10 Years Ago, Matthew McConaughey Fought for Freedom in This Divisive War Western

Hollywood has often fallen into the trap of romanticizing the Confederacy, whether it’s the literal romanticism of Gone with the Wind or the profoundly racist propaganda of The Birth of a Nation. That’s part of what motivated original Hunger Games director Gary Ross to make Free State of Jones (as reported by /Film), a movie about a real-life anti-Confederate rebellion during and after the Civil War with Matthew McConaughey in the lead. It all sounds good in theory, but it didn’t end up working out.

Free State of Jones has an okay 48 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a solid 64 percent from regular people, which don’t seem like factors that would lead to it having a disastrous legacy. However, the movie only made about $25 million at the box office worldwide from a reported $50 million budget, which is pretty unfortunate. And this was summer of 2016, pre-election, so you would’ve thought audiences would be a little more interested in a movie about Matthew McConaughey taking on the Confederacy — but therein lies the key problem with Free State of Jones.

What was Matthew McConaughey’s ‘Free State of Jones’ about?

Based on the story of a man named Newton Knight, Free State of Jones is about a soldier in the Confederate Army who grows disillusioned with his nascent secessionist nation when he realizes that the whole operation is pretty racist and disinterested in the actual well-being of its citizens. He eventually goes on the run and starts working with former slaves and abolitionists in Jones County, Mississippi to resist the Confederate army. They form together as “the Free State of Jones,” pledge their intentions to rejoin the United States, and try to hold out against the Confederacy.

In addition to McConaughey, the film stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell, and Mahershala Ali. Also, Ross had just come off of The Hunger Games and the Oscar-nominated horse biopic Seabiscuit, both of which would be impressive notches in anyone’s belt. Free State of Jones seemed like it could’ve been a safe hit, with a star-studded cast and a triumphant pro-American story (assuming you think of the Confederacy as the bad guys…), but — as previously mentioned — it very much was not.

Why was ‘Free State of Jones’ a flop?

Free State of Jones was designed to reject the narrative that the Confederacy was great and everyone there was happy until some unimportant stuff happened, and then they gleefully rejoined the U.S. government. But, despite being based on a real guy who really did those things, the movie was met with allegations that it promoted a “white savior” narrative — which is to say that it’s about a white guy who comes in and saves the day for non-white people (see also: Dune, which is something of a deconstruction of the trope). Reviews from the time specifically called this out, which likely contributed to the movie’s unpopularity at the box office.

The critical callouts about this being a “white savior” movie are especially notable since Ross specifically said he structured the movie in such a way to avoid that. In the same /Film story where he talked about developing the movie, Ross said he chose not to use a “happy ending” because “we all know there wasn’t a happy ending” and that telling a version of the story with one would’ve made it a “white savior movie.” He said he’d “rather tell the truth than give people a false happy ending or some false satisfaction.” So it was probably disappointing that the film was criticized for it anyway.