# Mississippi Burning (1988)

### reviewed by
David Alba, Jr

                                 MISSISSIPPI BURNING
                           A film review by David Alba, Jr.
                            Copyright 1989 David Alba, Jr.

Imagine if you will; One night three men are driving in a car, and three cars begin to follow them. The men are worried, then they see a police light, and they pull over wondering what they had done. The officer gets out, and walks over to the stopped car. The driver rolls down the window, then the officer shoots him, point blank in the head. The officers then proceed to kill the other two men in the car. Pretty gruesome story isn't it??

Well, what you just read happens to be the opening scene for the film MISSISSIPPI BURNING. As horrifying as that story is, it is only a small fraction of all the racial fear and hatred that existed in the small town of Jessup, Mississippi in 1964. Those three men, it just so happens were civil rights activists.

Two FBI agents arrive in Jessup to investigate the disappearance of the three activists. After meeting the sheriff they inquire about the three men. The sheriff tells them a story that they don't believe. The two agents Ward and Anderson (played superbly by Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman respectively) decide to follow bureau procedure and question some residents of Jessup. The agents are surprised to see that the town is so racially segregated. All the residents that they question either choose to remain tight-lipped, or have no information to give. They get a break in the investigation when they find some evidence that might lead to the whereabouts of the men. Agent Ward orders over 200 agents to the small town to help conduct a search party. While Ward is searching, Anderson is trying to get any information out of the deputy's wife. Agents Ward and Anderson are amazed when they learn that the head leader of the local charter of the Ku KLux Klan has arrived for a meeting with the police department and other local residents of Jessup. The constant prying that the FBI agents are doing, infuriates some of the members of the police department and some other residents. They decide to take out their rage on the colored residents of the town. We see the angry townspeople burn down other persons homes, kidnap them and beat some of them up and we also see them hang a man. Meanwhile, the deputy's wife just cannot take any more of this cruelty, and tells some important information to agent Anderson. It is when they beat up the deputy's wife that agent Anderson wants to go after them his own way. After a scuffle between the two agents, Anderson gets Ward's authority to try to do it his way. Agent Anderson then proceeds to use iron-fisted methods to get some of the residents to give them the answers that they are searching for. These methods work brilliantly and bring the film to a great conclusion.

This is a very powerful movie, there were some scenes in the movie that were so terrible that you could not help but feel somewhat sick inside. I believe that MISSISSIPPI BURNING has to be the favorite for this year's Academy Award for Best Picture. I cannot remember a more stronger or emotional movie this year. I guarantee those film fans who make the effort to see this movie will not regret it. It is a captivating bit of filmmaking, expertly capturing a feeling of strong racial prejudice that should not be lost. This movie shows not only how far this country has come in the past 25 years, but how far race relations have yet to progress. Rating: +4

                                    David Alba Jr
                                    ihlpa!alba

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