So I just watched Mississipi Burning.....

[Brampton_Boy]

I was only vaguely familiar with the source material, but I have been wanting to watch this movie for a while after so many people recommended it.

I don't think I have felt this unsettled watching a movie since the end of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". Knowing that this was based on a true story makes it so much worse - in retrospect, it didn't even happen all that long ago (for context, it's about the murder of three civil rights activists in Mississippi during the 1960s, and the conspiracy of the KKK and local police to cover it up).

What really made this movie resonate with me was a conversation I had later with my mother. Apparently when she came to Canada in the 1960s, there were still segregated schools in Ontario, and some establishments had informal segregation policies that prevented colored people from attending, or barring them from renting property etc. For some reason, I just assumed that segregation and Jim Crow laws were a Southern US issue. I had no idea it happened in Canada.

Even in the country my parents are from (Guyana), non Christians were barred from working in the civil service, and you were forced to address white colonialists as "Your humble servant".

It's a riveting movie, and William Dafoe and Gene Hackman are terrific actors, but this definitely is the opposite of a feel good film.

 

[-Magua-]

One of my favorites.
Great film.

The yin Yang complementary dynamic tween Dafoe & Hackman was great.

Hackman was such a boss in this movie.

 

[Belaya Smert]

That’s a fantastic movie.

 

[Strychnine]

I think everyone should watch this film. You're going to get some naysayers who are going to come in here and say "Yeah, but it really wasn't like THAT". The thing is they'll be missing the point. That stuff DID occur in the USA and happened a lot in the South.

If you want to watch another film in the same vein, watch Lee Daniels' "The Butler". It has an All-Star cast and is just a great film, IMHO.

 

[zapataxiv]

One of my favorites.
Great film.

The yin Yang complementary dynamic tween Dafoe & Hackman was great.

Hackman was such a boss in this movie.

Hackman of that era was alpha
he was super cool in French Connection
Popeye is one of the goat movie cops and shit talkers

 

[BisexualMMA]

Rock solid movie for sure but not as important for society as Ghostbusters 2016 or The Last Jedi.

 

[dildos]

i think i watched this in highschool round 2004 but i dont remember much of this movie.

 

[dildos]

i love the perks of being a wallflower.

such a great movie.

 

[Brampton_Boy]

i love the perks of being a wallflower.

such a great movie.

That ending came out of nowhere - It was so jarring. I can't even find the right description to reflect how I felt at the end. Queasy is about the best I can come up with.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

I think I was around 14 the first time I viewed it. Fucked with me a little bit as it was my introduction to the civil rights era.

Frances McDormand delivered a stunning performance, Hackman and Defoe did good as well. Overall it was a good film if you didn't know any better.

It took some serious liberties as Hollywood usually does. It was critisized by several people who were actually a part of the civil rights movement. Probably cause there were no prominent black characters and it portrayed the ones that were as gutless cowards. That of course was certainly not the case back in those times.

They astonishingly made the FBI look like the good guys in a time when they were most certainly doing their damnedest to supress the black movement.

 

[CaptHANDSUP]

In the heat of the night is another really good movie that is very similar

 

[Erik Red]

A great film. And I watched it as a film and not a documentary.

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

To see Dafoe and Hackman together what a dream duo. Also you can see a young Frances McDormand in this film as well.

 

[Henry Swanson]

Hackman was a badass in that movie.

Also another great slime ball performance by one of the GOAT slime ball playing actors, Brad Dourif.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Hackman was a badass in that movie.

Also another great slime ball performance by one of the GOAT slime ball playing actors, Brad Dourif.

Yeah he has creepy so locked down that it's a breath of fresh air when he just plays a regular asshole (Mississippi Burning) or even a nice guy (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).

 

[Alphaboy]

Yeah, some movies don't have happy endings buy they were well written. It was the same when I watched Jesus and the Black Messiah. I try not to indulge in too much 'trauma porn' though.

conspiracy of the KKK and local police to cover it up

If only that were a thing of the past. I think the KKK, like the Italian Mafia, is nowhere near as powerful as they once were (I could be wrong; power is sublime), but the police are almost renowned for their cover-ups. Borderline criminal organization... But I digress.

Perhaps you'll like A Time to Kill as well?

 

[StonedLemur]

I was 12 when I seen that movie with my mother in the theater.

She told me what it was about before we went to the theater.
She said it was about real people but the movie wasn't real, it was like a play.

She explained what the civil rights movement was all about and why people were so mad about it.

I was pretty well informed before I went and felt like I understood everything my mother said...boy was I wrong lol.


Fantastic movie, acting, writing, and directing.

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

One of my favorites.
Great film.

The yin Yang complementary dynamic tween Dafoe & Hackman was great.

Hackman was such a boss in this movie.

Hackman is good in just about anything

 

[Thundarr]

I applaud the mod that excised the infected material from this thread, saving the topic because it is a really good movie.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Watched this in school IIRC, it was really good, yeah.