Great! B.S. but great!!!

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2004)

This film is spectacular. Too bad it's glorified nonsense. The FBI did not want to be in Mississippi in 1964. J. Edgar Hoover was a devout racist homophobe...ah hell he was a complete bigot. He was extremely reluctant to send agents down south to investigate 3 people he couldn't have cared less about. It was only under intense pressure that he finally caved.
Furthermore, the agents are depicted in this as heroic & defenders of the peace & justice as if they were Jedi's or something. Southerners were not & still are not easily intimidated by outsiders. It is true that they respect authority, perhaps a little too much, but that's local & state authority not federal. It was actually the other way around. And if you don't believe that, then remember this, Southerners ran out the mafia during prohibition with their ultimate ways of dispatching one creatively. Southerners take great pride in running out Capone & his ilk by using such measures as sticking a guy to a post & stuffing his testicles in his mouth that were bitten off by a calf. Hence the reason the mafia shifted to Canada for their bootlegging.
In spite of all that, I know how Hollywood likes to distort things for the purposes of entertainment & emotional interests. (i.e. KKK in "A Time To Kill," "Top Gun," etc.) So, taking that into consideration, this film was awesome! Willem Dafoe is pretty good but the highlight is Gene Hackman as he delivers yet again in a role reminiscent of his "Popeye Doyle" role! Even though it was pure hogwash, there are vital facts still in the story & to watch Hackman go to work on the guy from "Cuckoo's Nest" is classic & probably the inspiration for Russell Crowe's character in "L.A. Confidential!" Bottom line, my historical anal retentiveness put aside...9/10