I saw this yesterday and was pleased with it. I will not include any spoilers, at least anything that isn't in the official trailer. I'll tackle the history geek stuff first.
The opening battle scene was pretty good. There was obvious fear on the faces of the troops advancing. When the Union artillery opened up with canister, there where no large explosions in Confederate ranks, just groups of soldiers going down 4 or 5 at a time. That's better than I'm used to. The hospital was pretty gory, apparently using amputees with prosthetic limbs.
Rear area Confederate troops tend to be more uniform than those seen at the front. That strikes me as right.
One thing that irked me in the trailer is the ambush at the funeral. The real ambush was more prosaic, as Confederate troops forded a creek. That is the most Hollywood thing in the film, more like something from a Mel Gibson film.
All in all, the history was about as good as you can expect from a large budget Hollywood film. It was nearly up to the high bar set by Lincoln.
The film portrays Knight as a good guy and the Confederate Home Guards and tax collectors as bad guys, not unlike Cold Mountain. If that will ruin your day, don't see this. But I was pleased. Matthew McConaughey turns in his usual fine performance. I find his monologues at the Oscars and Saturday Night Live to be excruciating but the man can act.
While not perfect, this film covers the anti-Confederate resistance during the Civil War and Reconstruction. The only other films I can recall that cover reconstruction are Gone With the Wind, where the heroes go out night-riding against the "ruffians" and the original Birth of a Nation where the KKK triumphs at the end, with even the horses draped in sheets.
The director has put up a website with footnotes and explains what is fiction and what is based on fact freestateofjones.info
