The COARD: Free State of Jones

Switching back to spoiler interwoven format again? Is there any consistency in this world? Why does everything always change? These are all valid questions, but you can depend on us. We know what is best for your review reading self. We would never lead you astray. One can't really spoil history because, well, it's history. Trust us when we tell you that even if you go in knowing all the subject matter, this movie is still worth seeing.

Cody: Roy and I both expected this movie to be about an epic rebellion within a rebellion. Battles, action, death. These are tag words I would have associated with Free State of Jones going in. Well apparently the critics of America felt the same way, because they gave it a disappointing 41% on Rotten Tomatoes. If I love anything in this world, I love ranting indignantly when I disagree with the critics' Tomato Meter score. Roy and I were wrong going in, but unlike the stubborn idiots who do for money what we do better for free, we didn't stay wrong. I welcomed this half documentary, half biopic, half war epic with open arms. "Cody, if I'm counting correctly, that's 1.5 movies you've got there." You're right, reader who I'm writing imaginary dialogue for. This movie tried to be three things at once, and, you know what? It actually kind of pulled it off. It wasn't a seamless tapestry of subject matter, but the importance of the story being told kept me engaged the whole way through. I went in expecting just a war epic, and I was pleasantly surprised by also receiving a lesson on an important and tumultuous time in American history.

The Many Shades of McConaughey: Page 7
Newton Knight - The intensity of
the McConaugaze

Roy: I sat down to watch a Civil War version of The Patriot. I was surprised when the war ended and I still had 45 minutes of movie left. I can always tell when I've seen a movie I really enjoyed, because I spend the subsequent 24 hours thinking about how that movie made me feel. Free State of Jones absolutely falls into that category. Cody, I like how you framed it... A rebellion within a rebellion. But reducing it to only that does a great injustice to the film makers. This was so much more. The best way to describe what this movie was truly about is Mississippi's grudge against one man who was 100 years ahead of his time when it came to the civil rights movement. And if you take into account where he lived, and you absolutely should, he was more than 100 years ahead of his time. In one of the scariest places we have in this great union of ours, a man chose to live by his code. Regardless of the fact that his code pitted him against insurmountable odds. Matthew McConaughey was magnificent as Newton Knight. I don't care what this man does. I am always captivated by the characters he portrays.

The Many Shades of McConaughey: page 43
Matthew McConaudreamy

Cody: The Matthew McConaughey era is real, and we are living in it. We live in the era of heroes who are just us in 10 years. Where we are the reason we are successful. It's arrogant, but it's liberating. I'll never not make fun of McConaughey for that moment, but I'd be lying if I said I don't think along similar lines. So yes, McConaughey continues to reign supreme. Once again, the kid from Nowheresville (Uvalde), Texas completely owned a character. Granted, being cast as a Civil War southerner certainly is advantageous for someone with such a natural drawl. Here's a knowledge bomb for everybody out there. We are currently seeing the career of McConaughey follow a seriously Tom Hanks like arc. Hanks was known as a romantic comedy lead before he broke through at age 37 with an Oscar for Philadelphia, where he played a man with AIDS during the height of the AIDS hysteria. McConaughey? Also known as more of a romantic comedy lead before breaking through two years ago at age 44 with an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club, where he played a man with AIDS during the height of AIDS hysteria. Hanks went on to win back to back Best Actor Oscars, but we can't all be Hanks. McConaughey chose instead to follow up Buyers with the stellar Interstellar, and you won't hear me complain about that. Hanks continued his torrid pace with Apollo 13, Cast Away, and The Green Mile. We could be in the middle of a 5-6 year stretch where everything comes up McConaughey. I don't see him getting an Oscar nod for this performance, but his next nomination is around the corner. Seeing as I can't stop waxing poetic about Matthew McConaughey, I should probably let Roy interrupt so we can eventually get back to Free State of Jones.

Roy: You forgot to point out one of the more impressive accomplishments of McConaughey in the midst of spritzing perfume on your love letter to him. He was one of the first big time Hollywood stars to cross the invisible line between TV and movies. Because of that decision and his considerable talent, he chased that Oscar with the best actor Emmy for his work in True Detective. He is quickly approaching Damon and DiCaprio territory where I will go see any movie that he is in. However it wasn't just him in this movie. Our beloved Keri Russell was excellent in a very small role and Gugu Mbatha-Raw crushed the role of Rachel. If you see this movie and wonder where you've seen Gugu Mbatha-Raw before, she was the adorable Talia in Tom Hanks' heavily underrated Larry Crowne. One more Hanks-McConaughey link! The acting wasn't the only thing to like about this movie however. The pacing was also entirely unexpected but interesting at the same time. Out of nowhere it jumps ahead 80 years and gives the audience just a tiny bit of courtroom drama before jumping back to the main story. I wasn't sure I liked it at first but it quickly grew on me once I saw where this film was taking me. It was just one more thing I liked about this odd but wonderful movie. I'm sure Cody has plenty to say on that subject. ....   .....? Cody? .....

         Sorry about that everyone. Cody is busy working on his scrapbook, "The Many Shades of McConaughey" so it looks like I get two paragraphs. This film deals heavily with the subject of war, which is not surprising considering the Civil War is arguably the most horrific war this country has ever fought. I'm going to try and do this without nerding out too bad so please just bare with me. There is a tag line from Fallout that I kept hearing after I left the movie, "War. War never changes." It perfectly captured the emotional reaction I had to this film. After McConaughey's character Newton Knight witnessed the death of his nephew he decided he was done fighting a war he no longer understood. Returning home, Knight was furious at the injustice of what was happening to his community. The southern soldiers were pillaging the local farms for anything they could to feed the war machine, thus leaving women and children alone to starve. He walked away from the war he was being forced to fight and began fighting a war he believed in. He refused to stand by and watch the underprivileged of his community die while other men profited greatly off of the chaos and death. It doesn't matter if the war is being fought for a just reason. It doesn't matter what century the war is being fought in. There will always be those who will profit from the worst part of humanity by taking advantage of the noble and honorable sacrifice of brave individuals. And that is a travesty. Any number of things can change in life, especially in the span of 150 years, but war... war never changes. Do you agree, Cody? ....You there?

The Many Shades of McConaughey: Cover
Rust Cohle, the most complicated man
this side of Don Draper

Cody: Huh? Oh crap, we're still doing a review. Sorry, I was busy. Oh, I see Roy outed me...well, I didn't forget about True Detective. I just choose to repress that show because of the stink bomb of a second season. Rust Cohle will never be forgotten. He's on the cover of The Many Shades of McConaughey.
       You bring up a good point about pace with this movie. I mentioned earlier that the movie tried to be three things at once. The director, Gary Ross, knew he was making a hodgepodge movie, but he owned it. Like you said, one minute you're watching one story and the next it's something else. It's disconcerting, but he trusted us to figure it out and settle in. No explanation, no hand holding, just the expectation that you can follow along.
       The war piece of this story definitely stuck with me as well. The Civil War is usually painted in one of two ways. Either a war over slavery and human rights, or a war over a way of life/honor/dignity. Neither is really wrong, from what I understand. War is a complicated thing, and it isn't easy or fair to try to come up with a single explanation for what it's all about. However, this was an angle on the war I hadn't seen before. The focus on poor southern white men who were conscripted into the Confederate army. Most of these men didn't own slaves, so they didn't have that as a reason to fight. The idea of honor and dignity was brought up by fellow soldiers, but dismissed by Newton Knight as he planned to desert. They sit around the campfire and discuss a new rule allowing rich slave owners to actually avoid being drafted into a war where they presumably are the ones with the most to lose. It had never occurred to me that there was this whole population of southerners who had no stake in the war whatsoever. They joined because they had to, but didn't want to die for something that didn't matter to them. Who would? That's why Knight was able to collect a sizable army of deserters. If understanding those men a little better was the only tidbit of knowledge I took away from this movie, then it would have been worth it.
       But it was not the only thing learned here. Not even close. Eventually the Civil War ended, but the war for freedom for African-Americans continued to rage in Mississippi, and across the former Confederate states. That's where the second half of the movie spends its time. Sure, I thought about the tragedy of war after this movie, but leaving the theater, my mind was on the incredible journey made by African-Americans since the end of that terrible war. There were so many moments that struck me as powerful examples of the struggle these people went through just to be treated like equal humans. Once such moment was the introduction of laws allowing forced "apprenticeships" on plantations. Essentially a workaround for the newly ratified 13th amendment abolishing slavery. So freed slaves suddenly were in a forced work situation that was, well, slavery. Thankfully, the US government didn't rest on its laurels, and eventually wised up to the various loopholes and workarounds being exploited across the south. But still, how many lives were ruined during that stage of what would become the Civil Rights Movement? Apologies for rampaging through over 500 words there. It's just that scrapbooking is a lonely hobby, and I had a lot of time to think while deciding between Cooper from Interstellar and Ben Barry from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days as the back cover for The Many Shades of McConaughey.

The Many Shades of McConaughey: Back cover
Jake Tyler Brigance, champion of the
underprivileged and repressed

Roy: Cody, considering the current review with all of the southern drawls and civil rights implications, if you do not make Jake Tyler Brigance from A Time to Kill the back page of The Many Shades of McConaughey then I don't even know who you are anymore. You my friend... have just been McConauserved. Regardless of how obviously terrible you are at scrapbooking, you are on point when it comes to civil rights. I never really spent much time considering the military reconstruction of the south and the reason why it happened. This movie changed that. One of my favorite moments was watching Knight lead a group of armed African-Americans down main street determined to take their right to vote at any cost. When greeted with scowls and loaded shotguns, Knight needed only one sentence. "We mind dying a whole lot less than you." It perfectly captured the desperation of men who were born as only 1/3 of a person exercising their right to be a whole man. Sadly, thousands of them paid for that right with their lives. This movie did not gloss over the atrocities the Klu Klux Klan perpetrated on the citizens of the south. It was as terrifying to watch as it was sad. It reminded me of what a terrible place Mississippi was if you happened to be any color other than white. It may be unfair to paint an entire state with such a broad brush. After all, Newton Knight was a man from Mississippi who needs to be remembered and I am sure he wasn't the only one. It's a shame that the refuse of our nation had such a stranglehold on that region for so long. On rare occasions, I have had to drive through the state of Mississippi. And I would be lying if I told you their ugly history wasn't on my mind, which may or may not have had a direct bearing on whether I did or did not stop in that state at all... Even if I did or did not have to pee.... like really bad.

Cody: This movie had several pieces that were worth carrying with you. I took all of them and pondered them seriously after watching. That will also be my main takeaway as a review. It was a movie that made you think. A ton of moments that just stuck with you. Another moment that stuck with me came right after the voting scene you mentioned. Clearly African-Americans showed up to vote, but the movie reveals that the results were clearly tampered with. This is America we're talking about. The birthplace of democracy, the highest value we hold in this country. Tampering with results of African-Americans wasn't just racist, it was anti-American. Granted, the men in question did sort of just try to quit America. So I guess they pretty much were okay with that idea. However, it still disturbs me beyond regular racism. Or at least, it isn't today's racism. That's above and beyond, going out of your way, and breaking the law racism. Which surely goes on less today, but I guess, then again, I haven't visited Mississippi in a while. I just don't have time to travel right now; I've got a scrapbook to finish.