Mississippi Burning review

 Number 470 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1988 crime-thriller 'Mississippi Burning.'

Mississippi Burning is based on the true story of three civil rights activists going missing in a small Mississippi town. When FBI agents Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) and Alan Ward (Wilhelm Dafoe) start investigating, they are met with hostility from the town's racist locals. Soon they suspect the three activists were killed by the KKK. Frances Mcdormand, Brad Dourif, Michael Rooker, R. Lee Erney and Stephen Tobolowsky co-star.

I recently wrote a listicle about films too traumatic to watch again. If I were to write another list, surely Mississippi Burning would be at the top of the list. This is a film that does not shy away from the United States' racist past. Rather, it tackles it head-on. And there's no other way you can depict such horrible subject matter.

Mississippi Burning is a harrowing and brutal portrayal of the ugly discrimination that the black community was forced to endure. Yes, it does show it through the perspective of white men, and it would be have been more interesting if the black men were put more front-and-centre, but it was still a powerful watch all the same.

The relationship between Anderson and Ward underpinned the film. Anderson, the older and more maverick of the two, has to follow the orders of the younger, but more senior in rank, Ward, who is a stickler for the rules. Despite their differences, they learn to work together.  Dafoe and Hackman had great chemistry, which shone through.

As Dafoe is a character actor, he usually plays larger-than-life oddballs, usually leading, to over-the-top, exaggerated performances *cough cough* the the Boondock Saints, but he was incredibly measured and controlled in this.

Hackman was also great. Anderson has a romantic subplot with the wife of one of the Mississippi police officers played by Frances Mcdormand. she showed why she is one of the few actors to have won three Best Acting Oscars. Their relationship was wonderfully understated. Originally, the pair were supposed to have a sex-scene, but this was dropped in favour of the two characters standing in the shadows. And that's all we needed to see. Props to the lighting department.

And all the supporting cast were good too: Brad Dourif, Michael Rooker, and, especially, Stephen Tobolowsky were chilling ass the abhorrent KKK members.

Sure there might be some who criticise Mississippi Burning for distorting history, but the key message is clear enough: the black community was subject to terrible, racist abuse. And that's a true we should never forget.

In the Heat of the Night review

 Number 322 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1967 mystery-drama 'In the Heat of the Night.'

Virgil Tibbs (Sydney Poitier) is a Philadelphia police officer visiting his mother in Mississippi. When a town official is murdered, he is drafted into helping the local Chief of Police Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger.) But the racist town folks are incredibly distrustful and hostile toward Virgil Tibbs.

It can be all too easy to dismiss America's fixation on race, as a mere perverse obsession. But then you watch films like this and you are reminded that less than sixty years ago, these racist attitudes were still alive and well. I'm not talking about the actual film either. Norman Jewison partly shot the film in Tennessee where the cast and crew were harassed by the locals. Plus, Sydney Poitier slept with a gun under his pillow. 

And Sydney Poitier was the driving force behind this film. He was great as Virgil Tibbs who bore all the racial abuse with a steely determination to solve the case. Poitier played the role with a righteous determination. He was terrific.

I would argue that he was even better than his co-star Rod Steiger who won the best Acting Oscar for his portrayal of Gillespie. Out of all the police, he is perhaps the most racist, but after being forced into working with Virgil, we see his outdated views changing. Steiger played this transformation well. But Poitier was the true star.

Another thing I liked was the simplicity of the film. Often in thrillers, like in sci-fi, you have writers trying to put in twist after twist to show how clever they are, when they're just making things convoluted. There is nothing wrong with simplicity. And that's where 'In the Heat of the Night' succeeded. Virgil Tibbs wasn't trying to decode the cyphers that the Zodiac Killer left. He wasn't tracking down the likes of Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. Instead he was solving the murder of a single man. And the solution was far simpler than anybody thought.

Finally, I enjoyed the use of prolonged silences that really upped the tension especially where Virgil was facing off against a gang of white men looking to kill him. This silence was balanced well with Quincy Jones' excellent score which included Ray Charles on the title track.

In the Heat of the Night was a great watch with terrific performances from not only Rod Steiger, but, also, Sydney Poitier.