Great Deep South drama

Rating: 10/10 (24 June 2014)

Based on the 1964 civil rights workers' murders in Neshoba County, Mississippi, the film details the investigation of two FBI agents who travel down there to solve the case. One of them (Willem Dafoe) does everything by the book while the other (Gene Hackman) mingles with the people to sniff out the culprits. Their vastly different approaches create tension, but they both have their strengths and weaknesses.
This is just a great film about the injustice of one group of smallminded people wanting to suppress another and those who seek a more perfect world.
Hackman stands out as the main protagonist, but Dafoe is good as well. Brad Dourif and Frances McDormand play the couple that the Hackman character zeroes in on. He knows the husband is guilty and his wife is the weak link because (1.) she's also oppressed and unhappy, (2.) she sees the injustice going on and doesn't like it, but knows there's realistically little she can do to stop it without incurring the wrath of her husband & his colleagues, and (3.) she enjoys the agent's flirtations and he senses it.
The film runs 128 minutes and was shot in the heart of Mississippi.
GRADE: A+