Post by kijii on Aug 18, 2020 20:27:25 GMT
Alan Parker memorial watching schedule-Part 13 (The last of watching his complete feature films).
Mississippi Burning (1988) / Alan Parker
It seems as though I may have saved Parker's best film for last!! This film received seven Oscar nominations including one for Parker's direction; Gene Hackman for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Frances McDormand for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
In 1964, when two FBI agents come into Mississippi to investigate the murder of three civil rights workers--2 white students and a black man---they are faced with being the minority in a small racist town in the Jim Crow-era South where the pillars of the town could commit violence behind their KKK hoods at night without any problem. But, who are these people and how can be be caught and prosecuted for their crimes? The two FBI agents come from very different backgrounds: Ward (Willem Dafoe) is a very dorky Northern by-the-book agent while Anderson (Gene Hackman) was born was raised in Mississippi and knows more about how to deal with the situation they are facing.
This all leads to an intense real-life drama...
Mrs. Pell (Frances McDormand) : It's not good for you to be here.
Agent Anderson (Gene Hackman): Why?
Mrs. Pell : It's ugly. This whole thing is so ugly. Have you any idea what it's like to live with all this? People look at us and only see bigots and racists. Hatred isn't something you're born with. It gets taught. At school, they said segregation what's said in the Bible... Genesis 9, Verse 27. At 7 years of age, you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred. You live it... you breathe it. You marry it.
Anderson (Gene Hackman): You know, if I were a Negro, I'd probably think the same way they do.
Ward (Willem Dafoe) : If you were a Negro, nobody would give a damn what you thought.
