
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.
Full reviewMatthew 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.
"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.
Full reviewImpeccably wrought yet emotionally hollow, Gary Ross's Civil War-era rebellion drama suffers from too much ambition.
Full reviewA riveting visual history lesson, whose occasional didacticism is integral to its power.
Full reviewThe 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.
Full reviewYou really feel like this is a location where life is nasty, brutish, short and breathless.
Full reviewIf 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.
Full reviewIf McConaughey's performance is a little too jut-jawed and noble, the script has plenty of force.
Full reviewA compelling and little-known story of the Civil War period is studiously reduced to a dry and cautious history lesson.
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