https://socialistaction.org/2016/07/28/film-defiance-in-the-old-south/
Film: Defiance in the Old South
/ 20 hours ago
July 2016 Free State
By GAETANA CALDWELL-SMITH
“Free State of Jones,” directed by Gary Carr.
“The Free State of Jones” is based on a true Civil War story, a little
known story, because its subject matter is in a controversial gray area.
Here we have Newton Knight (a spot-on Matthew McConaughey at his
scraggly, unkempt, bearded best), a Confederate soldier—a nurse, no
less—who deserts. Although married to Serena (Keri Russell, in a
thankless role) with a toddler, he comes to live with and eventually
marry “in the eyes of the Lord” a Black woman, Rachel (a believable Gugu
Mbatha-Raw), a house slave and healer.
At one point, Knight is being chased as he runs through the wilderness
by what one character tells him are “nigger dogs,” dogs that slave
catchers use to hunt down runaways (the “N” word is used profusely
throughout). He ends up hiding out in the swamp in an area occupied by
runaway slaves who come to accept him. “Horses can’t handle the swamps,”
Moses, the head of the hideout tells him.
Knight reaches an epiphany when he realizes that poor men are fighting
for the rich so that the rich can stay rich and the poor poor, which
resonates today. People are people, and all people should be free. He
does something about it by leading poor white farmers and slaves in an
extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy.
In effect, he launched an uprising that led Jones County, Miss., to
secede from the Confederacy, creating the Free State of Jones. Knight
continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a
compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance.
Carr created an interesting, but whip-lashing change of scene by
suddenly fast-forwarding 85 years to a Mississippi courtroom where his
very white-looking grandson, Davis Knight (Brian Lee Franklin) is being
tried for miscegenation as he is married to a “pure” white woman. Court
records had revealed that he is the son of Knight and Rachel’s
offspring. The law was not repealed until 1967.
This is a suspenseful, well acted, beautifully shot film about a little
known segment of history and of one man’s futuristic vision regarding
human beings and their ability to live together freely and peacefully.
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July 28, 2016 in Arts & Culture, Black Liberation. Tags: films, movies
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