Mississippi Burning

UK Release Date. 5 May 1989
Certification. 18
Running Time. 2 hours 8 mins
Director. Alan Parker
Cast. Willem Dafoe, Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey, Gene Hackman, Frances McDormand, Michael Rooker, Stephen Tobolowsky.
Rating. 78%

Review.

The English director Alan Parker forged a distinctive style for brutal, emotionally unsentimental and utterly uncompromising films in the late 1970s and 1980s. Films such as Midnight Express, Birdy and Angel Heart. 

Mississippi Burning was no different. Retreating somewhat from the satanic subject matter of his previous film, the criminally underappreciated Angel Heart, Parker made something no less gritty and equally uncompromising. Mississippi Burning is an incandescent cry against the racism of the Deep South during the latter part of the 1960s.

When three Civil Rights activists are murdered in the fictional town of Jessup County, Mississippi two FBI agents, Agent Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) and Agent Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) are sent to investigate. The performances are on point; not just from Dafoe and Hackman, but also from Frances McDormand, in an early role as the conflicted wife of Deputy Clinton Pell (Brad Dourif). But it is Gene Hackman who takes the plaudits, effortlessly swinging back and forth between Agent Anderson's laid-back amiability and unforgivingly righteous wrath, 

"Make no mistake about it, Deputy. I'll cut your fucking head off and not give a shit how it reads in the report sheet."

With it's taut narrative, Mississippi Burning is a striking depiction of a tumultuous time in American history. The director deserves a lot of praise for not watering down the rage behind this vivid, unflinching and incendiary depiction of bigotry, racism and hatred. Mississippi Burning is a film that tells a story that cannot be told enough times.

Arguably the finest of Alan Parker's films, Mississippi Burning is an uncompromising and unapologetic presentation of racial hatred and its virulent effects combining melodrama and documentary realism to powerful effect that sadly still resonates today.