I think, to many southerners like myself, the story told in the movie Free State of Jones was part of a hidden history. Growing up this stuff was omitted from our collective education. It's not hard to see why. It's a very ugly and insidious part of history. It's our nations most terrible war from which healing has been extremely longstanding…even still 150 years on. However, to achieve a freedom from future tyranny I'd say the movie's timetable works. The time is right because what lingers needs the transparency that allows a fuller healing through the art of the story told. To never repeat the mistakes of the past we must learn, and that involves honesty.

So, here we have a very different Civil War drama based on actual events. Instead of centering on great battles it explores the human drama that corrupt elements rather than any particular battle caused. While it's certainly true crimes were committed on both sides, the desperate elements operating within the Confederate movement were particularly ominous. Illegal conscription and seizing of property from those without a voice ran rampant. This is a climate which created many a defection, and here a subversive movement.

Newton Knight was turned in an instant and it galvanized what would follow. Knight's defection from the Confederate Army results in his spearheading a group of slaves and small farmers to secede from the Confederacy and form a "Free State of Jones" This is a powerful story which cost many lives ultimately prevailing when the Union won the war. Though it prevailed, the freedom it was promised was slow to come. Afterwards, even with new constitutional rights granted, norms were steeped in old traditions. A messy time for sure which was purposely written out of the collective history. I think this movie serves the basics well without getting mired in diatribes of moralities. Even with the story's slow pace the viewer gets a powerful history lesson. The characters ring true and their life and death struggle is eloquently unraveled.

Not since Matthew McConaughey came on the scene in the movie "A Time To Kill" has he had a more important role. I think it's one of his, if not his best, performance. He's not so much acting as inhabiting a man whose voice was silenced long ago. He carries that voice to a whole new generation and it speaks volumes. Perhaps the movie is a bit slow paced and long, even using the clunky device of segueing to a much later date's court case at odd times. But, these are small criticisms that do not take away from a forgotten history. The segueing part even reinforces how so much was to take so long to truly change. Overall, a masterfully constructed important story with great period feel and realism. I recommend it for all as it does entertain and enlighten. Yes, this many years on there's still a powerful lesson we should never forget and continue to seek that all important truest expression of freedom so many have given so much for.

This is a bitter-sweet tale of Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey) who led a rebellion and established an area free from Confederate or Union control. The tale follows through the reconstruction period as defeated Confederates return to make lives miserable for those recently liberated.

At over two hours, the film felt rushed, or pushed at the end, while they seemed to have spent too much time in the beginning. Great acting. There is some small juxtaposition to the 1940's (?) when an ancestor is challenged in court.

Good acting. Good drama. Class warfare message.

Guide: No searing sex or nudity. Some intense scenes.

The Free State Of Jones tells the tale of Newton Knight a farmer from Mississippi who was at least a century ahead of his times in terms of economics and human rights. After the battle of Corinth he learns that if one is rich enough to own slaves one is exempt from the fight because in this struggle for the rights of one to own another you have to leave some people behind lest the "property" start getting ideas.

The phrase "rich man's war,poor man's fight" never had more meaning than in the situation Knight finds himself in. He just walks away from the Confederate army and before long he's heading a movement back home seceding from the seceding Confederacy. Jones County opts for its own independence.

As played by Matthew McConaughey we see Knight certainly a person of humble circumstances who like Abraham Lincoln is a man who recognizes some great moral issues. McConaughey is humble and modest, but overwhelming in his portrayal. This film might get him a trip to the Oscars.

The two women in his life wife Keri Russell and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, the former slave who develops a relationship with McConaughey are also quite moving in their portrayal. Interracial relationships put McConaughey way ahead of his time. There is a modern story of one of his descendants unable to marry because of Mississippi's miscegenation laws post World War II. I'm not sure it was necessary for this film it kind of interrupted the flow of the main plot. In any event it probably deserved its own film.

Down the cast list there is a very moving performance by young Jacob Lofland in the beginning of the film as a young Confederate soldier who with McConaughey also realizes what business has he in a fight to protect some plantation owner's right to have slaves. You won't forget it if you see Free State Of Jones.

And you should see it.