Some people down here feel some things are worth killing for.
A sobering thought: Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning was made in 1988, 24 years after the events it depicts. Now it's 27 years later and it still feels relevant, which just seems wrong to me. In the words of FBI Agent Rupert Anderson, there are "no pointy hats, but plenty of pointy heads" in Jessup County, Mississippi, 1964, and that's largely the case today as well. Sure, some modern-day Ku Kluxers continue to appear in public in their full regalia, but people don't need to dress up in funny costumes to express their hatred of those that are different from them. Heck, some of them can even run for president.
Chris Gerolmo's screenplay may fictionalize things a bit -- and it amps up the melodrama more than a tad -- but the basic facts are the same. When three civil rights activists go missing while on a voter-registration drive in rural Mississippi the summer of 1964, the FBI sends Special Agents Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe, the idealist) and Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman, the realist) to investigate. Eventually they learn what they've suspected from the start -- that the young men were murdered by the Klan -- but in order to crack the case, the by-the-books Ward has to take a page out of Anderson's, as distasteful as that may be to him in the short term.
One of the most eye-catching things about Mississippi Burning -- apart from Peter Biziou's Oscar-winning cinematography -- is the way its supporting cast is filled with so many familiar faces. You've got Frances McDormand as the wife of disdainful sheriff's deputy Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey as the apoplectic town mayor, Stephen Tobolowsky as one of its most prominent businessman and Grand Wizard of the local chapter of the Klan (who holds a "political" rally under a "NEVER NEVER NEVER" banner), Michael Rooker as one of its hooded enforcers, and Kevin Dunn as one of the FBI agents who comes to town when Ward puts out the call for reinforcements. About the only incongruous element is Trevor Jones's synthetic score, which doesn't really go with the period, but it's not too much of a distraction.