Burn Out

Gene Hackman retired from acting 15 years ago, but back when he was working regularly, he was rightly regarded as one of the more natural and believable actors in movies. I've seen both the films for which he won an Oscar (Unforgiven and The French Connection), but I was curious to see one of the others for which he was nominated. That brought me to Mississippi Burning, the 1988 movie lauded in its time and given seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture.

Loosely based on real events, Mississippi Burning revolves around a 1964 FBI investigation into the disappearance of three civil rights advocates working to register black voters in the South. The investigators soon have reason to suspect the advocates have been murdered... and that local law enforcement may actually have been involved. But the code of silence protecting the perpetrators may be even more harder to crack than their virulently racist attitudes.

Mississippi Burning is set in the 1960s, but the fact is that today, we're actually more years removed from when it was made than the movie was in its time from the events it depicts. Now, with growing awareness of just how sweeping and systemic racism is in America, the movie actually feels like a time capsule of the 1980s every bit as much as it does the 1960s. Case in point: in this movie ostensibly about the fight for civil rights, there aren't really any significant black characters with a story line of their own. Almost no black actors are listed in the rather lengthy opening credits.

Of course, one could debate just how much things have improved since 1988. After all, just last year, the film that actually won Best Picture... was a civil rights era drama that focused more on the reforming racist than the victim of racism. Sure, Green Book had its merits, but it also had its shortcomings that could be quite validly argued.

Mississippi Burning has fewer elements to commend it. The plight of the segregation's victims in the South is all over the movie and yet barely dealt with. The ugliness of racism permeates every scene, but the effects of it often feel like they come at a step removed. Just as real-life racists would hide behind their hoods and burn crosses, the movie sometimes hides behind symbols that stand in for more serious atrocities.

Some scenes do work better, though, and it's usually thanks to the actors involved. Gene Hackman brings his trademark gravitas to this role, even if the character feels a bit inconsistent from scene to scene. The movie is setup as a work conflict between his character and the lead agent played by Willem Dafoe, and both play their conflict with gusto. Frances McDormand appears here in a role that earned her an Oscar nomination and turned her from a working actor to a big star. You can see how a career was jump-started here. Elsewhere in the film, we get an array of great character actors all giving good "scumbag": Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey, Michael Rooker, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. Also look out for a decidedly non-humorous Stephen Tobolowsky.

Mississippi Burning is a well-intentioned film, and not without its moments. But it falls far short of the powerful emotion it thinks it's presenting. And it hasn't aged particularly well. I give the movie a C.