The Semiquincentennial Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).
Week #20: Mississippi -
Details about Mississippi:
State bird: Northern mockingbird
State flower: Magnolia
State tree: Southern Magnolia
Mississippi is the first state to allow conjugal visits for long term prisoners.
Since we will be celebrating it next week, Mississippi lays claim to being the site of the first Memorial Day. (There are disputes on this, BTW...)
The first female to be hired as a mail carrier came from Mississippi.
Coca Cola was invented in Atlanta, but the first bottling plant for the drink was in Vicksburg.
The University of Mississippi is home to the oldest book in the U.S.
And Mississippi is the only state (so far) to have an official state toy (must've a slow day in Congress that day...). It's the teddy bear.
Famous people born in Mississippi: Elvis Presley, B. B. King, James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Brett Favre, Walter Payton, Jefferson Davis, Jerry Clower, William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams (believe it or not!)
One quick note: The above flag was adopted in 2021 due to pressure from the "politically correct" crowd. For much of it's existence (after the Civil War) the state flag was different.
Mississippi obviously held on to it's southern heritage and past for as long as it could, which becomes relevant when discussing today's entry in the Project. It was the last state in the Union to remove any trace of the Confederate flag from it's official state flag.
Mississippi Burning (1988):
One of the saddest events to happen in Mississippi's history was the death of three civil rights activists in 1964. The Ku Klux Klan murdered James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwermer for the "crime" of trying to register black citizens to vote. Rather than go into intricate detail, you can check out this link to get details of the actual event.
The film is a highly fictionalized account of the event and the investigation by the FBI into what happened. There are a number of discrepancies in the film, although most of them irrelevant to the overall storyas presented in the film. Of course, this is a film, and not a true-to-life documentary, so unless you are a stickler for absolute accuracy, the film version of the basic background events has the effect that it was meant to convey; the fact that the racism prevalent in pre-civil rights South was irrational and entirely motivated by an irrational and unfounded hatred of a people just because of the color of their skin. But to note, as Robert Brent Toplin says in his book History by Hollywood, the film "features far too many fictional situations to escape objections from the champions of authenticity". I have no desire to make this review a critical study of fact vs. fiction, however. For further study I suggest the chapter to devoted to the film in the above noted reference.
The primary focus of the film involves FBI agents who have been sent to a small town in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of two civil rights activists who were sent to help register the black citizenry to be able to vote, a right that said citizenry already had, but was blocked by the predominantly white and racist population, including those who were in the position of supposedly seeing that that right was not infringed. Of course, since many of those in positions of the government were also members of the racist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, they were not inclined to extend those rights to the disenfranchised minority.
Agent Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) is the man in charge of the FBI contingent and he is constantly at odds with the older and more world wise, southernly speaking, Agent Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman). Ward is a "by the book" official, who insists that everything has to be done the way the FBI has established operations be done. Anderson, on the other hand, who had been raised in the south and had even spent some time in the law enforcement community of said South, is adamant that the "bureau procedure" is not going to be as effective in this situation, since he knows from experience how people in the South think.
The pair arrive in the county seat of Jessup County, Mississippi, and begin their investigation. They run into problems at the very beginning, when they run headlong into what is going to be the brick wall of the investigation.
One of the best scenes featuring Hackman's Anderson in a one-on-one encounter with the good old boys in a private bar is indicative of why I think Hackman was deserving of his nomination, if not of actually winning, the Oscar. (And note: If you are prudish about language, you might want to skip this scene. Fair warning.)
It's not easy to like Willem Dafoe's character, even if his moral compass is pointed in the right direction, but there is one scene, a confrontation between Ward and Anderson that really stands out. (and again,be aware of the language factor...)
The hostility that the racist native population exposes to the interlopers is mainly centered on the main combatants in the conflict. The most hostile, in my opinion, is Frank Bailey (Michael Rooker). The above scene in the private bar with Hackman is indicative of the outright resistance and hatred that the character has, not only for the local black populace, but for these interloping federal agents come to stir up trouble.
Much of the citizenry only watches the invasion of the feds with a bit of curiosity, not really hostile to the investigation, per se. But Deputy Clinton Pell's (Brad Dourif) wife, Mrs. Pell (Frances McDormand) has her moral compass pointed in the right direction. She forms a friendship with Agent Anderson, and basically informs him that the she knows those three civil rights workers were killed, and that she is pretty sure she knows who all was involved, including her husband.
The investigation often stalls, not only because those involved in the murder are also the ones to whom the agents are dependent to supply help, but also because the local black population is reluctant to give assistance out of fear of reprisals by the Klan. And the Klan indeed puts their hard influence into the fray, even fire bombing some houses and churches of locals they suspect of helping (whether the locals actually DID help the agents or not).
Eventually Agent Ward concedes that his by the book approach is going nowhere and allows Agent Anderson to execute some "less than legal" tactics to get the results they need. They eventually find the bodies of the missing civil rights workers, but it takes a bit more tactics to pin the blame on the guilty parties. One of my favorite scenes is when the Mayor (R. Lee Ermey) is kidnapped and taken to a shack by a big bulky black Federal Agent who uses some scare tactics on him to get him to admit to being peripherally involved. This in itself could not be used in an actual court trial since it was information acquired through coercion, but it does help the ultimate goal of getting some of the others to admit to involvement.
The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, but unfortunately had the bad luck to be pitted against Rain Man in many of them. As good as Rain Man was, my personal opinion is that Mississippi Burning got robbed in a couple of categories. Overall I think Mississippi Burning was far better than Rain Man in the category for best director. I concede the Best Actor to Dustin Hoffman, mostly because of the work he did in conveying the eccentricities of the character he played, although I am pretty sure that Hackman came in second in the voting. But I also would have given the Best Supporting Actress award to Frances McDormand. I will admit that the one Oscar that the movie did win, that for Best Cinematography, seems more like a concession than an actual win... Who Framed Roger Rabbit? probably should have won that one.
Despite the measure of criticism the film garnered as a result of it's heavy reliance on fictional portrayals as opposed to fact, it was generally well-received by the critics at large. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a fairly good 79% Fresh rating. The dynamic duo of critics, Siskel and Ebert, gave it a two thumbs up on their TV show, Siskel & Ebert & The Movies. The movie made a modest showing at the box office, doubling it's initial budget.
As a historian, I can empathize with some of the critics who object to historical discrepancies in this film, but as a general film lover, I can also appreciate how the movie pans out in terms of it's story. As long as you go into it expecting a story and not necessarily a documentary, the acting of the primary actors portraying their individual characters can be taken in stride. If the point is to instill a dislike for the proponents of segregation and racist attitudes is the point, then both Brad Dourif and Michael Rooker stand out, even if they do come across, at times, as cardboard caricatures one might typically expect from Hollywood. Given that, I would recommend this movie, at least to those of you old enough to understand the implications presented.
Until next week, drive safely.
Quiggy
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