Mississippi Burning (1988)

Directed by Alan Parker. With Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif. Two F.B.I. Agents, with wildly different styles, arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.

Mississippi Burning is a 1988 American crime thriller film directed by Alan Parker. The script by Chris Gerolmo is loosely based on the 1964 Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner murder investigation in Mississippi.

Mississippi Burning is an all-names-changed dramatization of the Ku Klux Klan's murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. Investigating the mysterious disappearances of the three activists are FBI agents Gene Hackman (older, wiser) and Willem Dafoe (younger, idealistic). A Southerner himself, Hackman charms and cajoles his way through the tight-lipped residents of a dusty Mississippi town while Dafoe acts upon the evidence gleaned by his partner. Hackman solves the case by exerting his influence upon beauty-parlor worker Frances McDormand, who wishes to exact revenge for the beatings inflicted upon her by her Klan-connected husband Brad Dourif. Many critics took the film to task for its implication that the Civil Rights movement might never have gained momentum without its white participants; nor were the critics happy that the FBI was shown to utilize tactics as brutal as the Klan's. The title Mississippi Burning is certainly appropriate: nearly half the film is taken up with scenes of smoke and flame.

NY Times

Alex von Tunzelmann: Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman star as FBI agents who crack a 1964 conspiracy of racist murderers – without any help from the activists who played such a vital role at this time

Before I get into this, I want to make mention “A FILM TO REMEMBER” will be a series about films that have reached a milestone anniversary since their origin

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Mississippi Burning THE MAKING OF THE FILM BY ALAN PARKER In the concluding scene of Mississippi Burning, as Lannie McBride and the congregation stand amon

Mississippi Burning summary of box office results, charts and release information and related links.

Film locations for Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning (1988), in Mississippi and Alabama.

Movie review by Andrea Beach, Common Sense Media