English: Actor Matthew McConaughey at the 83rd Academy Awards. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Not everything in the new Civil War movie, The Free State of Jones (2016), makes sense, but it is a worthwhile product. Lifted from history, it focuses on Confederate army deserters and runaway slaves, led by Matthew McConaughey‘s Newton Knight, who live for a long while in a swamp.
That self-serving Confederate soldiers intent on stealing a Southern woman’s hogs never return to her house after Newt and four females, armed with rifles, hold them off is one of the nonsensical items here. And yet there is a nice historical scope to Jones, and it is rich and transportingly presented.
Set, of course, in a Christian sphere, the story proffers a gent who is—and, in history, was—a pseudo-Christian activist. He is properly anti-slavery but also parts from his wife (Keri Russell) without divorcing her and starts living with ex-slave Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). (In history, he had a bunch of children with her.) This is Newt Knight. Can’t deny he is interesting.
