Mississippi Burning

1964. When America was at war with itself.

MISSISSIPPI BURNING (18)

D: Alan Parker

Rank/Orion (Frederick Zollo & Robert F. Colesberry)

US 1988

127 mins

Drama/Crime/Thriller

W: Chris Gerolmo

DP: Peter Biziou

Ed: Gerry Hambling

Mus: Trevor Jones

PD: Geoffrey Kirkland & Philip Harrison

Gene Hackman (Rupert Anderson), Willem Dafoe (Alan Ward), Brad Dourif (Deputy Clinton Pell), R. Lee Ermey (Mayor Tilman), Gailard Sartain (Sheriff Stuckey), Frances McDormand (Mrs. Pell), Stephen Tobolowsky (Townley), Michael Rooker (Frank Bailey), Pruitt Taylor Vince (Lester Cowens)

Partially based on the true story of a group of civil rights activists who go missing in the Deep South, presumed murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, a pair of mismatched FBI agents, wily veteran and Mississippi-raised Gene Hackman and his more conservative, straight-laced partner Willem Dafoe uncover a deep-rooted problem of racism and underground factions of the KKK still very much in practise.

Gene Hackman plays the ultimate bad ass in this film, akin to his performance as Jimmy Doyle in The French Connection, as he tears up the rule book page by page in his mission to find the members of the fascist group, causing a rift between him and his strictly by-the-book partner.

8/10

Gene Hackman & Willem Dafoe in Mississippi Burning