Summary

• A battle scene in Free State of Jones is praised for its historical accuracy, with the war apparatuses and the involvement of women being portrayed accurately.
• The movie received criticism for its slow pacing and lack of a focused storyline, which affected its box office performance.
• While the main cast delivered standout performances, the ing characters lacked development and screen time, leaving them underdeveloped.

Garry Adelman, a Civil War historian, praises a scene from Gary Ross’ Free State of Jones for its historical accuracy. Released in 2016, the historical war movie starred an ensemble cast of Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, and Keri Russell. Inspired by the true story of Newton Knight, the story centered on the cynical deserter from the Confederate Army known who led a group of former Confederate soldiers in an uprising against the corrupt local confederate government. The story is based on the true life events that take place in Jones County, Mississippi during the Civil War and its aftermath.

In a recent video by historical accuracy of Free State of Jones, particularly touching on the famous battle of Ellesville where Knight’s group of former Confederate soldiers overthrew the Confederate authorities in Jones County. Adelman explained that the war apparatuses on display were pretty precise and the instance of women ing in on the battle is also accurate. Check out his full comment or watch the video below, with the relevant section starting at 3:07:

This battle of Ellesville sort of I would call it more of a skirmish. Here you have a substantial number of people in a rural county sort of ri to secede from the south to re the union and capturing a county seat in the meantime that’s what we’re seeing in this scene. We do have examples of women ing union regiments sometimes dressed as men sometimes just going into camp to be with their husbands, sometimes actually getting into battle as female combatants. Both sides used whatever they could given the time and the materials they had, sometimes it was simple as using a picket fence. So an overturned wagon, that must have been a great way to stop some particular bullets and if you had time to deal with sandbags and digging up earthworks all the better. Canons are designed to fire particular types of ordnance, it might be solid, it might explode in the air when it hits the ground in front of you, or it might shoot something like grape shot of cannister and maybe lacking all that, that’s what they’re showing in the movie that in this battle or skirmish, they put metal rods into their canon and when you blow off a canon it’ll blow out whatever is in there. At that range that they show on the scene, those metal rods could have been devastating to man and beast. I’m not sure if they could have exactly blown up the enemy ammunition chest that they’re apparently showing.

Why Was Free State Of Jones Critically Panned

In preparation for this movie, Ross reportedly carried out a tremendous amount of research on the subject and this is clearly backed by the fact that around a dozen historical consultants are listed in its end credits. However, while the 66-year-old’s historical feature succeeds in largely staying true to the original events of the Jones County, Mississippi Civil War, critics felt it did not succeed much in delivering a focused and well-paced story to keep viewers firmly engaged for its 140-minute runtime. This is evidenced in its box office numbers, grossing only $25 million worldwide against its $50 million production budget.

Another major issue that plagued Free State of Jones was the use of its cast, especially its ing cast. While Oscar-winning actor McConaughey delivers a fairly memorable performance as Knight and others like Keri Russell, Mbatha-Raw and Mahershala Ali, who play Serena Knight and Rachel and Moses Washington, respectively, also deliver standout performances, the movie’s other ing cast get little screen time, therefore leaving them barely fleshed out.

The consensus from critics is that Free State of Jones is an insightful historical movie that tells a fascinating story about American history. While it is informative, accurate and worthwhile, at least for the most part, it feels more like a tedious documentary for historians rather than a movie to be experienced and enjoyed in the theaters.

Source: Insider