''Free State of Jones'' is a 2016 American

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

war film inspired by the life of

Newton Knight Newton Knight (November 10, 1829 – February 16, 1922) was an American farmer, soldier and Southern Unionist in Mississippi, best known as the leader of the Knight Company, a band of Confederate Army deserters who resisted the Confederacy du ...

and his armed revolt against the Confederacy in Jones County, Mississippi, throughout the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Written and directed by Gary Ross, the film stars Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw,

Mahershala Ali Mahershala Ali (; born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore, February 16, 1974) is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. ''Time'' magazine named him one of th ...

, and Keri Russell. It was released in the United States by

STXfilms STX Entertainment is a mini-major American entertainment and media company. Founded in March 2014 by film producer Robert Simonds, the studio produces film, television, and digital media projects. In April 2020, STX announced that it would merg ...

on June 24, 2016. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $25 million against its $50 million production budget.

Premise

The story is based on the history of Jones County, Mississippi, during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and the period immediately after it. The overall story follows the history of Jones County; some of the events portrayed are true. The film is credited as being "based on the books ''The Free State of Jones'' by

Victoria E. Bynum Victoria Bynum is a historian specializing in the history of the Southern United States. She is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history at Texas State University. Career Victoria E. Bynum is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history at ...

and ''The State of Jones'' by

Sally Jenkins Sally Jenkins (born October 22, 1960) is an American sports columnist and feature writer for ''The Washington Post'', and author. She was previously a senior writer for ''Sports Illustrated''. She has won the AP Sports Columnist of the Year Awa ...

and John Stauffer."

Plot

After surviving the second Battle of Corinth and being told of the

Twenty Negro Law The "Twenty Negro Law", also known as the "Twenty Slave Law" and the "Twenty Nigger Law", was a piece of legislation enacted by the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War. The law specifically exempted from Confederate military servi ...

that allows wealthy men to avoid being conscripted into military service,

, a battlefield medic in the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

, deserts after his nephew Daniel is forced into military service, only to be mortally wounded and then denied medical care while the officers are tended to first. Upon returning home, Knight buries Daniel and reconnects with his wife, Serena. He befriends Rachel, an enslaved woman who has secretly learned to

read Read Read may refer to: * Reading, human cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning * Read (automobile), an American car manufactured from 1913 to 1915 * Read (biology), an inferred sequence of base pairs of ...

, after she treats his infant son's illness. Newton's disenchantment with the Confederacy grows after he learns that Confederate troops have been seizing crops, livestock, and draft animals from his neighbors, even though most are already struggling to feed their families. Newton threatens a Confederate officer, Barbour, at gunpoint; when Confederate

militiamen A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

are ordered to arrest him for treason, Newton is bitten by one of their

attack dog An attack dog (guard dog, patrol dog, or security dog) is a dog trained to attack a person on command, sight, or by inferred provocation. They are used to defend people, territory, or property. Attack dogs have been utilized throughout history ...

s while trying to escape. Abolitionist-oriented Aunt Sally, a sympathetic community leader, has her servant George take him into the swamps, where he is put under the protection of runaway slave Moses Washington and his followers. After the fall of Vicksburg, Confederate deserters flock into Jones County. Newton persuades his neighbors to provide him with weapons and organizes the deserters and slaves into a well-disciplined militia. When the rebels begin ambushing military convoys to take back their property, Barbour and his commanding officer, Col. Hood, order their farms to be torched. Serena is forced to flee with her son as Newton cannot protect them. Hood offers pardons to any rebel who agrees to rejoin the army, but when some of Newton's men abandon him and ask to be pardoned, Hood goes back on his word and sentences them to be hanged. The rebels, appearing to accept defeat, persuade Hood to let them hold a funeral for the deceased under military guard. Suddenly, marksmen hidden under the church and in the coffins fire on the soldiers as the mourners take pistols from their coats and join in. The soldiers are all killed, and Newton strangles Hood to death with his belt. Barbour escapes, but he and the remaining troops in the county are driven out by the rebels, who declare the establishment of the "

Free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procur ...

State of Jones". Swearing allegiance to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the rebels manage to defend their territory against Confederate reinforcements for the remainder of the war. Newton continues to fight racial inequality after the war. He helps free Moses' son from an "

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

" to Rachel's former master. After Moses is lynched while registering freedmen to vote, Newton is seen participating in a march of voters to the polls while they sing " John Brown's Body". He eventually reconciles with Serena and has a son with Rachel. Since they are unable to legally marry, Newton arranges for Rachel to be deeded a parcel of his land for farming upon his death. The film ends with Newton's great-grandson, Davis Knight, being arrested under Mississippi's

anti-miscegenation laws Anti-miscegenation laws or miscegenation laws are laws that enforce racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalization, criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different R ...

in 1948. Since he has an eighth of black ancestry, the law considers him to be black, and he therefore cannot legally marry his long-time white sweetheart. He is sentenced to five years in prison for refusing to leave the state, but his conviction is thrown out by the

Mississippi Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in the first constitution of the state following its admission as a State of the Union in 1817 and was known as the High Court of Errors and Appe ...

in 1949, rather than risk the law being declared unconstitutional in light of the emerging

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

Cast

Production

Development

The film was a passion project for Ross, who spent ten years developing it. He was initially drawn to make the movie out of a desire to examine the

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

era south, an era that, according to him, is poorly represented in film, quoting '' Gone with the Wind'' and ''

The Birth of a Nation ''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Cla ...

'' as examples of "the last movies that did it". In preparation, Ross did a "tremendous amount of research", studying not only the Civil War but also the

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

of the war, the latter because he wanted "to debunk a lot of the myths" surrounding the events. Speaking to Slash Film about the research for the film, Ross remarked, "I don’t think I did anything but read for a couple of years". Ross finished writing the film prior to working on '' The Hunger Games'', although he struggled to find much in way of financing: he felt that working on ''The Hunger Games'' would help him, and thus declined to work on the sequels. Afterwards he still had trouble getting the movie made, which he attributes to the fact that "we're in a different kind of a popcorn universe now". Matthew McConaughey's casting was announced in November 2014. Other casting was announced in early 2015. Angelo Piazza III, Marksville, La. and Jack's Powder Keg Company participated in the production with their cannon and black powder.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began on February 23, and was scheduled to end on May 28. On March 9 Adam Fogelson, Chairman of STX Entertainment announced the start of the production in and around New Orleans, with the release of a first look photo. In May 2015, shooting was scheduled for

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

, with

East Feliciana Parish East Feliciana Parish (french: Paroisse de Feliciana Est, es, Parroquia de East Feliciana) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2010 census, the population was 20,267, and 19,531 in 2020. The parish seat is Clinton. Est ...

as a filming set. On May 25, 2015, some filming took place at

Chicot State Park Chicot State Park is located near Ville Platte, Louisiana. This wildlife reserve of South Central Louisiana features of rolling hills surrounding a man-made lake stocked with bass, crappie (sac-au-lait), bluegill, and red-ear sunfish. Chicot P ...

near Ville Platte, Louisiana.

Release

The film was pushed back from its original release date of March 11, 2016, to May 13 and finally June 24, 2016. The first trailer was released on January 9, 2016.

Reception

Box office

''Free State of Jones'' grossed $20.8 million in North America and $4.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $25 million, against a production budget of $50 million. The film was released in the United States and Canada on June 24, 2016, alongside '' Independence Day: Resurgence'' and '' The Shallows'' and was projected to gross around $10 million in its opening weekend from 2,815 theaters. The film grossed $365,000 from its Thursday previews and $2.7 million on its first day. In its opening weekend the film grossed $7.6 million, finishing 6th at the box office behind '' Finding Dory'' ($73 million), ''Independence Day: Resurgence'' ($41 million), '' Central Intelligence'' ($18.2 million), ''The Shallows'' ($16.8 million) and '' The Conjuring 2'' ($7.7 million).

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, a

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

, the film has an approval rating of 46% based on 184 reviews and an average rating of 5.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Free State of Jones'' has the noblest of intentions, but they aren't enough to make up for its stilted treatment of a fascinating real-life story." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 53 out of 100 based on reviews from 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. Film critic Ann Hornaday of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' said, " irectorRoss has insisted that he didn't want 'Free State of Jones' to become another white savior movie, but that's precisely what it is, especially during scenes when the murderous injustice of slavery is refracted through Knight’s frustrated tears." Hornaday said the film could have avoided the trope by focusing more on Knight's alliance with a former slave or his relationships with his wife and an enslaved house servant. ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''s Vann R. Newkirk II said, "To say that McConaughey's portrayal of Newton Knight is a white savior perhaps undersells the trope... A better film would have muddled the clean white-savior narrative with an actual exploration of what the racial politics of a mixed-race insurgency in the South might have been like." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' selected it as a "critic's pick". Reviewer

A. O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

called it "a neglected and fascinating chapter in American history" and said it used "the tools of Hollywood spectacle to restore a measure of clarity to our understanding of the war and its aftermath." Scott also said, "...while Mr. Ross's story makes Newton unambiguously heroic, this is not yet another film about a white savior sacrificing himself on behalf of the darker-skinned oppressed. Nor for that matter is it the story of a white sinner redeemed by the superhuman selflessness of black people. ''Free State of Jones'' is a rarer thing: a film that tries to strike sparks of political insight from a well-worn genre template." ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' film critic Richard Brody gave it a positive review, saying, "It's tempting to shunt ''Free State of Jones'' into the familiar genre of the white-savior tale, but Newton Knight appears as something else—not so much as a savior but as an avatar of a new South. By seeing his own interests clearly and considering the economic and social structure of his locale and his nation insightfully, he's able to transcend heritage and history and to forge a community, both during and after the war, that will be fair, inclusive, and—yes—post-racial."

Soundtrack

* Beautiful Dreamer - Written by Stephen Foster * Piney Woods Swamp - Performed by Nicholas Britell,

Tim Fain __FORCETOC__ Tim Fain is an Americans, American violinist, best known for his performances in the movie ''Black Swan (film), Black Swan'' and his work with American composer Philip Glass. Early life and education A native of Santa Monica, Califo ...

, Shawn Conley &

Shawn Pelton Shawn Pelton is an American drummer and percussionist. He has recorded with a wide range of artists and has been a first call player since moving to New York in the late 1980s. Shawn has recorded with artists such as Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin, ...

* Napoleon Crossing the Rhine - Traditional * What Must Be Done - Written by

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian singer, songwriter, poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Ca ...

and

Warren Ellis Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is a British comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ( ...

* Battle Cry of Freedom - Written by

George Frederick Root George Frederick Root (August 30, 1820August 6, 1895) was an American songwriter, who found particular fame during the American Civil War, with songs such as "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" and " The Battle Cry of Freedom". He is regarded as the first A ...

* Rodney Prepares For Fight - Composed by Dickon Hinchliffe * I'm Crying - Written and Performed by Lucinda Williams * Battle of Corinth - Composed by Nicholas Britell * Taking Daniel Home - Performed by Nicholas Britell, Tim Fain & Rob Moose * They Took Everything - Composed by Nicholas Britell * Finding Home (uncredited) - Performed by Nicholas Britell, Tim Fain & Rob Moose * Soldier's Joy - Traditional * July 1863 / Loyalty Oath - Composed by Nicholas Britell * Perfect Charity - Composed by Nicholas Britell * "Resistance' - Performed by Nicholas Britell, Tim Fain, Shawn Conley & Shawn Pelton * The Letter - Performed by Nicholas Britell, Tim Fain & Rob Moose * Let There Be Light - Composed by Nicholas Britell * Hanging the Deserters - Performed by Nicholas Britell, Tim Fain & Rob Moose * Killing the Colonel - Composed by Nicholas Britell * I'm Crying - Written by Lucinda Williams * Reconstruction - Performed by Nicholas Britell, Tim Fain & Rob Moose * Voter Suppression - Performed by Nicholas Britell * John Madison Knight - Composed by Nicholas Britell * Postlude - Performed by Nicholas Britell * The Free State of Jones - Performed by Nicholas Britell, Tim Fain & Caitlin Sullivan

References

External links

* * * * * * ''Smithsonian'' magazine
"The true story of the Free State of Jones"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Free State of Jones (film) 2016 films Films directed by Gary Ross Films produced by Scott Stuber Films shot in New Orleans Films shot in Louisiana American war drama films War films based on actual events Films based on non-fiction books Action films based on actual events American historical films 2010s war films 2010s historical films American Civil War films Anti-war films 2016 biographical drama films American biographical drama films African-American genealogy Films about American slavery Films about interracial romance Drama films based on actual events Films set in 1862 Films set in 1863 Films set in 1864 Films set in 1865 Films set in 1868 Films set in 1875 Films set in 1876 Films set in 1948 Films set in Mississippi STX Entertainment films Films with screenplays by Gary Ross Huayi Brothers films American political drama films 2016 action drama films 2010s political drama films American action drama films Films scored by Nicholas Britell Films about deserters Films produced by Jon Kilik 2010s English-language films 2010s American films