It's now a well documented fact that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was convinced that the Civil Rights movement was somehow being directed from Moscow as part of the Communist conspiracy. As if anyone's struggle for equality needed outside direction. Hoover's bugging of Martin Luther King is legendary both for its lack of useful information to prove that thesis and for the titillation that King's indiscretions provided for certain people in power courtesy of J. Edgar.
But when the murders of those two outside civil rights workers from New York City Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman happened the nation was shocked. First it was a missing persons case, then a homicide when the bodies were discovered. Public opinion forced the FBI and its director to take this seriously. And I have to say that when they did, the job was done.
The names of the civil rights workers were not mentioned nor was the name of the young black kid who here was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. In real life James Morton was a voter registrar working with Goodman and Schwerner. That gave some dramatic license to the producers of Mississippi Burning to spin their own version of events. Given the redneck wall of silence that federal investigators had to deal with I'm not sure the spinning was too far from the truth.
Willem Dafoe's portrayal of a button down FBI agent of the Hoover era rings real true. Hoover's own standards regarding appearance and behavior of his agents somewhat hampered law enforcement in certain fields. He had other foibles that have come down to us since his death in 1972, some real, some speculative. Dafoe just isn't getting the job done.
Which brings us to Gene Hackman who is a former Mississippi sheriff and wise in the ways and mores of Dixie. When Dafoe gives him a free hand Hackman gets results even though like in real life these Ku Klux Klansmen could only be tried in federal court as no Mississippi state jury would have convicted these creatures. Hackman got a well deserved Oscar nomination for his performance. And it's a good thing that the ACLU wasn't looking to hard at Hackman's methods. It was like what Sean Connery taught Kevin Costner about bringing down Al Capone in The Untouchables. It probably did take the FBI bending Hoover's precious rules to get justice in real life.
Frances McDormand plays a truly sad role as the wife of one of the sheriff's deputies who was in on the killing. She's a caring and compassionate woman and indiscreet about her husband's activities. She pays for that. It is restrained, understated, but very powerful performance that netted her a Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Mississippi Burning won for Best Cinematography and got a number of other nominations including Best Picture. Sad to say it was up against Rain Man that year and I'd hate to split the difference between what Hackman and what Dustin Hoffman did in his classic.
It's ironic that I saw this film and between seeing it and writing about it I attended one of many marriage equality rallies throughout the nation as the Supreme Court hears arguments about same sex marriage. The same people who could not comprehend the mixing of races are in the forefront of a fight against marriage equality because their minds can't comprehend that either. A seismic cultural shift against racial segregation took place just as a seismic cultural shift is occurring now toward the acceptance of the LGBT lives and lifestyles. It's been a privilege to live in these interesting times.
Mississippi Burning with a bit of literary license remains a fine dramatic film and should be required viewing for those who want to study those times and get an idea what the civil rights struggle was about. Books will not give you as good an idea as Mississippi Burning will.
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