Routine police thriller but its civil rights era setting does make it interesting

Rating: 7/10 (19 March 2017)

When three civil rights workers disappear FBI Agents Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) and Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) are tasked with investigating their disappearances. What starts out as a routine missing persons investigation quickly escalates into something much more serious especially when Ward (who isn't from Mississippi) starts to learn more about its townsfolk and about how those in charge choose to 'run' their town.
I suppose it was kind of inevitable that a film like Mississippi Burning is going to be met with a rather mixed reception particularly as it apparently plays very 'loose' with the facts. In all fairness though anyone who watches a film and expects it to be 100% faithful or true to the story is somewhat naïve. What you get with Mississippi Burning is an interesting and fairly entertaining film which provides an insight into racial segregation in 1960's America - at least that's how I saw it!!!
Although a lot of what we see may be fictional director Alan Parker works well with scriptwriter Chris Gerolmo in creating a powerful and somewhat terrifying look at the devastation that can be caused through bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Parker doesn't hold back and manages to stage some excellent scenes (the scene with Gene Hackman in the barber shop is particularly chilling as well as being memorable). The brutality continues throughout the film, which, admittedly, can make it hard to watch, but for me, this adds to the realism and Parker really engages with the viewer by drawing them into this appalling period of history.
The strong performances compliment Parker's brutal direction well and the likes of Hackman and Dafoe are both good here (even though they are a rather clichéd pair of mismatched cops) Despite this though there's still an interesting and rather uneasy dynamic between the two men and the script occasionally affords them some amusing exchanges. The villains of the piece (Ermey, Dourif, Rooker, and Sartain) are excellent and all give rather sneering and cold-hearted performances.
Aside from the cops and procedural elements being a tad clichéd one other aspect of this film that I found slightly problematic was the character of Mrs Pell (Frances McDormand). Her character is one of the few 'white' people who disagrees with segregation and is against how the Klu Klux Klan and the majority of white people treat the black people. This made her an interesting character who really should have had a more active role in the film. Instead of that, she is little more than window dressing and a bit on the side for Anderson (which is a tad frustrating and a waste of McDormand's acting talent). I personally felt that the film would have been slightly better if it had have at least given us some insight into what things were like on the other side of the fence.
So yes there are some flaws with this film and rather ironically the narrative does suffer from being a bit 'black and white' However, it is a powerful drama that takes us back to an appalling time period, and although some of its brutality makes it hard to watch, I did find it to be a relatively engaging story.