Mississippi Burning (1988)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Alan Parker

Writer (WGA):

Chris Gerolmo (written by)

Release Date:

27 January 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

1964. When America was at war with itself.

Plot:

Two FBI agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.

Plot Keywords:

FBI | Sheriff | Mississippi | Murder | Killer Cop

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 15 wins & 16 nominations

Cast

Gene Hackman	...	Agent Rupert Anderson
Willem Dafoe	...	Agent Alan Ward
Frances McDormand	...	Mrs. Pell
Brad Dourif	...	Deputy Clinton Pell
R. Lee Ermey	...	Mayor Tilman
Gailard Sartain	...	Sheriff Ray Stuckey
Stephen Tobolowsky	...	Clayton Townley
Michael Rooker	...	Frank Bailey
Pruitt Taylor Vince	...	Lester Cowans
Badja Djola	...	Agent Monk
Kevin Dunn	...	Agent Bird
Frankie Faison	...	Eulogist
Tom Mason	...	Judge
Geoffrey Nauffts	...	Goatee
Rick Zieff	...	Passenger

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:18 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Braxton, Mississippi, USA

Company:

Orion Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Don Johnson campaigned heavily for the role that went to Willem Dafoe.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In one shot during the attempted lynching of Vertis Williams, the "noose" becomes detached on one side and flops from his neck while he is suspended in the air.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Driver: Uh, oh.
Passenger: What is it?
Passenger: [seeing the car behind them] What do they want?
Driver: I don't know... just pass me... pass me...
Driver: [trying to identify the following car] Is it a cop?
Passenger: I can't see.
[they are hit from behind]
Driver: What the fuck are these jokers playin' at?
Rear passenger: Oh, they ain't playin', you better believe it.
[they are hit again]
Passenger: What're we gonna do?
Driver: I don't know... OK, hold on, you guys.
[he veers to a side road]
Passenger: There's a truck, too.
[the car behind them turns on its roof light]
Driver: Shit, it *is* a cop.
Passenger: Better stop.
Driver: OK, sit tight, you guys. Don't say anything; let me talk... All right? We'll be all right; just relax.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Atomic Brain (#6.18)" (1993)

Soundtrack:

Making Believe

Maybe a bit too much of a film but still enjoyable

When three young civil rights workers (two white and one black) going missing in the deep south of America, the FBI send two agents in to investigate. Liberal young agent Ward and cynical local agent Anderson both approach the case in different ways, however both come up against a wall of silence and racism which seems to go all the way through the community, making their task near impossible.

What do I mean when I say this is a bit too much of a film? Well, the issues, history and settings here are all semi-factual and therefore should be quite an interesting film that attacks the heart. Instead however, it is a thriller type film – and this becomes more and more evident as it goes on. The final 30 minutes set aside themes and discussion and go right for a thriller climax with enjoyable touches. However it does lose sight of the issues, although, in fairness, it didn't have too good a grasp on them in the first place.

The film never really sets out to do much more than paint the community as racist – and it does it rather too easily. All the white racists are painted as inbred and monstrous (I'm not complaining!) while the black characters are all pretty much a silent group of extras. I understand why the film did it this way, as to allow development of characters on both sides would have caused the thriller side of it to become baggier and less effective. As it is, the broad strokes still work because I don't think many of us need to really be convinced that such racism is tolerable: it's easier just to cut out the debate in a thriller.

The plot is pretty good and does paint the black situation pretty well. It works best as a thriller though and early attempts to show the divide and so on are slowly moved to the back burner in favour of thriller touches. Aside from a total lack of black characters and a tendency just to pigeon hole the white characters, the cast do a reasonable job, with plenty of well known faces. Dafoe is good in the lead, despite being a little too wide-eyed for a FBI agent in charge of a major case. Also, watching it now, it's funny at times because he sounds very like Agent Smith when he says `Mr Anderson'. Hackman overplays to good effect and he steals almost every scene he is in, although his romancing of McDormand is a little drawn out. The support cast includes some reasonable turns from well-known faces including Dourif, Ermey and Tobolowsky.

Overall this film has a reputation for being a quite powerful issue film. However it reality it is more a thriller which uses this setting of racial hatred as it's background and driver, rather than looking into it as a debate. In fairness, it doesn't suffer for this and is actually an enjoyable film, which also serves as a reminder of a very common situation only a few short years ago.