this summer , one of the most racially charged novels in john grisham 's series , a time to kill , was made into a major motion picture .
on january 3 of this year , director rob reiner basically re - released the film under the title of ghosts of mississippi .
based on the true story of 1963 civil rights leader medgar evars ' assassination , ghosts of mississippi revolves around the 25-year legal battle faced by myrlie evars ( whoopi goldberg , sister act ) and her quest to have her husband 's obvious assassin and racist byron
de la beckwith ( james woods , casino ) jailed .
so she turns to assistant district attorney and prosecutor bobby delaughter ( alec baldwin , heaven 's prisoners ) to imprison the former kkk member .
ghosts sets its tone with an opening montage of images from african - american history , from slave - ship miseries to life in the racist south of the 1960 's .
but all too soon , the white folks take over , intoning lines like " what 's america got to do with anything ?
this is mississippi !
" as beckwith , james woods , with his head larded with latex most of the time as an old man , teeters between portraying evil and its character .
meanwhile , goldberg turns in a very serious and weepy performance as the wife who would n't let her husband 's death rest until she got the conviction .
both deserve serious oscar - consideration .
this brings us to the dull performance of baldwin .
let 's face it , trying to match matthew mcconaughey 's wonderful acting in a time to kill is basically impossible .
and baldwin is living proof of this , as no emotions could be felt .
it seemed as if he actually had to struggle to shed a single tear .
either poor acting or poor directing , but something definitely went wrong .
another strange mishap was the fact that goldberg 's facial features did n't change , as she looked the same in the courtroom as she did holding her husband 's dead body 25-years earlier .
yet woods ' was plastered with enough make up to make him look like goldberg 's father .
at least the make - up was realistic .
with some emotional moments in the poorly written script , ghosts of mississippi lacked in heart , when its predecessor , a time to kill , brought tears to everyone 's eyes .
do n't get me wrong , the movie was n't all that bad , but if you 've seen grisham 's masterpiece , then do n't expect this one to be an excellent film . ,
both deserve serious oscar - consideration the make - up was realistic