Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Mississippi Burning (1988)

Director: Alan Parker

Average user rating
5 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Parker's film, loosely based in fact, goes for the gut rather than the head in its assessment of Deep South racism. When three civil rights activists disappear from a small Mississippi town in 1964, the FBI responds (two of the missing men were white) by sending in agents Dafoe and Hackman, the former a by-the-book Yankee determined never to violate the rights of the interrogated, the latter a local boy who opines that to deal with scum you must sink to gutter level. Scum the villains certainly are: ugly, ignorant rednecks devoted to the Klan, and all too happy to punish blacks who protest against injustice or blab to interfering outsiders. In the film, the blacks are almost without exception seen as mute victims, and typically for a film by an Englishman, race hatred is defined in terms of class and economic envy. But Hackman is excellent, especially in his surprisingly tender scenes with McDormand, wife of sadistic deputy Dourif; and for once, Parker directs without depending on flashy visual tropes. The relative anonymity is a plus; only the end falls foul of hyperbole, and it's arguably the director's most controlled film to date.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • Bri said...
    Posted on May 26 2009 19:29 i highly doubt someone would commit sideways over a movie, no matter how sad it is.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Erin said...
    Posted on Oct 05 2008 18:54 They made us watch this in school. it was so depressing a student commited suicide because of it... enuf said
    Report as inappropriate
  • None said...
    Posted on Nov 16 2007 22:22 Hello, Best Site
    Report as inappropriate
  • EsTaH said...
    Posted on Nov 15 2007 15:53 A great film to watch yubyub it has a successful story at the end i would recommand others to watch this film...
    Report as inappropriate
  • Amy said...
    Posted on Oct 03 2007 13:20 An amazingly powerful film!!
    Report as inappropriate
5 comments

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Alan Parker

Producer: Fred Zollo, Robert F Colesberry

Cast: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, R Lee Ermey, Gailard Sartain, Stephen Tobolowsky, Michael Rooker full cast

Genre(s): Thrillers

Duration: 127 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.