Mississippi Burning

Using the shocking murders of three civil rights workers by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi on June 21, 1964, as its inspiration, MISSISSIPPI BURNING presents a grotesquely fictionalized version of the events and turns them into another cop-buddy movie. Alan Ward and Rupert Anderson (Dafoe and Hackman) are two very different FBI agents sent to Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of the young men. Ward is morally outraged by the racism he finds in the South and is determined to do something about it, while Anderson wanders the streets like a good ol' boy, chatting with the townsfolk to ferret out clues. MISSISSIPPI BURNING is visually splendid. From the set...