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This looks like it's gonna be a good flick,
Matthew McConaughey has become a great actor


[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THt1qb47UsM&sns=em [/video]

I have been watching the previews during the Chiefs game this evening. Not sure what to make of it yet, but it may be worth the cost of a ticket and some popcorn.

Don't know the history, but is about jones county, ms.

Quick google

Interesting timing, of course, and a most convenient "enemy" and set of allies...

McConaughey is a good actor. He is, however, one of Hollyweirds liberal left wing nuts. And from the previews, looks like a well made "period" movie.
Also looks to me like another Yankey Revisionist attempt to re-write the history of the War of Northern Agression. But, of course, I wouldn't expect anything less from Hollyweird. YMMV.

The book written by Victoria Bynum was well worth the read.

Based on a true account!!

Jones County is the county next to me. Jones county was a poor backwater during the civil war. Newt Knight was a deserter from the Confederate army that went back to Jones county and hid out in the woods during the duration of the war. He and other deserters started raiding around the area and the confederate army sent an officer to investigate & quieten things down. Newt Knight shot him in the Deason house in Ellisville which made him a full on outlaw for the rest of the war. He organized the other deserters and basically took over Jones county, declaring that it seceded from the state of Mississippi. The free state of Jones thing is a nod to that, it's kind of a running joke around here that Jones county is it's own country because they seceded from Mississippi and never rejoined the state after Mississippi rejoined the union. Kind of like the Conch republic in Key West I guess.

Whether you consider him a hero or a not depends on your view of the war I guess. To the confederates he was a deserter and thief, to others he was some kind of anti-confederate hero and I'm sure that's how this movie will portray him. In reality I think the deserter and thief is more accurate.

They open up the Deason house every few years around Halloween because it's supposed to be haunted and supposedly you can still see the major's blood on the fireplace.

http://shutterintime.com/deason-house-ellisville-ms-1845/

I'll probably see it, but watching Matthew McConaughey is right on par with fingernails on a chalkboard.

I'll be watching for sure! Movie was filmed here in South Louisiana and my wife and son were background actors so I should be able to see them in multiple scenes. My son was part of the confederate soliders and my wife played a farmer lady. I saw my son in the preview but havent seen my bride yet! Elk

Here's a screen shot from the clip of my son running for his life!

Elk,, That's kinda neat.How did that come about?
Just advertise for stand ins?
(sorry ,not a hijack)

Yea it was posted on a New Orleans website NOLA.com.
They thought they would give it a try and really liked it. They have had extra parts in many movies and TV shows since then. Hollywood has several shows and movies going on down here most of the time.

That's pretty neat!

Pretty much all I know of it is from the book which was pretty good...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Free-State-Jones-Mississippis/dp/0807854670

...Jones County obviously housed a significant number of pro-Union folks, maybe even a majority when the war broke out, else Knight would not have been able to pull off what he did and not just live to tell about it but live to be an old man. No argument either that, whatever their other motivations were, the perception was that they were being drafted to fight a rich man's war.

Fortunate for Knight's crowd that the Confederacy was getting about bled dry and had but a limited ability to respond when things came to a head.

Might be one of Knight's problems with posterity was the fact that he openly practiced miscegenation, turns out even his White kids from his first marriage marrying Black folks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_Knight

Ya gotta wonder how that played out,even among his allies. It seems quite a lot of folks back then had ongoing relations with Black women and had kids, but usually some amount of social discretion was practiced.

A pity Knight ain't around to speak for himself.

Birdwatcher

Cool beans!

I expect the film company provided his uniforms and weapons for "Free State", looks like they used reenactors for some scenes tho.

Birdwatcher

Yea he probably worked 20 days or so on this movie and I think my wife probably had ttwice as many days and they always reported to wardrobe first thing every morning! He told me some of the old flintlocks were actual metal and wood while some that were way in the back of the scene were made of plastic. He told me that after running all day in all that gear shooting a scene over and over that the rifles were heavy as hell!

I watched the movie last night and I must say I thought it was a decent flick. It was very cool to see my son several times in solo shots on the screen. My wife had 3 different shots that I could see her face. It was a lot of fun!

OBTW the liberals are going to hate it! I'll not spoil it by saying why but it made me smile. I had read a terrible review from a very liberal writer that my wife showed me and I was really surprised by his take until I watched the flick last night!!!

Very cool!

No thanks. 90% of the time, movies today imbed political objectives in them. I don't watch movies now for that reason. And I am definately not going to spend my money to watch Hollywood's version of history, which is almost unanimously false and slanted hard left.

as supporter of, and a son of the Confederacy, I can hardly be thrilled about the problems caused by a mixed race, anti South group of nutters in Mississippi. As I have said before, we had enough problems with the damn blue bellies. A pox on 'em all, and on all of their decendents.

They've shot several movies here in NW Louisiana. They were advertising for local people to respond. I ran into one of the crew who suggested I apply as I had an "interesting face".
I didn't apply.

One of the girls I worked with did have a small part in the movie Steel Magnolias because she had an interesting face. Have noticed they've snipped her part out when its shown on TV.

I baby sat that little boy who road his bicycle around at the beginning of that movie. He's a doctor now.