Outstanding film and a great effort in dealing with difficult themes.

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2012)

First of all, let me say that "Mississippi Burning" is one of my favorite films of all time, I've seen it several times, on several different occasions and periods of time, and it's a movie that always manages to change my view on things. It's funny, it's the same movie but looks like there's something new to be discovered there every time I see it. But what attracted me to write something about it now is the fact of watching it for the first time after seeing the award winning film "The Help", whose themes are a little similar but the approach given is completely different. Comes as a sad fact that people are running away to see "The Help" (which is good considering how long Hollywood hasn't dealt with a heavy subject that racism is), taking it too seriously believing it's all truth but they probably never watched Alan Parker's classic.
Based on a real case that happened in 1964 "Mississippi Burning" starts with the brutal murder of three young Human Rights activists who were helping the black communities of Mississippi. Later on, the FBI comes to town led by the young and idealist Agent Ward (Willem Dafoe) followed by the veteran Agent Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) to search for the boys in what most people thought to be a simple case of missing person. So, it was the 1960's, lines were divided and racism, lynchings were a common thing back there in the South and here's two agents and part of the Hoover boys trying to change things down there, having a lot of trouble in getting answers about what happened with those activists. While Ward wants to do the investigation by the book, following right procedures and all, the more experienced Anderson is quite the opposite, preferring to beat up suspects or use more unethical methods but always getting what he needs. He's a man that lived in a similar place and knows how things work so he understands he can't smile and be nice to people in order to get what he wants. Different men, clashing at each other from time to time but working on the same goal.
In "Mississppi Burning" we feel outraged, angry, sad with all the hatred whites had for blacks in those days. Prejudice and its roots are difficult to understand, it's something we can't accept and we can't tolerate but the movie manages to give an inexcusable but quite real argument on why it happens. A key moment from the film is when Hackman's character tells to Dafoe a story that happened when he was a child, when his father killed the mule of a black man he knew, after getting sick of hearing his friends teasing him saying that the black guy was more important than he because he had a mule. Hackman concludes with this: "My old man was just so full of hate that he didn't know that being poor was what was killing him." Therefore, what we get here is that racism, in most cases, comes from a paranoia that one race must be better than the other, otherwise it'll take advantage of everything that exists. Absurd.
Returning to "The Help" issue, (and I do like that film), I don't agree with that distorted, colorful and very humored presentation of how African Americans were treated in the South, the excess of comic reliefs were too much. The ones featured in "MB" are quite good and always followed by some tension in the middle e.g. when Rupert quotes to the Mayor Tillman about why he loves baseball as being the only thing where a black man can wave a stick without causing a riot. Sure, we're not getting a truthful full account of what really happened in 1964, there's plenty of fictionalized moments in Parker's film but it's easier to believe in this film than seeing all the humored moments of Tate Taylor's film.
On its own, this is a really must-see film even though it's not much of a comfortable watching, it's a true challenge to many of us. Even today I get disturbed with some of the painful moments of it. It's haunting (in a good way). At the same time, there's more cheerful moments that are a great pleasure to see over and over (Deputy Pell getting his beard made by Anderson, best scene ever!). It's an impressive work in its technical aspects, the Oscar winning cinematography of Peter Biziou (an arguable work for many viewers since it's too dark but it reflects the serious subject); editing and sound, the music by Trevor Jones, the words by Chris Gerolmo who made a terrific script. The casting couldn't be better with Hackman in one of his greatest roles, Dafoe, Frances McDormand and the big team of villains played by Brad Dourif, Stephen Tobolowsky, Michael Rooker, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Gailard Sartain and R. Lee Ermey, all spectacular performances.
Alan Parker's most impactant film of the 1980's and certainly one of the greatest films of all time, "Mississippi Burning" might not be 100% real and not being all so truth to the facts but still works to present a dark period of American history. It's a gripping film that should be used in schools and in colleges. A nice suggestion to watch along with "MB" is the TV film "Murder on Mississippi" (starring Tom Hulce and Blair Underwood) that recreates the trajectory of the murdered activists. 10/10