Powerful stuff, but bring an iron stomach

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 2014)

I have no idea how accurate MISSISSIPPI BURNING is, and I imagine a lot was changed for the purposes of making a movie. But geez, what a story. And make no mistake; it is rough going. There's all sorts of backwards sentiment to make you sick. The movie's got hate oozing through the seams. Most of it's revolting, sometimes horrifying. But as a gripping thriller, it is top-notch.
Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe are the shining stars of this whole thing as two cops clashing over different styles of handling the same case. Two amazing performances, and these guys work well off of each other. But there's great work from Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, Michael Rooker and R. Lee Ermey (Dourif and Rooker, especially, who embody such hateful scum beyond belief).
It's a great piece of drama, but also one that bluntly shows a different world in the south. And that world's not easy to stick around in. There is justice in the end, but just knowing that the good guys had to get their hands dirty to effect it leaves you all the more conflicted, just as it does our hero FBI agents. But when all is said and done, even if the movie's subject matter is hard to swallow, MISSISSIPI BURNING is wholeheartedly, without a shadow of a doubt worth watching for Gene Hackman. The man is at his peak in this movie, and his fluid transition from charming to outright menacing can be witnessed in the bar scene. Mesmerizing stuff. Hackman's abilities are beyond question.
8/10