Mississippi Burning

Early in Mississippi Burning, there is a great tracking shot of a car on a desolate highway, disappearing from sight and reappearing as it negotiates the slopes on the road. A few moments later, there is a sideways shot that captures the hugeness of the landscape as a lone moving vehicle races by. The scene is filled with terror and impending doom, the eerie setting exacerbates the rippling tension boiling beneath the surface. Later immediately, as we come to know, the three civil rights activists in the car are shot dead.

The sudden disappearance of three civil rights activists threatens to spark widespread riots as the FBI launches an investigation. The two agents at the forefront of the investigation are Agent Anderson(Gene Hackman) and Agent Ward(Willem Dafoe). The ensuing investigation brings us to the heart of the crisis – a biased administration, a deeply segregated society, a partisan police – all state structures in place to subjugate the Negro.

The opening scene as the credits roll shows two washbasins (in what is presumably a washroom) with a signboard above them saying White and Colored. It is a brilliant expression of the reality of segregation in the United States in the 1960’s, the period in which the movie is set. The emphasis on fire remains throughout, the clinicality of the Klan rioters, their cold bloodedness is terrifying and chillingly realistic. Then there is the brilliant scene in which Anderson(Hackman) drops one of the suspects Lester into a black neighbourhood after questioning him in a car. It shows how fears can be easily replaced, how the bravado or domination of a certain community is nothing but a mere strength of numbers. Lester runs back as fast as he can, his Klan demeanour is nowhere to be seen. The best scene is however when Anderson interrogates Deputy Sheriff in his brusque manner in the barber shop – this is one of those rare moments in cinema that can raise your knuckles.

Gene Hackman as Agent Anderson is absolutely superb. His mordant sense of humour, irreverence for procedures and rules, and his conclusion on baseball (Its the only place where a black man can wave a stick at a white man and not start a riot) is endearing and poignant. In a way, his lack of apparent seriousness offers a deeper analysis into the incorrigibility and pervasiveness of racist mindsets in the South than all of Agent Ward’s (Dafoe) positioning as a serious man with serious concerns. The supporting cast has been well-etched out, each small character representing a distinct reality. The tense score adds to the ever accumulating sense of fear, and is a major asset to the film.

However Mississippi Burning suffers from similar ills as afflicts other serious Hollywood cinema. The tendency to make the characters speak perfect lines sometimes dilutes the realism. The scene in which Mrs Pell (Frances McDormand) tells Anderson about how racist mentalities are assimilated from the age of six is hard-hitting, yet could have been more real had the conversation allowed to become more natural. The theatrical touch has the impact, but harms the realism. This is a common tendency in Hollywood arthouse cinema in its urge to play to the galleries, and it is here I feel European cinema is a little more subtle in its treatment. But the high tone of narrative works in Mississippi Burning because of the indubitable honesty and the graphic power of the images.

Mississippi Burning is a must watch. It is a hard-hitting, powerful motion picture about one of the most tumultous times in American history.