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Minor

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.