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| DIRECTED BY |
| Alan Parker
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| STARRING |
| Gene Hackman |
| Willem Dafoe |
| Frances McDormand |
| Brad Dourif |
| R. Lee Ermey |
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An expertly executed and ultimately compassionate fictionalization of racial occurrences that probably did happen in 1960s Mississippi, British filmmaker Alan Parker had the chutzpah to tackle a subject that has resonated with controversy ever since the abolition of slavery and hasn�t shown many signs of becoming an easy subject to talk about since then.
What would make this film a bore is if it simply spoon-fed us the now-tiresome �racism is bad� mantra, but thankfully the dichotomy between FBI agents Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe provides a compelling focus to the film, even if Hackman�s chuckling laughs quickly become annoying. Frances McDormand is also a pleasure to watch quite a few years before her Academy winning �Fargo� turn, and Michael Rooker and Brad Dourif are just about as despicable as any of the best character actors could�ve been given their roles. Parker also scores some very memorable visuals here � scenes involving flaming crucifixes, exploding houses, and lynchings in particular.
Even if Parker does try to fictionally convince us of the circumstances surrounding these occurrences, it isn�t really important if you believe all of it. If that were Parker�s aim, he would�ve made a documentary. In relation to the scenes involving �Mississippians� speaking directly into the camera, however, he should�ve given the footage a video-like quality to distinguish it as some sort of newscast instead of combining it with the actual film.
Most civilized societies now easily accept the theme of �Mississippi Burning,� so viewers won�t really take any grand lessons away from it. But as a dramatic work - through unflinching realism - it effectively shows us the atrocities that minorities have had to go through in the 20th Century and the even more atrocious fact these atrocities were greatly ignored.
