{"id":47934,"date":"2016-06-24T14:57:56","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T14:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=47934"},"modified":"2016-06-24T14:57:56","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T14:57:56","slug":"review-matthew-mcconaughey-rebels-against-rebels-in-free-state-of-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=47934","title":{"rendered":"Review: Matthew McConaughey Rebels Against Rebels in \u2018Free State of Jones\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review: Matthew McConaughey Rebels Against Rebels in \u2018Free State of Jones\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2016-06-23<\/p>\n

A. O. Scott<\/strong><\/a>, Film Critic<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nMatthew McConaughey<\/a>, left, and Jacob Lofland<\/a> in \u201cFree State of Jones<\/a>.\u201d Credit Murray Close\/STX Entertainment<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cFree State of Jones<\/a>\u201d begins on the battlefield, with a flurry of the kind of immersive combat action that has long been a staple of American movies. The setting is familiar in other ways, too. As a line of Confederate<\/a> troops marches across a field into Union rifle and artillery fire, a haze of myth starts to gather over the action, a mist of sentiment about the tragedy of the Civil War<\/a> and the symmetrical valor of the soldiers on both sides of it. But this is a sly piece of misdirection: The rest of the movie will be devoted to blowing that fog away, using the tools of Hollywood spectacle to restore a measure of clarity to our understanding of the war and its aftermath.<\/p>\n

Directed by Gary Ross<\/a> (\u201cSeabiscuit<\/a>\u201d) with blunt authority and unusual respect for historical truth, \u201cFree State of Jones\u201d explores a neglected and fascinating chapter in American history. Mr. Ross consulted some of the leading experts in the era \u2014 including Eric Foner<\/a> of Columbia University, whose \u201cReconstruction<\/a>\u201d is the definitive study, and Martha Hodes<\/a> of New York University, author of a prizewinning study of interracial sexuality<\/a> in the 19th-century South \u2014 and has done a good job of balancing the factual record with the demands of dramatic storytelling. The result is a riveting visual history lesson, whose occasional didacticism is integral to its power.<\/p>\n

The hero of this tale is Newton Knight<\/a>, a poor farmer from Jones County, Miss.<\/a>, who led a guerrilla army of white deserters and escaped slaves against the Confederacy<\/a> during the war. Afterward, he tried to hold this coalition together as a political force in the face of Ku Klux Klan<\/a> terror. As played by Matthew McConaughey<\/a>, Newton is an ordinary man radicalized by circumstances. His hollow cheeks and wild whiskers suggest a zealous temperament, but the kindness in his eyes conveys the decency and compassion that lie at the heart of his moral commitment…<\/p>\n

…\u201cFree State of Jones\u201d is careful not to suggest that the conditions endured by disenfranchised white and enslaved black Mississippians were identical. The system may be rigged against both, but in different ways. Especially after the war, the alliance proves fragile, as white supremacy reasserts itself with renewed brutality. Its persistence is emphasized by a subplot that takes place 85 years after the war in a Mississippi<\/a> courtroom, where Davis Knight (Brian Lee Franklin<\/a>), a descendant of Newton\u2019s, is on trial<\/a> for breaking the state\u2019s law against interracial marriage…<\/p>\n

Read the entire review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review: Matthew McConaughey Rebels Against Rebels in \u2018Free State of Jones\u2019 The New York Times 2016-06-23 A. O. Scott, Film Critic Matthew McConaughey, left, and Jacob Lofland in \u201cFree State of Jones.\u201d Credit Murray Close\/STX Entertainment \u201cFree State of Jones\u201d begins on the battlefield, with a flurry of the kind of immersive combat action that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,459,8,1459,6940,20],"tags":[5443,4518,16174,5505,1426,18372,2640,1457,1456,2327],"class_list":["post-47934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-book-reviews","category-history","category-media-archive","category-mississippi","category-slavery","category-usa","tag-a-o-scott","tag-davis-knight","tag-eric-foner","tag-gary-ross","tag-martha-hodes","tag-matthew-mcconaughey","tag-new-york-times","tag-newt-knight","tag-newton-knight","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47936,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47934\/revisions\/47936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}