I can’t think of many Hollywood movies of the Civil War which have been either accurate or particularly meaningful. What historian Gary Gallagher called “the feminist anti-war movie” Cold Mountain may have been the worst of recent vintage. Or maybe I’m just hard to please.
Well, Los Angeles is going to take another shot (so to speak) with a new flicker about (perhaps) how the Civil War divided not only contemporary families but the entire State of Mississippi, as signified by defiant, Union-loving Jones County, which is north of Hattiesburg in southeastern Mississippi.
“Deadline.com and Variety Magazine have announced that the long anticipated movie ‘Free State of Jones’ is the works—just eight years after Universal Studios bought the rights to my book from the University of North Carolina Press,” writes historian Victoria Bynum.
“This being the movies, I won’t likely see the [renegade leader] Newt Knight that I ‘know,’ but I do hope that I like the one that I see,” she concluded.
I wouldn’t bet on it. But you never know. If they can just avoid hiring too many over-fed, porky reenactors, that would help.
Via Poore Boys In Gray.
13TH MISSISSIPPI INFANTRY REGIMENT 
I learned long ago that movies are about entertainment. Movie makers want to tell an engaging story and evoke emotions. If you want facts and truth, look elsewhere. It will be interesting to see what Hollywood does with this story. At the very least, it may make people curious enough to look more deeply into the subject…
I too have not been impressed with recent movies about the War Between the States. I however, did like the movie Cold Mountain. My reasons for liking the movie wasn’t for it’s historical factor, it was more for the story line. My knowledge of the war prior to researching my ancestors Civil War records and my joining the United Daughter’s of the Confederacy was very limited. But after doing this research on my ancestors during the war, the reality of this war for all was beyond anything I could ever imagine. I was eager to find out more about the battles they were involved in and what life was like for them prior to the war. I really think we are expecting too much from Hollywood. So far I haven’t seen a movie which depicts the South during the war accurately. For the most part the movies I have seen were written from a Northern point of view. Thanks for making us aware of a potential new movie on the horizon. I love your blog.
Thanks for the comment, Linda. Your IP address (available to blog hosts) indicates you are from the area where Cold Mountain took place and probably was filmed. That might have helped your interest. 😉
The flickers generally flog certain, usually leftist, points of view. Since, among other things, Knight’s second wife was a former slave, I expect they won’t be able to resist rewriting this one to suit their politics.