Matthew McConaughey stars in this Civil War Drama that is based on actual events that took place between 1862 an 1876.  A Rebel soldier leaves the Confederate Army at the zenith of the war, and sets out to stage a rebellion against the Confederate way of life, and the Confederate Army itself.  And basically everyone and everything else.  Interesting story sure.  But...

 
I am having a very tough time deciding what this movie is actually trying to say. And I think the makers of this are too.  It's anti-North, South, Government, War, Rich, Military, Judicial system...in short, it's about anti-everything.  The story in it's raw form is pretty good, but it just goes on and on about how tough life was then, and how the deck is and was stacked against everyone.  Might be true, but it doesn't make for very good movie making.

This is also insanely too long. It's only about 2 hours 15, but feels way longer than that as it's about 30 minutes too long.  This totally needed a sharper editing blade.  There are some compelling moments in this movie, and McConaughey gives a nice performance, in an incredibly large role.  A role he seemingly was born to play.   But there is simply a heavy fog of "something's not right here" hanging over this entire project.  This is missing with many national critics, and this time they probably have it right.

The Free State Of Jones.  Marginal.

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