The History of Jones County (2016 Video) User Reviews

Difficult subject, but they're not really making it work

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 2 December 2018]

"The History of Jones County" is an 18-minute documentary short film from 2016 and a little add-on to "Free State of Jones", a recent movie starring Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey. It is a historic film based on an actual character and this short we got here gives us an insight with the help of interviews about the people depicted in said movie. I read that the feature film bombed at the box office and I can see why. The subject is so bleak, so specific that it is probably really only interesting to American historians and those related to the people in this documentary or the place where it all happens. So yes it was a huge challenge to make this work and make it appealing to audiences, but still there have been more hopeless projects in the past where it worked out somehow. For this one here it doesn't and it's not only the subject to blame, but also the filmmakers who came short in their attempts to make it an interesting watch and my opinion is that you should really skip this documentary unless you truly enjoyed the MMcC film. And even then, especially if you did so for the actor, there is a good chance you will see virtually nothing of value in this add-on. So yeah, there is nothing wrong with production values or the idea itself here, but I never found it an interesting watch and give it a thumbs-down. My suggestion is to watch something else instead.