The most powerful movie about racism

Rating: 10/10 (15 September 2000)

I am student in Sydney,Australia researching the civil rights movement of the 60s and this movie helps understand the racial tension, bigotry and violence prevailent in 1960s America.
This is a totally different America from today with the ku klux klan terrorising neighbouring southern negros.
This film, whilst often brutal, is a great depiction of this period, when crosses, churches and many negros' homes were burned.
I have also come to believe that this film is based loosely on a true story, when the president of the USA dispatched a number of Federal Agents to search for 3 missing civil rights workers. This prompted one of the largest FBI manhunts in history.
Gene Hackman is a former Southern Sheriff turned FBI, who teams up with a by-the-book agent Dafoe. Hackman is unorthodox by nature, and Dafoe continually wonders where the hatred comes from. "Hatred is something that people are taught as soon as they are born" - taught in schools basically, as the Deputys' wife says to Hackman. Minor Spoiler:
Soon, it is found that the sheriffs are part of the klan and are allegedly involved in the whole saga. Hackman's unorthodox methods are the ones that work, whilst Dafoe's methods do not. Hackman originally convinces Dafoe and they group with other agents to let fight back. This is when the movie gets really interesting.
9.5/10.