For all its limitations as a high-minded Oscar darling from the 1980s, Mississippi Burning still stands as a searing cinematic document of the hatred that pushed back against the Civil Rights movement, in the American South in particular. Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe play an FBI odd couple—Dafoe the naive, hard-charging idealist and Hackman the son of a good old boy who is trying to make good—assigned to investigate the disappearance of three activists in rural Mississippi. (Chris Gerolmo’s script is loosely based on a 1964 case.) Hackman, whose best roles simmered in a saucepan of moral unease, keeps the movie on its toes—at least until the final third, when Mississippi Burning seems to justify the policy brutality his character employs after all other avenues have failed. (It’s bizarre to cheer on the abuse of civil rights in a movie ostensibly about advancing civil rights.) Also disappointing is the sidelining of the Black characters; the bitterly ironic choice to play a church choir on the soundtrack as Black parishioners are attacked by the KKK doesn’t count as representation. Directed by Alan Parker, who received one of the film’s seven Oscar nominations. Of those, only cinematographer Peter Biziou took home an award.
(3/20/2025)
