it didn't really happen like this

Rating: 7/10 (29 July 2005)

The recent belated conviction of Edgar Ray Killen (wouldn't you say that it's appropriate that he has "kill" in his last name?) brings to mind the story that inspired "Mississippi Burning". It's the story of how a group of Ku Klux Klan members murdered civil rights activists James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in the summer of 1964. The movie portrays the murders, but FBI agents Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) and Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) are made up. It turns out that the FBI bribed one of the murderers to rat on the other two, and all the while the FBI was tapping Schwerner's father's phone to see if he was a Communist.
So, they played with the facts. Hollywood often does that. Either way, "Mississippi Burning" still is a good movie, reminding us of a time in our country's history when we were about to explode.