Thoughts on Mississippi Burning

 

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"It's not good for you to be here. ... 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 is what's said in the Bible. 'Genesis 9, verse 27.' Seven years of age. You get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe that hatred. You live it. You breathe it. ... You marry it."

Frances McDormand, the reigning Academy Award winner for Best Actress, was first nominated for playing Mrs. Pell in Mississippi Burning. The character and material were among the most awards-friendly 1988 had to offer an actress. Pell (no first name is given), as written by Chris Gerolmo, stands in for any good white person who finally takes a stand against racism. Her characterization and dramatic purpose were apparently invented for the movie, which takes place in 1964 but has dialogue that is occasionally startlingly modern. Nearly 60 years later and we still hear people blame "outside influences" when crap in their communities makes the evening news*. Anyway, Pell's courage comes as she's seduced by FBI Agent Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman). "I guess (my ex-wife) got fed up with phone calls from Miami, postcards from Des Moines." Anderson is another awards and actor-friendly role, the hero not above getting dirty.

*Townspeople sharing their ill-informed views to TV cameras sort of links Burning with A Cry in the Dark.

Violence aside -- and there's a lot of it -- Gerolmo and director Alan Parker made a pretty old-fashioned film. Burning, to be succinct, has two white guys as Virgil Tibbs. Agent Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe), who would likely bring in all of the FBI if it would intimidate any and all of Jessup County into providing answers for the deaths of "Goatee," "Passenger" and "Black Passenger," is constantly at odds with the savvier Anderson. It's a victory when Anderson and Ward actually sound like they're on the same side. Their opponents include barely-concealed Klansmen and/or Klan supporters in law enforcement (Brad Dourif as Deputy Clinton Pell, Gailard Sartain as the sheriff), polite society (R. Lee Ermey as the mayor, Stephen Tobolowsky as a prominent businessman) and the dregs (Michael Rooker and Pruitt Taylor Vince).

Of the seven 1988 movies with Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress-nominated performances, Burning is the only one where you could envision the performance being cut without having too much of an impact. Yes, Anderson beats the shit out of Pell after finding out Mrs. Pell got put in the hospital for no longer giving her husband an alibi. But Pell getting his comeuppance was something that was anticipated from the start of the movie. McDormand is quite pretty in Burning, especially when Mrs. Pell and Anderson are talking in her kitchen. But aside from a couple lines ("A girl spends all of her time in high school looking for the guy she's gonna marry, and spends the rest of her life wonderin' why."), is there any attempt to really understand Mrs. Pell? Modern viewers have called Frances' nomination a victory of an actress over her movie, and I agree.

"I'm not goin' anywhere. I'm stayin'. This is my home. Born here. Probably die here. If I wanted to leave, I would have done it a long time ago. Things'll work out. There's enough good people around here know what I did was right. And enough ladies like the way I fix their hair. ... Hey -- if you're ever in Des Moines ... don't send me a postcard."

This is another one where my grade toes the line. We can talk more about Mississippi Burning itself in the comments section. Mostly thanks to Hackman, I'm going to go with Recommended with Reservations.

Thoughts:
-- "I swear to God, Lester, you are living proof why cousins shouldn't fuck!"
-- Box Office: Grossing $34.6 million on a $15 million budget, this opened wide at No. 7.
-- Awards Watch: In addition to Frances and Gene, Oscar nominations also went to the movie, Parker, the cinematography (which won), the editing and the sound. Burning went zero for four at the Golden Globes, with nominations for the movie, Parker, Hackman and Gerolmo. It had three wins, for sound, cinematography and editing, plus nods for Parker and Trevor Jones' music, at the BAFTAs.
-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "One of the toughest, straightest, most effective fiction films yet made about bigotry and racial violence, whether in this country or anywhere else in the world," Vincent Canby wrote. "It views the Black struggle from an all-white perspective," Rita Kempley observed. "It's the right story, but with the wrong heroes. There's the nagging feeling that it begins where it ought to have ended -- with the deaths of the three young activists."
-- Critic's Corner, Frances: "McDormand gives one of the year's most complex performances," Kempley wrote. "She is the movie's sole hero, its moral backbone, a pivotal character ..."

-- Hey, It's ...!: Kevin Dunn, Tobin Bell, Frankie Faison, Park Overall and the one who really got me excited once I recognized him, Darius McCrary.
-- "What's wrong with these people?"
-- Next: Madame Sousatzka. On deck: Running on Empty.