Thank God, because that would have sucked.”, Like his grandfather before him, Hosey is a great admirer of Newt Knight. Knight was 6-foot-4 with black curly hair and a full beard—“big heavyset man, quick as a cat,” as one of his friends described him. In the end, the film Free State of Jones was not based on the book The Free State of Jones, but the book was used as a major resource, with Bynum credited as a consultant. If you point out that Newt distributed food to starving people, and was known as the Robin Hood of the Piney Woods, they’ll tell you he married a black, like that trumps everything. Nevertheless, Ross and McConaughey spent a lot of time in Jones County, persuading many county residents to appear in the film. “It was like Newt himself was standing right there in front of me. Ross read those books too, and went back again with burning questions. And not for the first time in Jones County, where arguments still rage about a man born 179 years ago, I recall Faulkner’s famous axiom about history: “The past is never dead. Continue Joseph Hosey is a Jones County forester and wild mushroom harvester who was hired as an extra for the movie and ended up playing a core member of the Knight Company. They had seen this many times before. Details below. But the sacred rite of hunting season was underway, and the landowner didn’t want visitors disturbing the deer in the area. Once again disenfranchised, and terrorized by the Klan, they were exploited through sharecropping and legally segregated. I particularly enjoyed fresh faces like Mahershala Ali (Moses) and Gugu-Mbatha Raw (Rachel). The script was not full of period clichés or overly polish, things I appreciated in a movie like Tombstone, but could have been a distraction in Free State which fortunately kept it real.Matthew McConaughey was excellent in the lead as the gritty Newton Knight. The receptionist led me into a small examining room and closed both its doors. Then he plants his staff on the ground and turns to face me directly. “It never existed.”. Free State of Jones 2016 | R | 2h 19m | Military Dramas A Mississippi farmer turns outlaw as he leads a ragtag band of fellow Civil War deserters and escaped slaves in a rebellion against the Confederacy. Powell stayed away from Jones County for a while after that, and he was burned in effigy in Ellisville. He was working on a film called Free State of Jones: The Republic That Never Was, intended to refute Gary Ross’ film. Music video about Dazed and Confused (1993) character Wooderson. Victoria Bynum traces the origins and legacy of the Jones County uprising from the American Revolution to the modern civil rights movement. the Fair Knights or Knight Negroes) are descended from Newt and Rachel. It wasn’t just the starvation rations, arrogant harebrained leadership and appalling carnage. I really kind of marveled at him.”, The third act of the film takes place in Mississippi after the Civil War. During the Civil War, the Free State of Jones was established by a man named Newton Knight, who did one of the most unthinkable things a white southern man at that time could do – took on the Confederacy, and won. I drove past many small chicken farms, a large modern factory making transformers and computers, and innumerable Baptist churches. The latest episode is an epic by director Gary Ross, “Free State of Jones,” starring Matthew McConaughey as the film’s hero, Newt Knight. Free State of Jones is a film of interest about a part of American history that became relevant to the nation, and continued to inspire social movements years later, if not maybe progressive attitudes of today everywhere, towards less educated people and above all towards the idea of race. “It makes it relevant today. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War. Set during the Civil War, Free State of Jones tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. “We’ve come to terms with who we are,” says Blaylock. From the Studio: Set during the Civil War, Free State of Jones tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. “We have close relatives who won’t even look at us,” says Blaylock, the older sister, who was often taken for Mexican when she lived in California. “After 1865, Jones County was so notorious that the local Confederates were ashamed to be associated with it,” he says. Knight was an inspiring guy who somehow saw forest through the trees and had courage to do right in a world with wrong going on all around him.The acting was quite good. Then he started into Reconstruction. It's a crazy mixed up world folks.To sum things up, it's not a perfect movie, and there were some issues making it hard to track at times, but a fascinating sub-plot to the real Civil War, it kept my interest, and the acting was good. “A lot of older people see Newt as a traitor and a reprobate, and they don’t understand why anyone would want to make a movie about him. Unable to find marriage partners in the community, they started marrying their white cousins instead, with Newt’s encouragement. 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There was some very modest cotton production in the area, and a small slaveholding elite that included Newt Knight’s grandfather, but Jones County had fewer slaves than any other county in Mississippi, only 12 percent of its population. Downtown has some old brick buildings with wrought-iron balconies. Cox, an animated 71-year-old radio and television announcer with a long white beard, welcomed me into a small office crammed with video equipment and Confederate memorabilia. The vocalization of Jones County's history and interviews with residents and descended family members remembrances of Newton Knight and the formation of the Knight Company. In early 1863, Knight was captured for desertion and possibly tortured. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War. WARNING: Spoilers. “His job was to defend the rights of freed African-Americans in one of Mississippi’s bloodiest elections. He was carrying two huge, leather-bound volumes of his family genealogy. The Rosin Heel commander Doug Jefcoate wasn’t available, so I went instead to the law offices of Carl Ford, a Rosin Heel who had unsuccessfully defended Sam Bowers, the imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in his 1998 trial for the 1966 murder of civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer. After Vicksburg fell, in July 1863, there was a mass exodus of deserters from the Confederate Army, including many from Jones and the surrounding counties. Some people are far too enamored of the idea that he was Martin Luther King, and these are the same people who believe the War Between the States was about slavery, when nothing could be further from the truth.”. All Knights are hardworking and very capable.”. Joseph Hosey took me to Newt’s granddaughter’s cabin, where some say that he suffered a fatal heart attack while dancing on the porch. This, more than anything, explains its widespread disloyalty to the Confederacy, but there was also a surly, clannish independent spirit, and in Newt Knight, an extraordinarily steadfast and skillful leader. He gave me ten minutes on his family tree, and when I interrupted to ask about the Rosin Heels and Newt Knight, he stopped, looked puzzled, and began to chuckle. The grand old columned courthouse has a Confederate monument next to it, and no mention of the anti-Confederate rebellion that took place here. View production, box office, & company info. Free State of Jones is reasonably accurate historical fiction telling an important story in American history. The old folks call this one Sal Batree. There was a phase during early Reconstruction when blacks could vote, and black officials were elected for the first time. When secession Swept as an avalanche over the State and implemented a kind of at. 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