A Southern Dirty Harry

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2009)

There have been a number of films, such as "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Ghosts of Mississippi" and "A Time to Kill" which have used the conventions of the courtroom thriller to examine the problem of racism in American society, particularly in the Deep South. "Mississippi Burning" uses the conventions of another type of crime drama, the "buddy cop" movie, in order to examine the same problem. The "buddy cop" film was one that was growing in popularity in the eighties; "Lethal Weapon", sometimes regarded as the most influential film in the genre, had come out the previous year.
The film is set in Mississippi in 1964 and is loosely based on the real-life FBI investigation into the murders of three civil rights workers in that year. It focuses on two fictional FBI agents sent to investigate the murders. As is common with "buddy" movies (think of the roles played by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in "Lethal Weapon") the two men are very different in character and do not start out as "buddies" at all- indeed, they start out by disliking one another. Agent Alan Ward, played by Willem Dafoe, is the younger of the two, although he is ostensibly senior in rank. He is a politically liberal, idealistic northerner who sympathises with the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement. He takes a straightforward, "by the book" attitude to law enforcement.
Agent Rupert Anderson, portrayed by Gene Hackman, is considerably older than Ward and a native Mississippian whose career in law enforcement began as Sheriff of a small town similar to the one in which the murders took place. Although he disagrees with the racist attitudes which prevail in the area, he has a deeper understanding than Ward of race relations in the south and of the motivations of white southerners. He is haunted by memories of the part played by his father, a poor white farmer and bigoted racist, in the persecution of a black neighbour. Whereas Ward is a "by the book" liberal, Anderson can be seen as a Southern version of Dirty Harry, or perhaps of Hackman's own "tough cop" character, Popeye Doyle. He realises that standard investigation methods are unlikely to produce results, largely because potential witnesses are too terrified to give evidence or even to collaborate with the Bureau. (The killers were all members of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Klan are determined to thwart the investigation through intimidation). Anderson decides to fight fire with fire, resorting to methods that even Harry Callahan might have blanched at, such as threatening to have one suspect castrated. Ward, realising that his own methods have not succeeded, is persuaded to give his blessing to Anderson's approach.
Hackman received a well-deserved "Best Actor" nomination, as this is one of his best performances. His Anderson is one of the cinema's most memorable "tough cops" alongside Clint Eastwood's Callahan and Steve McQueen's Bullitt; deceptively easy-going with a cynical streak of humour, but capable of an icy ruthlessness when needed. Dafoe, rather surprisingly, missed out on an Oscar nomination, but there was one for Frances McDormand as the wife of one of the suspects who agrees to inform on her husband when she begins to suspect that he was involved in the crime. The film itself was nominated for "Best Picture", but lost out to that other fine movie "Rain Man".
As a crime thriller "Mississippi Burning" is a very good one; director Alan Parker handles the action well and there is a constant sense of tension, of events moving rapidly and inexorably towards a shattering climax. The film was controversial when it came out in 1988, largely because it was seen as advocating uncompromising and illegal methods of law enforcement. It was also criticised for allegedly portraying black characters as passive victims of violence and for glorifying the FBI's role in the Civil Rights struggle; in reality J. Edgar Hoover had little sympathy with the cause and only got involved reluctantly under pressure from President Johnson.
There may be justice in some of these criticisms, but I nevertheless found it a film well worth watching. It was advertised under the slogan "1964- when America was at war with itself". This may seem over-dramatic, but there is a sense in which it is true. Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King may have intended their movement to be non-violent, but their opponents had no intention of playing by the same rules. "Mississippi Burning" is a film that asks similar questions about the philosophy of law enforcement to those raised by "Dirty Harry" . We may be uncomfortable with the methods of a Rupert Anderson- but part of our discomfort is the realisation that the such methods may have been necessary to break the power which the Klan held over much of the South. 8/10