Mississippi Burning (1988)
I didn’t expect the title was to be taken this literally. I may have seen this in school at some point. It definitely feels like something a teacher would put a class through when covering the subject of racism. I would think it would still today be a good movie to cover, with proper reflection and discussion afterwards. Because it is pretty glaring how black people barely play any role in their own story here. Mostly just token characters to be victims of extreme violence. However, the speech that priest has later on remedies some of that omission.
As a film in general, it is a very well acted and well paced thriller. The intense scenes are intense, and it succeeds it asking the question “What is wrong with those people?” However, it never actually does much to try and answer that. There are a few lines of dialogue putting it on religious upbringing, but it is barely anything that gives any sort of insight into the underlying reason for why racism had such a drastic development in this part of the US.
Of course it would be a different sort of film if that was the focus, and with respect to what the directors does with the two FBI agents - I can’t put a finger on that part. Just given the heavy subject matter, the story of both the victims and the KKK has potential for so much more than what we get here.
Rating: 3.5