{"id":48282,"date":"2016-07-16T01:19:18","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T01:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=48282"},"modified":"2016-07-16T01:20:30","modified_gmt":"2016-07-16T01:20:30","slug":"the-faux-enlightened-free-state-of-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=48282","title":{"rendered":"The Faux-Enlightened Free State of Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/entertainment\/archive\/2016\/06\/the-faux-woke-state-of-jones\/489071\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>The Faux-Enlightened <\/strong><\/em><strong>Free State of Jones<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\" target=\"_blank\">The Atlantic<\/a><br \/>\n2016-06-28<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fivefifths\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Vann R. Newkirk II<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/entertainment\/archive\/2016\/06\/the-faux-woke-state-of-jones\/489071\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/assets\/media\/img\/mt\/2016\/06\/t01eb7b5cb627d50c2e\/lead_960.jpg?1467125830\" width=\"550\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small>STX Productions<\/small><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Matthew_McConaughey\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew McConaughey&#8217;s<\/a> new movie is a predictable but instructive journey of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/White_savior_narrative_in_film\" target=\"_blank\">white saviorhood<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomehow, some way, and some time, everybody is somebody else\u2019s nigger,\u201d is an actual quote that happens around midway through <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Free_State_of_Jones_(film)\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Free State of Jones<\/em><\/a>. Uttered by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Matthew_McConaughey\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew McConaughey\u2019s<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Newton_Knight\" target=\"_blank\">Newton Knight<\/a>, a Confederate nurse-turned-deserter-turned-freedom-fighter in defense of one of his black comrades, it\u2019s perhaps the most oblivious remark about race in a film that is remarkable mostly for its astounding oblivion about race. At that point, an hour and change into a narrative slog as thick as the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mississippi\" target=\"_blank\">Mississippi<\/a> swamp where Knight and his diverse buddies hide, it becomes apparent that the film is going nowhere fast.<\/p>\n<p>But to cast <em>Free State of Jones<\/em> aside as just another bad summer movie might be missing the point. Written and directed by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gary_Ross\" target=\"_blank\">Gary Ross<\/a>, it\u2019s held back by a slow, disjointed plot that doesn\u2019t quite know what it wants to do, and it betrays no signs of having attempted to develop characters. But with its badness comes a real opportunity for instruction: The film\u2019s ideas about race and its main character Knight are textbook examples of how not to have conversations about white privilege, \u201callyship,\u201d and black struggle. As such, they invite a closer look&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire review <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/entertainment\/archive\/2016\/06\/the-faux-woke-state-of-jones\/489071\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Faux-Enlightened Free State of Jones The Atlantic 2016-06-28 Vann R. Newkirk II STX Productions Matthew McConaughey&#8217;s new movie is a predictable but instructive journey of white saviorhood. \u201cSomehow, some way, and some time, everybody is somebody else\u2019s nigger,\u201d is an actual quote that happens around midway through Free State of Jones. Uttered by Matthew [&hellip;]<\/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":[5505,18372,1457,1456,6001,24497],"class_list":["post-48282","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-gary-ross","tag-matthew-mcconaughey","tag-newt-knight","tag-newton-knight","tag-the-atlantic","tag-vann-r-newkirk-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48282","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=48282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48283,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48282\/revisions\/48283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}