I had high hopes for Free State Of Jones. As a late viewer to this film I had seen the YouTube reviews and read the reviews online as well and was surprised by the reviews. After watching, I'm not totally surprised now.
Free State Of Jones is definitely a movie that had potential. It's concept and story about its real-life counterpart sounded fascinating, and the film really delivered with strong performances from Matt McConoughey and the entirety of its cast. But that's about it.
After a really riveting opening battle sequence, the film falls into conventionality and tries to balance so many stories all at once but fails at doing so. The film spans across 14 years and if the film had just stuck to one period instead of trying to squeeze so much out of it the film would've fared a lot better than it did. That opening battle sequence really sets up for a riveting, edge-of- your-seat action/thriller type film. But at its core it really is a drama. And I mean DRAMA. I have no problem with a film being a drama. Some of my favorite films are dramas. I guess what I was expecting from Free State of Jones was a drama with action/thriller elements. There is some of that, but too little of it. When the battle sequences are happening, your interest in the film really starts to spike up. You really think that this could turn into the intense heartthrob that the movie was trying to be. But the pace of the film is excruciatingly slow. The battle scenes are few and far between. There are some many scenes of dialogue that drag not because they are talking, but because the scene lasts for too long and the dialogue presented isn't all that important.
The film is 2 hours 20 minutes and because of this slow pace the film can feel extremely long and overwhelming at times. As I stated before, there is too much going on in this film. The timeline of the film spans for far too long, and there are some really strange flashbacks in the film that make you question why these scenes are even in the movie. The film answers your questions to these scenes, but in a way where you believe the film could have just done without those scenes and could've told you that from subtexts that pop up during the entirety of its runtime.
The story is fascinating, no doubt. It is a story that should be told. It is a film full of good intentions. Unfortunately, you aren't that emotionally invested in any of the characters to actually care. Newt Knight really just feels like a character that is just there to move the story along. He doesn't really do anything all that interesting aside from helping locals fight the corrupt government. Motivations weren't entirely clear with Newt, and though he had good intentions the fact that the film spans so many years of his life really doesn't help you get emotionally attached to this character.
Free State Of Jones had all the potential to be a great war epic and Oscar contender. But an excruciatingly slow pace, no emotional investment in characters and clunky storytelling spanning many years really bring the film down to conventionality. Free State Of Jones feels like a made-for- TV History channel movie starring big name actors. i give the movie credit for trying, but it fell a little flat for me.
I am giving Free State Of Jones a 6.4/10
Free State Of Jones is definitely a movie that had potential. It's concept and story about its real-life counterpart sounded fascinating, and the film really delivered with strong performances from Matt McConoughey and the entirety of its cast. But that's about it.
After a really riveting opening battle sequence, the film falls into conventionality and tries to balance so many stories all at once but fails at doing so. The film spans across 14 years and if the film had just stuck to one period instead of trying to squeeze so much out of it the film would've fared a lot better than it did. That opening battle sequence really sets up for a riveting, edge-of- your-seat action/thriller type film. But at its core it really is a drama. And I mean DRAMA. I have no problem with a film being a drama. Some of my favorite films are dramas. I guess what I was expecting from Free State of Jones was a drama with action/thriller elements. There is some of that, but too little of it. When the battle sequences are happening, your interest in the film really starts to spike up. You really think that this could turn into the intense heartthrob that the movie was trying to be. But the pace of the film is excruciatingly slow. The battle scenes are few and far between. There are some many scenes of dialogue that drag not because they are talking, but because the scene lasts for too long and the dialogue presented isn't all that important.
The film is 2 hours 20 minutes and because of this slow pace the film can feel extremely long and overwhelming at times. As I stated before, there is too much going on in this film. The timeline of the film spans for far too long, and there are some really strange flashbacks in the film that make you question why these scenes are even in the movie. The film answers your questions to these scenes, but in a way where you believe the film could have just done without those scenes and could've told you that from subtexts that pop up during the entirety of its runtime.
The story is fascinating, no doubt. It is a story that should be told. It is a film full of good intentions. Unfortunately, you aren't that emotionally invested in any of the characters to actually care. Newt Knight really just feels like a character that is just there to move the story along. He doesn't really do anything all that interesting aside from helping locals fight the corrupt government. Motivations weren't entirely clear with Newt, and though he had good intentions the fact that the film spans so many years of his life really doesn't help you get emotionally attached to this character.
Free State Of Jones had all the potential to be a great war epic and Oscar contender. But an excruciatingly slow pace, no emotional investment in characters and clunky storytelling spanning many years really bring the film down to conventionality. Free State Of Jones feels like a made-for- TV History channel movie starring big name actors. i give the movie credit for trying, but it fell a little flat for me.
I am giving Free State Of Jones a 6.4/10