Interesting story of pointless bigotry and hatred

Rating: 7/10 (25 June 2005)

I remember seeing this movie back in high school in RE (that's Religious Education for you folks who didn't have the 'privilage' of going to a strict Catholic Fundamentalist school) and thinking it was a pretty good movie. Despite the fact that we were 14 and the film is rated 18 over here in the UK, which was totally illegal and would never be allowed now. The other thing I remember was Trevor Jones' really cool-sounding Ry Cooder inspired score.
Since this film was loosely based on the 1964 killings of 3 Civil Rights activists, one of whom only got sentenced a few days ago, 40 years after the crime, I thought it would be appropriate to check the film out again.
It's got a good story and is well acted, especially by Hackman, who is one of my fave actors (Dafoe is too but he's not in much these days). They play two FBI Agents, who don't get on (a popular cliché at the time), down in a backwoods southern town looking for three kids who have probably been killed by evil KKK members.
The villains are despicable and Brad Dourif once again uses his wild eyes to great effect. But I was a little disappointed that none of them really got what they deserved (even though in real life it took 40 years to get justice) and got let-off with minor sentences, none of them over 10 years for the brutal killing of three people and all the mass-destruction and arson they did.
I was let-down by the ending and really wanted more red-neck, dirt-faced, hicka-billies getting their heads kicked in. And, judging from the recent televised court-case, attitude towards African-American's hasn't changed much since then. Which is pathetic.