tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4685634083080876125.post7407811273303759505..comments2023-11-03T07:24:19.298+00:00Comments on Film Intel: Half-cocked 'epicness' and unfulfilled ambition in Free State Of JonesSam Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05696602364349746693noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4685634083080876125.post-50168464885477104082017-07-25T14:07:35.861+01:002017-07-25T14:07:35.861+01:00Really interesting points Sadie and I accept some ...Really interesting points Sadie and I accept some of those as considered positives, which I failed to pick out - thank you for bothering to leave it; you have certainly made me think further about the film.<br /><br />I think there's a decent amount there that reflects some of my points though. Addressing the fact that the Free State was a socialist system, for example, is touched on in the film, but not to the degree that I would argue that subject warrants. Ditto the wider presence of Southerners within the Union. Perhaps I'm being too critical, but my point was that the film is in position to address all of that... but instead pays much of it lip service.<br /><br />Perhaps the film can or should be seen as a 'starters guide to...' rather than 'definitive history of...'. I can see how that could be a positive, but for me the latter is a loftier target and precisely where the film fails to get to.Sam Turnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05696602364349746693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4685634083080876125.post-63080344803985064902017-07-21T23:51:27.221+01:002017-07-21T23:51:27.221+01:00If you read the reviews of critics, Free State of ...If you read the reviews of critics, Free State of Jones was (for them) a disappointing film which concentrated on a real-life character who was white, rather than a composite, fictional character who was black. Which would have been a whole other film.<br /><br />If you read the assessment of both African-American and white historians, it is essential viewing dealing as it does with Southern Unionists (there were 100,000 Southerners who crossed over to fight for the Union, there were Union strongholds throughout the South - Free State of Jones being the one with the most dramatic possibilities probably). And it addresses Reconstruction a tragic period which was last presented in DW Griffith's pro-KKK film Birth of a Nation.<br /><br />And the vast majority of critics seemed unaware that the Free State was a socialist society with both racial and gender equality.<br /><br />The filmmaker chose to honor historians and not film critics. I think he saw the film as destined to be played in high school American history classes rather than in multiplexes.Sadiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10731214973099936744noreply@blogger.com