FREE STATE OF JONES

US, 2016, 139 minutes, Colour.
Matthew Mc Conaughey, Gugu Mbatha Raw, Keri Russell, Sean Bridgers.
Directed by Gary Ross.

Unless you are an expert on the Civil War, you may not be familiar at all with the title of this film, the episode of the Free State of Jones, in Jones County and neighbouring counties in Mississippi in the 1860s.

The film opens with a vivid portrayal of a Civil War battle, a troop of Confederate soldiers, flag-waving, commander in front, to the beat of the drum, marching up a hill – and then the camera showing the audience amassed troop of Union soldiers. The mowing down of the Confederates who keep marching, someone taking up the flag, is shocking and bloody. Bloody is also the word to describe the scenes with doctors at work on the wounded, the numbers, the pain, the limbs, the implements like saws, no anaesthetic. And the nurses continually carrying the wounded from the field to the tents.

It is in this context that we are introduced to Newton Knight, a Mississippi farmer who is serving as a nurse, trying to cheer those he was carrying, removing their private’s jacket so that they might appear as an officer and be tended to quickly. But, it is too much for him and when he is escorting a young lad from his town who is shot in the trenches, he decides to desert, take the body home, resume his life in Mississippi.

As it turned out, ordinary life was not for him. Reunited with his wife, and a black slave from the nearby plantation coming to help his son recover from fever, he then realises that he will be tracked down as a deserter. He goes out into the swamps, his league wounded from pursuing dogs, finds a group of black slaves who have escaped and lives with them.

In the town, a commander has the task of commandeering supplies from the local farms, reducing many of them to poverty. It is here that Newton Knight takes a stand, first confronting a lieutenant with a woman and her two daughters which encourages the group in the swamp to take further stands. More deserters join the group in the swamp, a small army which leads to a confrontation with the Confederacy leading to an appeal to General Sherman, marching through Georgia, to send some reinforcements. Newton Knight and his leadership led to the announcing of the Free State of Jones and the writing of a charter.

It is here that many audiences will be expecting the film to end, but it does not. The latter part of the film is about the aftermath of the war, the unsteady reuniting of the South with the North, the freedom of the slaves, often more in principle than in reality, the twisting of legislation in some Southern states to keep the former slaves oppressed, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the racist burnings and hangings. During the war, Newt’s wife and son had left him but return after the war where they find him with Rachel, the young woman who saved the son, who is now pregnant.

Unexpectedly, some sequences are interpolated into the narrative moving it to 1947, 85 years later, and a trial with a descendant of Newt and Rachel being brought into court for trying to marry a white woman, guilty because he has some black blood. The sequences show the audience that there may have been victory, there may have been peace, but for decades, the heritage from the war and the antagonism still remained with blatant racism.

In recent years, especially with his winning an Oscar for the Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew Mc Conaughey has become a serious actor and embodies Newton Knight with some force and authority. Gugu Mbatha Raw (so persuasive in the British film about race, Belle) portrays Rachel.

This film should make an impression in the United States, but is interesting and often powerful for a non-American audience.

1. Audience interest in the American Civil War? Its impact? Post-war? For American audiences, world audiences, in the 21st century?

2. Audience knowledge of the Civil War, the issues, the role of the South, the Union? Issues of slavery, work on the plantations, cotton and economy? Lincoln, Johnson succeeding him? The role of the Blacks after the war, opportunities? The Ku Klux Klan? Manipulation of legislation in Southern states?

3. The re-creation of the war and the period, the Confederacy, the details of the battles, wounding and deaths, the doctors and nurses, the trenches, orders, soldiers dying with honour? The musical score, the music of the 19th century, Stephen Foster songs, John Brown’s Body…?

4. The film based on the true story? Newton Knight, Matthew Mc Conaughey’s presence, his character, a man from the South, his action during the battles, carrying the victims, helping them to get doctor’s attention, the young boy, knowing him, wanting to leave with him, the trenches, his being shot, the decision to desert, taking the body back to the family, to the farm? The soldier giving him provisions? The issues of the Confederate forces and their stealing from the local farmers? Exemptions from service depending on the number of Negroes on the plantation? Newton, his organisation, the deserters, creating a community, more people joining, the revolution, against the South, the violence, the proclaiming of the charter, asking General Sherman for help?

5. Newton Knight, his age, his experience, farm, his wife and son, his work in the field, taking the body of the boy home, the decision to leave, the support from Jasper and Jasper’s later help?

6. The picture of the war, the opening, the march of the Confederates, up the hill, the Union soldiers, the shooting, mowing the opposition down? Hospitals, the blood and the bloodthirsty mess of the woundings? Newt and his understanding, his reaction to the war, the issues, the principle of desertion?

7. At home, his wife, harsh conditions, his son being ill? Going to the woman at the bar, her advice, Rachel coming to help, the black woman, her reputation, helping the boy recover, Newt and his response, his thanks? His decision to leave? The woman at the bar and her assistant taking him into the swamp, rowing through the swamp? Finding the settlement, Moses and the others? Living, Newt having been bitten by the dog, healing his leg? Listening to the stories? The issue of the law and the slaves and exemptions?

8. Newt’s wife, finding the situation hard, leaving with her son?

9. Rachel, in the context of the mansion, the visit for the boy, the owner of the mansion, sexual abuse? The children learning to read and her watching? Becoming part of the community? The attraction to Newt? His finding the writing book and giving it to her?

10. The Confederate forces and the crops, taking them from the families, emptying the warehouses? Newt and the opposition, with the mother, the girls, training them with the guns, confronting the command? The commanding officer, his life of ease, the lieutenant and his attitude, the commander organising the attacks, the plundering of the farms? Newt and his community, taking the corn, the ambush? Ward, the young boys, their place in the community? The documents offering pardon? Newt giving the option? The commander and his visit to the bar, the issue of whiskey? Ward and the boys leaving, the decision to hang them? The funeral, the troops present, the mothers in mourning, producing their guns, Newt and his men hidden, under the church, the gun battle? Commander being wounded, going to the church, Newt talking with him, strangling him? Audience reaction to the use of violence? The morality and the ambiguities of war, oppression, violence and revolt?

11. The Free State of Jones, becoming a force, an army, going to the town, present in the bar, Will and the message from Sherman, some rifles but no support? Will and his asking permission to take those leaving? The build up to the fight in the town?

12. The Free State, the charter?

13. The war ending, the next 10 years, Lincoln and his role, President Johnson, the laws in Mississippi, the issue of the vote for the Blacks? The law and apprenticeships and young children being forced to work in the cotton fields? Newt, confrontation with the owner, the owner and his swearing to uphold the law and his returning to his mansion, with his family? Newt rescuing Moses’ son? In the court, Newt paying the owner off? The irony of the lieutenant as Judge?

14. The glimpses of the Ku Klux Klan, riding, the hood, the racism? Burning the church? Moses, the pursuit, his being hanged? Newt finding him? The funeral and the grief – and the reminder of Newt as a religious man?

15. His wife’s return with his son, their living with Rachel and Newton? Assisting the birth of the son?

16. The effect of the interpolation of the story from 1947, 85 years later, the case, miscegenation, the percentage of black blood, forbidden to marry white? The search in the documents, Newt recording the birth in the register, the production of the Bible? The sentence, the appeal?

17. A picture of the war and its issues? Focusing on issues of race and freedom? The aftermath of war, not for victory, not a perfect peace and the inheriting in the United States of this aftermath?