Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4959 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-09-17
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish
• Dubbed in: French, German, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe star in Mississippi Burning, a well-intentioned and largely successful civil-rights-era thriller. Using the real-life 1964 disappearance of three civil rights workers as its inspiration, the film tells the story of two FBI men (Hackman and Dafoe, entertainingly called "Hoover Boys" by the locals) who come in to try to solve the crime. Hackman is a former small-town Mississippi sheriff himself, while Dafoe is a by-the-numbers young hotshot. (Yes, there is some tension between the two.) The movie has an interesting fatalism, as all the FBI's best efforts simply incite more and more violence--the film's message, perhaps inadvertently, seems to be that vigilantism is the only real way to get things done. The brilliant Frances McDormand, here early in her career, is not given enough to do but still does it well enough to have racked up an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. (Hackman also received a nomination for Best Actor, and the film won an Academy Award for Cinematography). Mississippi Burning is ultimately unsatisfying--it is, after all, the story of white men coming in to rescue poor blacks--but it is beautifully shot and very watchable, featuring a terrific cast playing at the top of their games. --Ali Davis, Amazon.com

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
DVD 9
French\German\Spanish
English\German
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Surround English French German Spanish
Dolby Digital Surround
Original Theatrical Trailer
Interactive Menus Screens
Chapter Selections
Audio Commentary By Alan Parker
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Norwegian\Spanish\Swedish

Synopsis
In 1964, when three civil-rights workers, two white and one black, mysteriously disappear while driving through Mississippi, two FBI agents, Ward (Willem Dafoe) and Anderson (Gene Hackman), are sent in to investigate. While Ward is young and by the book, Anderson is a seasoned southerner comfortable with the Byzantine (and, to Ward, morally ambiguous) ways of his region. Together they sift through a variety of leads and come up empty-handed--until the town sheriff's wife (Frances McDormand) steps forward and reveals some surprising information. In order to solve the case, the two contrasting agents must not only overcome the hostility of the local authorities and the black community but contend with their own differences as well.
A fictionalized account of one of the landmarks in the civil-rights movement, MISSISSIPPI BURNING is a swift and powerful film. Director Alan Parker, continuing his investigation of human cruelty (begun explosively in his harrowing 1978 film MIDNIGHT EXPRESS), crafts a historically poignant film that fingers the monstrosities of a virulent strain of racial intolerance in America. Dafoe and Hackman are convincing as they investigate the disappearance of the civil-rights workers and unravel the grisly web of obfuscation around a scandalous, cancerous truth very near the heart of a nation.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding!
Based on true events that occurred in Mississippi back in the 60's, English Director Alan Parker's capital G-for-Gritty film is about as close to real-life as you would expect to get, with an extra little spice of life thrown in at good measure.

Set 1964 in a small town of Mississippi, the story follows the investigation of three missing civil-right workers, two white and one black, and the FBI's involvement to track them down before the community protest's for them to depart becomes too great, and find who, or who's reasonable. Starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as the two opposites-attract FBI Agents sent from Washington to discover the bodies dead or alive, begin to find their own mortality hanging in the balance as they come closer to uncovering the truth that leads all the way back up the ranks.

In one scene, Anderson (Hackman) observes 'What has four eyes, but can not see', Ward (Dafoe) baffled bails out and Anderson replies 'Mississippi'. This still remains a very important piece of the films' jigsaw, that keeps it social conscious raising the fact that even with this North-American intrusion, their bigoted and personal lives are unaffected, and that their inaccurate belief that nothing is capable of pulling-apart the Klan. The characters hiding out in the local police station are more slippery then slimer in 'Ghostbusters' as they wriggle and worm out of situations brandishing a smug smile.

Violence is in frequent use throughout and is of the most acrid, but its unprecedented message is one not be ignored. A fantastic and landmark piece of film-making that delivers a story with more undercurrents than the Thames.

Five Stars Well Deserved.

A film to savour
I saw this film at the Bromley odeon. It was a hot day, the cinema had no air conditioning, and it was like the deep south.
I don't know how many times I've seen the film since, but I've rented it, bought the video, bought the DVD and watched it on television - so a hell of lot.
Despite these repeated viewings it never loses its power and that comes from two things:
Firstly its subject matter and secondly from a powerhouse performance by Gene Hackman. Willam Dafoe, Frances McDormand and the rest of the cast are uniformly excellent - Hackman is better.
Loosely based on a true event in the 60's, it concerns the dissappearance of two human rights activists. The opening to the film is one of the most tense and memorable scences(and Hackman isn't even in it). Dafoe and Hackman do a variation on the good cop, bad cop routine with bad cop tactics being the final strategy!
Its a great film, which if you haven't seen, you should do so now.

Excellent Film
This is a wonderful film. Alan Parker has done a wonderful job on such a tender subject. Gene Hackman portrays Anderson with such gritiness that I certainly would not want to face him on a dark night. Some good lines such as "You like Baseball?" and the response back "Yeah I do, its the only time a black man can wave a stick at a white man and not start a riot". Dont Miss this film.