Variety
"Free State of Jones" is one of those historical dramas with a script that's big on crowning lines of moral fervour and not so big on nuts-and-bolts detail.
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Free State of Jones
Matthew McConaughey is a defiant Southern farmer who inspires and leads a rebellion against the Confederacy during the America Civil War, in this true-story drama from Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit).
After surviving the 1862 Battle of Corinth, Newton Knight gathered a group of small farmers and local slaves in an armed rebellion in Jones County. Knight would go on to marry a former slave and establish a mixed-race community - unique to the post-war South.
2016Rating: MA15+, Strong themes and violence140 minsUSA
DramaTrue Story & BiographyWarHistorical
- Director:
- Gary Ross ('The Hunger Games', 'Pleasantville', 'Seabiscuit')
- Writer:
- Gary Ross
- Cast:
- Matthew McConaugheyGugu Mbatha-RawMahershala AliKeri RussellJacob LoflandSean BridgersBrad CarterJane McNeill
Free State of Jones / Reviews
Time Out
Impeccably wrought yet emotionally hollow, Gary Ross's Civil War-era rebellion drama suffers from too much ambition.
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The New York Times
A riveting visual history lesson, whose occasional didacticism is integral to its power.
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The Guardian
The Free State of Jones is an anti-war film with a commie message that still glamourises southern pride, hard work and the Good Book. It's a nuanced message far too rare in our current political state.
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Stuff
You really feel like this is a location where life is nasty, brutish, short and breathless.
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Rolling Stone
If you think a thick, juicy slab of Civil War history can't be boiled down to 145 minutes of speechifying, stultifying cinema, then grab a seat. Even McConaughey is sucked dry of his usual acting panache.
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New York Post
If McConaughey's performance is a little too jut-jawed and noble, the script has plenty of force.
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Hollywood Reporter
A compelling and little-known story of the Civil War period is studiously reduced to a dry and cautious history lesson.
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