Slavery is an ugly thing. The Civil War is an ugly thing (not glamorous at all). The KKK might be ugliest of it all.

This movie is not just about slavery. Friday night, Jo and I went to our local theater to watch Free State of Jones. I had seen a trailer of it and thought it looked interesting. She saw the trailer recently and thought she would also like to see it. So we had a “date.”

The movie is based on a true story-the story of Newton Knight, a deserter from the Confederate Army. Hunted by local law “enforcement” people, he is taken to the swamp where he finds a “home” and others like him, mostly black slaves running for their freedom. Eventually that small motley crew becomes a commune of like-minded people (fellow deserters, runaway slaves and women) who for one reason or another are disenchanted with the Confederate army. They declare Jones County (and several others) as a free state.

The movie was long (about 2hr, 19 min) but it moved quickly. While there was some violence & gore (mostly at the beginning due to a battle scene and hospital…think Dances with Wolves) and occasional rough language (but not as much as you might expect), we liked the movie. I had a little trouble at first understanding some of the dialogue but it got better. (I like to watch DVDs with closed captions). Be prepared for the ugly part of the KKK. That is a major blight on our country’s radar for sure.

This is not a feel-good movie. It finds its basis in historical fact. IMHO Matthew McConaughey does a superb job as do his supporting actors. Know the limitations (Rated R for gore, some violence, women shooting guns, ugliness of slavery, the “N” word is used profusely as it was back then) and if you can handle them, then go see it (or wait until it comes out on DVD). Many of the professional critics panned it, but then again, what do they know? 🙂