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Post by Aj_June on Jan 24, 2020 21:28:28 GMT
Half an hour into it and it seems pretty powerful.
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Post by petrolino on Jan 24, 2020 21:48:25 GMT
This is my favourite Alan Parker movie, brilliantly filmed, with exemplary casting right down to the smallest character role - no matter how many times I watch it, it always leaves me shattered. Seeing Willem Dafoe in 'Platoon' (1986) and 'Mississippi Burning' ensured I'd be a lifelong fan; he brought tears to my eyes in 'Platoon', aroused anger in me with 'Mississippi Burning', seeing both films back when I was at school. Hope you enjoy the movie.
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Jan 24, 2020 21:54:10 GMT
It’s one of the best versions of racism from the perspective of white people.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2020 22:04:28 GMT
A powerful film but heavily fictionalized.
Just like JFK.
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Post by mikef6 on Jan 24, 2020 22:15:18 GMT
It is the very worst of the White Savior movies where poor helpless downtrodden people of color who can do nothing to help themselves have to depend on two white males (from the FBI of all places, the agency most dedicated to thwarting the Civil Rights Movement) to save them. Seemingly the African-Americans themselves had nothing to do with pushing society for their basic freedoms. Even the points of view of the white bigots in Mississippi is more important than the black Americans. I admit that Frances McDormand is fine as a Poor White who begins to change her mind about segregation, but the movie should not been about her. “Mississippi Burning” is unhistorical and distasteful by just showing us white heroes and white people's reactions in those turbulent times.
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Post by petrolino on Jan 24, 2020 22:46:33 GMT
"Why don't you just buy me a beer."
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Post by petrolino on Jan 24, 2020 22:54:33 GMT
If you've not seen it, I recommend 'The Intruder' (1962) for a double-bill.
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Post by Aj_June on Jan 24, 2020 23:47:15 GMT
This is my favourite Alan Parker movie, brilliantly filmed, with exemplary casting right down to the smallest character role - no matter how many times I watch it, it always leaves me shattered. Seeing Willem Dafoe in 'Platoon' (1986) and 'Mississippi Burning' ensured I'd be a lifelong fan; he brought tears to my eyes in 'Platoon', aroused anger in me with 'Mississippi Burning', seeing both films back when I was at school. Hope you enjoy the movie. I liked it. I do not believe movies stay very close to original stories. Also, don't believe movies of past necessarily should be judged on today's standards. The performances were very good. Didn't see the movie from angle of white heroes but more about glimpses of past and being thankful that humans have made some progress from the old times. Thanks for recommending The Intruder. Would probably watch that sometimes in the near future.
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Post by petrolino on Jan 24, 2020 23:48:26 GMT
This is my favourite Alan Parker movie, brilliantly filmed, with exemplary casting right down to the smallest character role - no matter how many times I watch it, it always leaves me shattered. Seeing Willem Dafoe in 'Platoon' (1986) and 'Mississippi Burning' ensured I'd be a lifelong fan; he brought tears to my eyes in 'Platoon', aroused anger in me with 'Mississippi Burning', seeing both films back when I was at school. Hope you enjoy the movie. I liked it. I do not believe movies stay very close to original stories. Also, don't believe movies of past necessarily should be judged on today's standards. The performances were very good. Didn't see the movie from angle of white heroes but more about glimpses of past and being thankful that humans have made some progress from the old times. Thanks for recommending The Intruder. Would probably watch that sometimes in the near future. Glad you liked it.
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Post by wolf359 on Jan 25, 2020 0:43:20 GMT
GREAT Movie!
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Post by petrolino on Jan 25, 2020 3:24:51 GMT
"These people are crawling out of the sewer, Mr. Ward. Maybe the gutter's where we outta be!"
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Post by movielover on Jan 25, 2020 3:43:02 GMT
Birdy - 85' is better and likely Parker's pièce de résistance. Midnight Express and Birdy are Parker's best movies, in my opinion. I thought Mississippi Burning was too heavy handed and exaggerated as well.
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Post by petrolino on Jan 25, 2020 4:34:43 GMT
It is the very worst of the White Savior movies where poor helpless downtrodden people of color who can do nothing to help themselves have to depend on two white males (from the FBI of all places, the agency most dedicated to thwarting the Civil Rights Movement) to save them. Seemingly the African-Americans themselves had nothing to do with pushing society for their basic freedoms. Even the points of view of the white bigots in Mississippi is more important than the black Americans. I admit that Frances McDormand is fine as a Poor White who begins to change her mind about segregation, but the movie should not been about her. “Mississippi Burning” is unhistorical and distasteful by just showing us white heroes and white people's reactions in those turbulent times. I honestly view this movie the opposite way. I think the conflict between two men is about the conflict they experience. If Alan Parker had tried to make a different movie, I'm near-positive that critics would have said, "how dare you pretend to know about this experience". He just made a hard-hitting drama and let the cards fall where they do, as he has his whole career (a least since the 1970s). I wish we had more like him as all his early work provoked debate, from 'Bugsy Malone' to 'The Road To Wellville'. Instead, our greatest exports in the pc era are Guy Ritchie, anything connected to Richard Curtis, and ... I don't know, nationalist "liberal£" treasure Olivia Colman? For me, 'Mississippi Burning' survives like the excessive melodramas of the 1950s that lifted the lid upon suburban practise and inspired the next generation of horror filmmakers (plus shout out to LeRoy's 'The Bad Seed'; as a visceral contribution to a wider debate, that's also gripping in its execution with the lights turned out and the volume up high.
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Post by 博:Dr.BLΔD€:锯 on Jan 25, 2020 12:58:17 GMT
I think this is a great and powerful movie.
I re-watched for the fourth time about 3 weeks ago .
Wether or not it portrays the exact nth degree facts of the incident, climate and period... it reflects attitudes from ignorant bigots and insular, red-neck bullys that did and sadly still do exist in some societies.
Smashing performances and one of my faves.
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Post by petrolino on Jan 26, 2020 18:59:13 GMT
I honestly view this movie the opposite way. I think the conflict between two men is about the conflict they experience. If Alan Parker had tried to make a different movie, I'm near-positive that critics would have said, "how dare you pretend to know about this experience". He just made a hard-hitting drama and let the cards fall where they do, as he has his whole career (a least since the 1970s). I wish we had more like him as all his early work provoked debate, from 'Bugsy Malone' to 'The Road To Wellville'. Instead, our greatest exports in the pc era are Guy Ritchie, anything connected to Richard Curtis, and ... I don't know, nationalist "liberal£" treasure Olivia Colman? For me, 'Mississippi Burning' survives like the excessive melodramas of the 1950s that lifted the lid upon suburban practise and inspired the next generation of horror filmmakers (plus shout out to LeRoy's 'The Bad Seed'; as a visceral contribution to a wider debate, that's also gripping in its execution with the lights turned out and the volume up high. Why would Parker compromise himself like this then, if he wasn't so interested in playing to convention? He did so here. The cards fell too neatly into place, that is the problem I find. It has been a while since I last viewed and I have seen the film about 4 times. There is nothing much to sink ones teeth into in terms of narrative layers, it is all too pat and even simplistic if I recall. I guess I have watched it that many times, to find something that is perhaps deserving of the hype that was lauded on it at the time. I just find it to be a well made but routine racial thriller. I don't recall the hype and lauding but I was quite young when it was released. To me, it was just another movie, but one I enjoyed, as I do much of Alan Parker's film work.
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Post by kingslayer on Jan 26, 2020 19:54:25 GMT
Films like this and A Time to Kill are why I think I can't get into modern versions of them that come out today like Just Mercy. Stories like this have been told before and now feel like are being repeated. All are different of course but one can only see the same pattern play out before losing interest.
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Post by darkreviewer2013 on Jan 27, 2020 2:45:47 GMT
Great and very powerful movie. Does a really good job of highlighting the monstrosity of the old racial order in the Southern US. Gene Hackman is wonderful as the tough cop who is a good guy beneath it all.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Jan 30, 2020 19:55:15 GMT
I understand the complaints of some, but it's better to have powerful films like this than not at all. Very good film.
My Review >
What is wrong with these people?
James Chaney, Andy Goodman and Mickey Schwener were murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan in Neshoba County, Mississippi 1964. Their disappearance and subsequent murder sparked off one of the biggest FBI manhunts in history, and led to the conviction of several high profile Klan members.
This is an interpretation of those events...
Make no bones about it, Mississippi Burning is an emotionally sapping piece of film, the vile and despicable theme at its core should sicken anyone with an ounce of decency in their respective make up. What stops the film being the masterpiece of importance it should have been, is that director Alan Parker gives way to over fictionalising the already harsh facts of the case. In the process, choosing to stereotype both parties and sidestepping equality issues in favour of an FBI uneasy alliance, and a god forsaken romantic sub-plot! It's such a shame that Parker and his backers obviously lost sight of the reason they picked the project to film in the first place.
So what are we left with? Well it's still one hell of a film for sure. The harshness and emotional impact is evident as the story unfolds, the troubled South vividly brought to life in a sea of burning crosses and segregated restaurants, with Peter Biziou's Academy Award winning cinematography an essential extra character in the piece. The cast is almost to die for, Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe take the lead roles as our feuding, at odds, FBI investigators, Popeye Doyle meets Sgt Elias anyone? But its with the supporting cast that Mississippi Burning becomes an essential watch for fans of actors. Rolling off the tongue like a who's who of weasel character actors is Michael Rooker, Brad Douriff, R. Lee Ermey, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Pruitt Taylor Vince, with FBI support coming from Tobin Bell and Kevin Dunn. Frances McDormand does fine with a caricature written part, whilst fans of Biloxi Blues {me} will delight in seeing the wonderfully named Park Overall laying on her hussy act in the beauty salon.
At times shattering, at others frustrating, Mississippi Burning sadly only scratches the surface of the topic to hand, but for sure the movie world is all the more better for films like this, so in that it becomes an essential watch, so see it if you haven't already. 8/10
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