Customer Reviews

Mississippi Burning

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have read reviews of Mississippi Burning that range from waxing poetic about its power to those that despise its use of disturbing images to elicite an "autonomic response" of disgust and anger from the audience. Having viewed the movie several times, I realize that the latter's claims are not entirely without merit. That being said, Mississippi Burning is one of my favorite movies.

I don't know much about the situation in the South before the present day. For that matter, I don't know much about it now. I have no idea if things were as bad as they were portrayed in the movie. Having seen pictures of lynchings, though, as well as the festival-like atmosphere that accompanied them, I can't imagine that the film was too far off base. The atmosphere of fear and hate that pervades the film is almost visible. It's hard to imagine anyone being able to survive it with their humanity intact.

Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as the two FBI agents are an interesting study in contrasts. Hackman, as a former Good Ol' Boy sheriff, sees stublety and patience as the necessary tools to solve the three civil rights workers' disappearances. Dafoe, as a Kennedy recruit from the Justice Department, sees an intense show of federal strength and sheer investigative force as the way to go. Dafoe is an idealist, Hackman is a realist. The one thing they have in common is a disgust for the way blacks are treated in the South. I must admit I found Hackman's performance more convincing than Dafoe's, perhaps because his was a more complex character. A product of two worlds, one of racism and one of unity, his must not have been an easy life. And of course, Frances McDormand is brilliant as the long-suffering wife of a Klan member/Sheriff's deputy. She is disgusted with what's going on with blacks in her town, but cannot do anything about it. Her sense of fear and entrapment in a prison of hate have a claustrophobic feel to them that is palpable.

I do wish the movie hadn't used quite so many stereotypes in its potrayals of secondary characters, particularly blacks. I don't think there was a single scene in the movie that didn't show blacks as being the victims of some hate crime or other. It got so bad I couldn't see a black face without getting nervous for his or her continued good health. Surely *someone* in the black community decided to say "enough is enough"?

Also, the idea that everyone in Mississippi was (a) in the KKK, (b) black, or (c) a passive, approving bystander is an injustice to human nature. Situations are always more complex than they seem, and this one was no different, I'm sure. Oh well, it's not entirely the director's fault. He only had two hours.

This movie understands racism, is able to dig into the wellspring of hatred and sniveling and air it to the world. I've never been able to completely comprehend racism on anything other than an intellectual level. That it existed, I never had any doubt, but it's one thing to know it, but it's something else to really *know* it. And once you do know it, it's like staring in a funhouse mirror. You can see the image, but you're unable to force the shape you see into the shape you *think* should be there. This movie provides you with that gut abilty.

this one follows into a southern down when 3 activist boys, i black, 2 white, dissapear one night and 2 federal agents from the north, Gene Hackman(Behind Enemy Lines, Bonnie and Clyde) and Willem Dafoe(Shadow Of The Vampire, Once Upon A Time In Mexico) come down ad investigate, only to be pulled into the hate of the town their in...and also Hackman was once a member of that town also. fits in with some pretty intense scenes...though the acting is really superb and well done and the end where the bad guys get what they deserve is good as well. also starring, R. Lee Ermey(Saving Silverman, Dead Man Walking), Brad Dourif(The Two Towers, NightWatch), Frances McDormand(Fargo, Blood Simple), Pruitt Taylor Vince(Trapped, Identity), Kevin Dunn(Snake Eyes, Stir Of Echoes), Badja Djola(An Innocent Man, The Last Boy Scout), Rick Zieff(Drop Zone, tv's Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and Michael Rooker(Replicant, The 6th Day). this is a movie not to be missed if your a Hackman fan..Hackman delivers a solid and outstanding performance and so does Dafoe as usual

I remember watching this movie in a Florida movie theater when it first came out (I was stationed at Orlando Naval Base back then). Watching the movie was an overwhelming emotional experience, and many scenes shook me to the core with their raw emotional power. Mississippi Burning is THE definitive movie about the atmosphere of racism and violence that pervaded the Civil Rights era, with its dead on accurate portrayal and recreation of a small 60's Southern town. We get to intimately know the kinds of places where 3 young men, or any individuals interested in the plight of the oppressed, might disappear or get killed in the 60's South. We understand what it was like to be Black and live in such a divided society. Most important, we know that evil racism has no logical explanation save for the fact that it is taught and learned from one generation to the next.

This movie has been unfairly and recklessly attacked by overeager movie critics and experts on social affairs, all of whom feel guilty about praising such an important and powerful piece of film making (they don't DARE want to be called racist for praising the film!).

The most common criticism is that this movie doesn't have any strong Black characters. This is absolutely false. There are several strong Black characters in this movie. There is a scene where a Black preacher gives a strong condemnation about the killings of the young men. There are several scenes with a brave young Black child, deeply religious, who somehow manages to find courage amongst his tears and fright (in one exceptional scene, he doesn't run away during a Klan disruption of a church gathering, instead, he kneels and prays). And in the most controversial and powerful scene in the entire movie, a strong Black father (father of the previously mentioned young boy), fed up with the racists, goes out into the night with a shotgun shouting that he will not take this abuse anymore.

The other major criticism is that the movie focuses on White characters. This is not valid. I do certainly agree that many Hollywood movies tend to center the action around White actors, even if the story is about minorities (i.e., Come See the Paradise, Windtalkers, etc. etc.) However, this is one case where it was absolutely necessary for the story to be seen through the eyes of two White FBI agents. The two White agents (Gene Hackman in one of the greatest movie performances of all time) represent the opposite spectrum of the evil Southern racists. Just as the Southerners see the world in their segregated view, the two FBI agents see the world in their enlightened and open view, and in fact they stand for many White people that not only gave their lives for the cause of Civil Rights, but made their voices heard and actions seen so that segregation would one day end. The Civil Rights era is as much a story about White Americans as it is Black Americans, so I applaud the filmmakers for being courageous about this.

I recently watched the DVD version and it affected me as much as when I first saw it, and I make it a point to see several times a year. There are scenes that are so heartbreaking they will leave you in tears, and moments of beauty and power so self assured that you know you are watching a masterpiece that will one day stand the test of time. This movie is required viewing for all of the youth in America today, many of whom are clueless as to the Civil Rights period (and others simply do not care).

This film deals with an event that is absolutely essential in 1956 and for our history. Three civil-rights-militants are killed by a local group of KKK members led by a deputy sheriff in some country in Mississippi. The FBI is called into the investigation, eventually finds the bodies, but a wave of violence is unleashed on the county, mainly against blacks. The historical question is to know whether the FBI involvement was decided to curtail the surging civil-rights movement or to encourage it. The main question is whether this civil-rights movement could be contained or if it was the expression of a deep contradiction in the American society that had come to the point of ripening that made it unavoidable, invincible. The film does not answer those two questions, and actually does not give a proper image of the FBI efforts. It is too quick and too superficial. But it shows the impact of such an event on the American psyche. For the first time in history several Klan members were arrested, tried and convicted of murders and other crimes with extremely strict sentences, even if for those crimes in some other conditions the sentences would have been a lot heavier including the death penalty. That was a no-return point that contained in itself the registration of Blacks on the voting lists and the victory of Kennedy some time later. After this event the American society could only move towards a multiracial democracy, even if there were some setbacks, assassinations and other terrorist attacks, and if it was delayed along the way. The key was contained in this particular event : the alliance between the Blacks and some progressive Whites. When this alliance became strong enough to impose its voice to be listened to, progress became irreversible. 1956 was an essential year in the history of the US, just as it was an essential year in the history of the Soviet Union and East-European countries. It was an essential year when democracy became something finally true for everyone. And it will take more that forty years for this to start becoming true all over the world. The task is not yet finished.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This movie, touches the hearts of even the people with the coldest hearts. The struggle couloured, and non-christian people had to deal with in The 60's. I think Gene Hackman is fantastic, and Dafoe is good as the stick-to-the-rule-book cop! All in all even though this film is very good, I gave it "3 Stars" because some aspects of the film are unbelivable, but all in all (a disturbing) but excelent movie to watch!

"Mississippi Burning" is one of the great American crime movies. It's alive, provocative, intelligent and filled with incredible realism seldom seen in typical crime pictures. It is also one of the best portraits of the racial climate in America, especially in the South, in the 60s. Director Alan Parker (Midnight Express, Evita) does not direct a chicken-job here and indeed shows an unrestrained look at the realities of the story. He also has a great, gritty visual style here in the photography that gives the movie a better sense of the atmosphere in the story. The screenplay is gripping because of the suspense in scenes of dialogue between characters, and the tension in the mystery. The performances are also great. Willem Dafoe has an authoritative edge and Gene Hackman comes off as a guy who's seen it all. The characters are also sharply drawn and feel real, the entire movie feels real and has some scenes that could have come out of a documentary. "Mississippi Burning" also reveals truths about the air-headedness of racism and how ugly and violent racist views can become, in a way it shows how racism can cause decay in a society. But this is not just a historical lesson, "Mississippi Burning" is a red-blooded, gritty police drama that also dissects the workings of crime and the people who conspire in crime. You get your money's worth because Parker has made an important film about racism in the 60s, yes, but also has packaged it as an entertaining, gut-wrenching thriller with unpredicatble twists and turns, hateful villains and driven men trying to solve a crime. This is a great movie that deserves more than one viewing.

One person who reviewed this film asked the question, "where are the black voices?" I think there were black voices in this film. The problem is that those voices were weak, cowardly and ineffectual. It's as if black southerners had no part in the struggle for their own freedom. Freedom and equal rights could only be obtained by the good will of northern whites and the united states government. In some way this white liberal racist attitude isn't much better than the low life klansmen.

The best way to view this movie is from the perspective of good versus evil. Good does win out and the evil klan is brought to justice. That does mean something. The production is good and the performances are too. Gene hackman gives an oscar caliber performance and willem defoe is convincing. Certainly an entertaining film but it doesn't reach it's potential as a great film.

...............socks

Like "JFK" and "Murder in the First," MB shows us how the phrase "basedon/inspiredby a true story" REALLY means "at most maybe 2% of this story is true, and the rest is BS."

Before you say that it doesn't really matter if a film like MB doesn't stick as closely to the facts as it could have, consider this: if you read the rest of the reviews of this movie, or of the other two mentioned above, you will find about half of the time, it is quite clear that people are getting their history from such films. Time and again, reviewers repeat the demonstrably false statements made on the back of the box or that come from the film's press kit.

The reason this matters is simple. When one adapts a book for a screenplay -- an art in itself -- one has to make certain changes due to the fact that each media has its own unique limitations. The important thing, then, is not so much faithfulness to the literal text, but faithfulness to the SUBTEXT and SPIRIT of the original material. However, if you're going to base a film on real events and people, it is vitally important to get the essential facts straight! The post-modern notion that "mythic truth" (see "JFK") is more important than historical facts is right out of George Orwell's "1984"!

Aside from the fact that the story is almost entirely populated by liberal Hollywood stereotypes, it misses the mark on this important point. The case was not broken by clever investigative techniques, contrary to what Hoover would have us believe. But neither was the case broken by Gestapo tactics, as depicted in the film. It was broken by bribing one of the participants to "rat out" his fellow conspirators!

I could have given this film four stars IF it had fictionalized itself to the point of NOT trying to reference itself as basedon/inspiredby "a true story."

When I saw this film in Milwaukee the summer of its release, I was one of only maybe a dozen or two people in the audience. In one scene, after taking one of the killers on a car ride and tricking him into giving them information, the FBI agents drop him off in the black part of town. As they drive off, he looks around nervously at all the residents who are eyeing him with suspicion and curiosity. A half-dozen rows behind me, a black teenage boy shouted out, "Get him!" Maybe he was just making a bad joke in poor taste. Maybe he didn't stop to think how his comments might sound to others in the audience. Maybe he even meant me. But maybe it should be obvious by now why this sort of propagandistic film-making is dangerous. I also can't help thinking how many white supremacists who know how far from the truth this film is in some places have been further confirmed in their racist views by the fact that film-makers felt they had to lie to make their point....

Parker, Hackman, and Defoe are all talented people, but when they lend their talents to an effort such as this, are they really any different from Leni Riefenstahl...?

I never needed Hollywood to tell me that racism is wrong. And I'm sick and tired of being presumed guilty of racism until I can prove I'm a liberal Democrat and a card-carrying member of the ACLU. Telling the TRUE story -- let's say, at least 90% true -- of what happened in MB would be a far more compelling film, as well as a far more persuasive argument against racism. Instead, we are treated to the usual Hollywood sterotype that the problem of racism is strictly a matter of non-liberal whites oppressing their black moral superiors. And so, in the end, the film actually manages to do more to help perpetuate the cycle of racism than expose or defuse it.

The solution is simple, people: treat each and every individual as an individual, and not as a member of any group, and without any preconceived notions about characteristics which the individual has not yet displayed.

If it had actually happened the way it was depicted in the film, "Mississippi Burning" would be more deserving of the accolades that some reviewers have heaped upon it. But, at the risk of being labeled "politically incorrect" myself, I must give MB only one star, precisely because the film itself is "politically correct."

A gripping account of a troubled period. Would have preferred the prime focus to be on the actual events and characters involved, rather than the subsequent FBI investigation and its investigators. Would also have preferred the real names of people and places be used, although that was not possible due to ongoing litigation..

I know that this movie has recieved critisism for not accuratley portraying what actually went on but in my opinion you can't deny the fact that it is still a great film. The actors of the film gave amazing performances and the film itself from beginning to end was incredibly moving. Wether the movie is lacking accurate portrayls or not it can't be denied that this movie takes your breath away every time you watch it, at least for me.