I mentioned in my A Time to Kill review that many movies came out in the 80s and 90s that all seemed to be about what white people did for Civil Rights in the 60s in a way that suggested African Americans did little if anything to make their own lives better. Mississippi Burning is very much in that mold and was heavily criticized for it upon its release in 1988. It did receive a good amount of critical acclaim, but as history, it’s a flawed story. The filmmakers do appear to have known that, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is not an accurate representation of history, and quite frankly, the last scene struck me as a little forced.
But beyond that, I do prefer to judge a movie on its artistic basis and not its historical accuracy. How was it?
After three civil rights workers, two white and one black, disappear somewhere in small town Mississippi, the FBI dispatches agents Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) and Alan Ward (Willem Defoe) down to investigate. Anderson is older, a former small town Southern sheriff himself, and his views on race are not really expressed verbally, but he knows how these small towns in the South operates and disagrees with Ward’s methods. Ward is younger, the senior investigator, and a true believer in civil rights for African Americans. He’s also from the north, so he doesn’t really know how these things work. His answer to most issues seems to be to keep calling for reinforcements and being as big a presence in the town as possible despite how little the locals seem to want the feds around. Anderson, by contrast, seems to know who to talk to and when, even when they don’t always want to talk back. He finds particular success with a young beautician, Mrs. Pell (Frances McDormand), wife to Deputy Clinton Pell (Brad Dourif) of the town police department. The Klan isn’t exactly in hiding out here, and the resulting media storm doesn’t make the locals any more likely to be cooprerative.
Then the FBI finds the bodies, and it goes from a disappearance to a murder investigation, one where the white residents will harass and beat a black man for the crime of saying nothing to Ward when asked questions in the middle of a crowded restaurant. Granted, the movie did show the three victims getting shot after being pulled over by a traffic cop, so the murder part wasn’t that surprising. Ward’s methods don’t work because he’s too by the book and loud. Anderson’s methods don’t work because he’s working alone even with dozens of agents working on the case. Can these two put their heads together and solve the case?
Now, to be clear, this movie is as stated not historically accurate. It didn’t even keep the names of the real figures involved. So, how does it work as a film? Not bad. It does depict the horrors of racism in its ugliest form, one where any threat to the status quo, even coming from a white woman, could be met with a viscous reprisal. Hackman does his thing where he plays a character that clearly has layers he’s not showing. Defoe does do obsessive single-mindedness well. That said, the real stand-out may be McDormand. She doesn’t get the same screentme as the two lead actors, and there’s a bevy of familiar character actors faces all throughout the movie, but what she gets, she makes the most of. It’s not that surprising she’s a multi-Oscar winner with performances like this one.
That said, the ending did feel a bit pat to me. Yes, the movie does end in a way to suggest the struggle for Civil Rights was not one in vain, and even as many of the racist men of the town are sent away to prison in the end for their part in the case, it didn’t exactly solve the problem of racism in America. So, the movie ends with a way to say that people back then weren’t all bad. It’s the sort of ending the filmmakers might have thought it needed, but at the same time, it’s also one that says the bad times were behind everybody once a few bad guys went away. And, credit where its due, the movie does acknowledge that J Edgar Hoover wasn’t exactly a friend to the Civil Rights Movement. But final act aside, I did find this a compelling movie. But it won’t bother me if I never see it again.
Grade: B
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