The death of Edgar Ray Killen in prison in 2018 has renewed interest in the Mississippi Burning case.
Lets turn the clock back half a century It's 1964. Three civil rights workers, a black man James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, and two whites Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner said to be from New York City disappear after being briefly detained by local police in Philadelphia Mississippi. Enraged, President Johnson ordered the Navy to drain the alligator - infested swamps of Mississippi in search of the three. Freedom Riders
In Mississippi Burning (1988) the story of the investigation is brought to the silver screen. While the Navy up to its hips in sludge has been unable to locate the missing Freedom Riders, Johnson dispatches FBI agents, Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) and Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman), a local Mississippian and former sheriff to investigate. Chafing under Ward's micromanagement in insisting upon a futile by - the - book approach, Anderson through seductive down - home charm, develops an informant in Mrs Pell (Frances McDormand), the battered wife of Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (Brad Dourif).
Discovery of the bodies leads to a turning point in which Ward, acknowledging that the book has no answer, accedes to Anderson's irregular tactics: kidnapping glib and unbelievably cute Mayor Tilman and forcing him to describe the killings and reveal the culprits, assaulting Deputy Pell in reprisal for beating Mrs Pell, luring the cluprits to a bogus meeting and rescuing Lester Cowen from a faked attempt by the co-conspirators to hang him. Under the erroneous belief that his fellow bad guys intend to kill him, Lester spills the beans.
Charged with civil rights violations, many conspirators including Deputy Pell are found guilty. Sheriff Stuckey is acquitted. Mayor Tilman commits suicide. Gene Hackman plays the two - fisted Rebel Sherriff Anderson turned FBI agent with great aplomb. Sweet as sugar and mean as dog dung, Anderson can molt from as gentle as a new - born calf to as aggressive as a charging bull. Hackman's Pennsylvania accent does not creep into his Southron expressions or speech as it did in his depiction of a New York City Detective in the movie version of French Connection.
William Defoe plays the stamp pressed FBI agent, with the pressed dark suit and homburg in the sweltering heat of the deep South. True to his character, he'll get nowhere in the cozy world of the deep south.
Great film.
Lets turn the clock back half a century It's 1964. Three civil rights workers, a black man James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, and two whites Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner said to be from New York City disappear after being briefly detained by local police in Philadelphia Mississippi. Enraged, President Johnson ordered the Navy to drain the alligator - infested swamps of Mississippi in search of the three. Freedom Riders
In Mississippi Burning (1988) the story of the investigation is brought to the silver screen. While the Navy up to its hips in sludge has been unable to locate the missing Freedom Riders, Johnson dispatches FBI agents, Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) and Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman), a local Mississippian and former sheriff to investigate. Chafing under Ward's micromanagement in insisting upon a futile by - the - book approach, Anderson through seductive down - home charm, develops an informant in Mrs Pell (Frances McDormand), the battered wife of Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (Brad Dourif).
Discovery of the bodies leads to a turning point in which Ward, acknowledging that the book has no answer, accedes to Anderson's irregular tactics: kidnapping glib and unbelievably cute Mayor Tilman and forcing him to describe the killings and reveal the culprits, assaulting Deputy Pell in reprisal for beating Mrs Pell, luring the cluprits to a bogus meeting and rescuing Lester Cowen from a faked attempt by the co-conspirators to hang him. Under the erroneous belief that his fellow bad guys intend to kill him, Lester spills the beans.
Charged with civil rights violations, many conspirators including Deputy Pell are found guilty. Sheriff Stuckey is acquitted. Mayor Tilman commits suicide. Gene Hackman plays the two - fisted Rebel Sherriff Anderson turned FBI agent with great aplomb. Sweet as sugar and mean as dog dung, Anderson can molt from as gentle as a new - born calf to as aggressive as a charging bull. Hackman's Pennsylvania accent does not creep into his Southron expressions or speech as it did in his depiction of a New York City Detective in the movie version of French Connection.
William Defoe plays the stamp pressed FBI agent, with the pressed dark suit and homburg in the sweltering heat of the deep South. True to his character, he'll get nowhere in the cozy world of the deep south.
Great film.