This is a movie about an unknown but important person in history who lived during the Civil War, Newton Knight. The story behind this film right from the start reminds all of us who live in this country how horrible the Civil War was and how difficult it was after the Civil War for this country to get past those horrible years where Americans killed other Americans.

The opening scene of “The Free State of Jones” depicts a Civil War battle and demonstrates the stupidity of how they use to fight in the 1800’s, which was essentially a line of young men marching slowly into oncoming gunfire and cannon explosions to their death. There were tactical reasons for fighting like this in those days, starting with the inaccuracy of weapons in the 1800’s, but watching battles like this that are so stupid and barbaric can at times be extremely hard to watch. The good news is that after this initial scene there are not too many battle scenes like this in the rest of the film, although there is a scene in a field hospital and the cutting off of limbs and a great deal of blood. All movies about the Civil War have to include scenes like this because to exclude the reality of a horrible war disrespects the many tens of thousands of young men who gave their lives during the worst period in this countries history.

“Free State of Jones” was the name for a group of freed slaves and deserters that were started by Newton Knight that over time grew to a great number of people who defended themselves against a Confederate army that was trying to arrest them and hang them for desertion. Eventually, this organization took the name Jones which was the county in Mississippi where the organization started. At one time The Free State of Jones was considered a county with no country as both the Confederate and Union armies refused to recognize them. This movie also includes a back-story 85 years in the future where a great-grandson of Newton was fighting to have the state not prosecute him for marrying a white woman because he contained a small percentage of black blood due to Newton Knights union with a black woman many years earlier. It’s always disheartening to see in any movie about the history of this country, the extreme bigotry in the backward attitudes most especially in the south towards black people and interracial relationships.

Matthew McConaughey does an excellent job playing Newton Knight in this film and he might get an academy award nomination for this important Civil War story that most people never knew about. I highly recommend this film.

The movie “The Legend of Tarzan” violates a fundamental rule of action adventure movies. It was boring, very boring. This film has many flashbacks to different parts of the life of Tarzan as a boy, when he met Jane, where he became a member of a tribe of gorilla’s and other than this, the entire movie was about Jane played by Margot Robbie getting kidnapped by some wealthy gold smuggler​ played by Christoph​ Waltz and Tarzan played by Alexander Skarsgard and his friend, played by Samuel L. Jackson chasing after them. This is not a story or really a movie, it was a waste of 2 hours and special effects mostly involving the Gorilla’s. Anybody who sees this movie would agree that there should be much more to this movie and the viewer would have that opinion going in, mainly because of the trailers which make the film seem far more interesting. But it was not. This film was just plain boring and too long and should be missed.

The movie Flash of Genius, which came out in 2008 represents some of the best reasons why we go to the movies and in this case the true and amazing story of how two major car companies Chrysler and Ford went out of their way to steal a great invention from a genius inventor is a great story that just had to be told.

Almost nobody has ever heard about Robert Kerns, he is the inventor of many things but most famous for the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper that was filed with the US Patent Office on December 1, 1964. The idea for this invention came to him because he was blind in one eye to to of all things a cork from a wine bottle. He thought while driving that wouldn’t it be great if a windshield wiper worked like the human eyelid. This invention came to him in 1964 and after Ford and Chrysler stole his idea which was patented it took until 1978 and 1982 before the patent infringement cases started in court! The fact that it took this long is both a tribute to his perseverance and the outrageous delays of the court process where a company can file continuances for years to avoid paying the penalty for stealing another persons idea right out from under them. After almost 20 long years of legal battles and delays, Kern’s finally won his lawsuit, eventually getting paid 30 million from Crysler and 10 million from Ford Motor company. Along the way, he alienated all his friends and was divorced from his wife due to the stress and pressure of all those years of fighting this incredible injustice. As far as other people telling a man like this to just “get over it” or “move on”, all I can say is – “walk a mile in my shoes”. I am one person who fully understands what Kern’s went through and also understands how nobody else can really understand what its like to live with injustice at this level for that many years. This movie also shows what companies can do to individuals because they have unlimited funds and they know the ordinary person filing the lawsuit does not.

Due to the many delays for almost half of Kern’s life he had several mental breakdowns, eventually dying of brain cancer which was caused complications with Alzheimer’s.

This movie was well acted by Greg Kinnear who played Robert Kerns and his wife who was played by Lauren Graham

This movie is about a great story from history and should be seen.