Writer-director Gary Ross says the important part of his Free State of Jones, which takes place during the Civil War and Reconstruction, is about trying to restore the conditions of slavery. Ross says Hollywood never covers this, unless you count things like Gone with the Wind. Free State of Jones doesn't cover it either: Only about the last half hour is about it, and it's pretty sketchy coverage, with too many key events left out and only described in titles printed on the screen.
Still, Free State of Jones does remind us of how much the Civil War and abolition did NOT accomplish. Of how, though not why, the blacks were abandoned to the mercies of the confederate states. It doesn't tell us much about what happened before that, either.
Matthew McConaughey leaves the Confederate army because he can't stand the brutality and gore of war. He sets up his little colony in the Mississippi swamps because he isn't about to be drafted again. He's a great equalitarian, but doesn't seem to be particularly dedicated to the blacks as such. After the war, he tends to drift off into the sidelines of what spotty central narrative Free State has.
The whole movie is so understated that except for a woman in labor, almost nobody raises a voice above conversational level. A very key speech by Gugu Mbatha-Raw is delivered in whispers that even the theatre hearing aid did not make audible to me. Big public events like the actions of the government are not covered at all, and the private life of McConaughey's real-life character is reportedly cleaned up.
Free State of Jones is realistic about what it does cover, but it doesn't tell us nearly enough about an important but unpleasant topic.
