Free State of Jones (Gary Ross)

FREE STATE OF JONES

Director: Gary Ross

imdb

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...nes_poster.png

So this is sort of a shame of a movie. The first half is freaking great, but then it's all downhill from there.

The biggest issue is that there's just absolutely no focus in this thing at all after a certain point. Most jarringly, there's a subplot that flash-forwards ahead and takes place in the 50s, yet the first time we visit this subplot is after following the main story for about 30 minutes straight. And we only visit that subplot for about a minute before resuming the main story. Then, we revisit that subplot for about a minute more at a time about every half hour further into the movie, and it's such a jarring transition that I was like, this had better be leading to something mind blowing to justify its incessant inclusion. But, no, it really doesn't end up paying off to heavily. I understand what they were going for with it, to show how this person who's fighting this fight is still having to battle even through his descendants, generations later, but damn does it feel far too disconnected to everything else to really justify it, and it woulda probably been better served being left out entirely.

But anyways, that aside, the story is actually really good and compelling, with some great performances, and it all leads to this epic climax, that happens about halfway into the movie. But then after that, right around where it feels the story should be wrapping up, it just kinda keeps going, keeps meandering, and it got to the point where I literally couldn't tell where this thing was even going.

Now, it's fine if they wanted to tell this story beyond the war aspects of it as well, but this movie totally failed in terms of its execution of everything after the war stuff. The pacing was just way off after that point, and it coulda definitely served with either some tighter writing or perhaps just tighter editing, something to make the events flow more evenly, and not feel like we're overstaying our welcome after the halfway point. The first half is damn strong, but the second half kills all of this movie's momentum. And I really hate to say that, considering the subject matter and all, which does feel like this movie has an important story to tell. So it's kind of a shame in that regard, as it really feels like there's a good movie hidden away in here somewhere, if perhaps it had been handled with a little more care.

I would really appreciate Arya's take on this. I'm still trying to get my brain together on it. Filmmaking snaffus aside, there were some very powerful elements at work, but then its extremely irritating its led by a white man empowering it all, but then the misguided 50s jumps kinda make that aspect relevant...I'm emotionally all over the place with this flick.

I agree with TGM, the second half is a wreck of a film, but it also felt like they were desperate to cram in as much shit as possible that IS relevant...it just devolves into an unavoidable mess of filmmaking while still being sorta important to the story. Dammit all, what a completely fucked up history this country has. What a bunch of assholes.