5/5 "What is wrong with these people"
  by Nuisance (Miami)
I am amazed at this average rating for this movie(4 stars?). There are movies that stink to high heaven getting 4 and 1/2 stars and even five. Incredible. Mississippi Burning is a very hard film to look at but a very truthful and gritty look at racism in southern Mississippi during the Civil Rights era.

The story details FBI agents Rupert Anderson(Gene Hackman)and Alan Ward(Willem Dafoe) search for the killers an African-American male and two Jewish males. Their search takes them to the heart of Mississippi where the racism is deep-seated and the police are inflexible to a fault. They later realize how deep the police involvement in the killings were.

No other movie about race relations has moved me like Mississippi Burning has. American History X is phenomenal but it didnt make me as angry as this movie did. I wish I had the power to stop these psychos from doing what they did. Mississippi Burning was the movie that made me question my faith in organized religion. I couldn't fathom that I was believing in the same belief system that these lunatics were believing in. I dumped belief in organized religions after extensive research at the age of 20 but this movie sparked my curiosity. Gene Hackman is wonderful as Agent Rupert. He steals every scene he is in. Willem Dafoe is great as his partner Alan Ward. Agent Anderson(Hackman) handles things in an unconventional manner while Agent Ward(Dafoe) is by the book. This is where Dafoe showed his true potential before he started screwing up his career by appearing in sewage like Speed 2, Boondock Saints, Body Of Evidence and XXX: State Of The Union. Also great in this movie is Brad Dourif as the racist Deputy Clinton Pell and R. Lee Ermey as the racist mayor. I also like how they showed the views of the average ignorant Mississippian and how the cops either participated in the killing and terrorizing of Blacks in Mississippi or sat back and watched it happen.

Conclusion: Mississippi Burning is the best movie of 1989 hands down and is definitely required viewing. But be forewarned that this is not an easy movie to watch. But if you can stomach the violence you have a gem on your hands. I find it sad that the director Alan Parker didnt have many movies after this one.

5/5 Poignant and Brilliant Docudrama
  by La Profa (usa)
I have loved this film for a long time, and have watched it repeatedly. It provides a valuable lesson on the civil rights era which I have shown to students who have no idea of what the 60s were like when the civil rights wars were being fought. The cast is excellent, and this film remains a poignantly dignified tribute to those who died fighting to put an end to primitive and savage racism.

4/5 intrigue, shoking but long
  by Vladimir Akishin (Miami, FL USA)
This is a type of movies you should watch at least once to make a step towards to getting a comprehensive view at the american cinema or expand your present one if you're one of those who always crave for a real good stuff.
The movie is bit long but it's worth to watch. If you possess some basic knowledge of what was happening during the era of civil rights, you would enjoy seeing the actual based-on-the-true-events scenes and comparing it to the present time. Living in the South and witnessing the black culture that becomes so popular, it has been so unusual to get a snap-shot of some 40 years ago.


4/5 The film succeeds by being gripping, emotional, and disturbing...
  by Roberto Frangie (Leon, Gto. Mexico)
Mississippi Burning is set in 1964 when three civil rights activists are murdered in a small town by the Ku Klux Klan... Two of them were white and one of them black...

Based on actual events in Philadelphia, the screenplay centers chiefly on the hostility relationship between the two FBI agents (Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe) sent down to the small Mississippi town to seek information about the vanishing of the three victims... Immediately upon their arrival, they are greeted with hostility by the local law enforcement and the town in general...

Dafoe's Ward-- in charge of the case--comes off as the embodiment of everything those men in the south dislike about the "Yankees" who are coming down there commanding them how to act...

Anderson(Hackman), who was once a Mississippi officer himself, has a special feel for how to settle things with Southerners... He uses his charm to win the confidence of the friendly wife of a Klansman deputy, whom he suspects holds the key to unravel the details of the case...

The scenes between McDormand and Hackman are the best of the film... They dramatize how quickly two lonely people can match...

The film succeeds by being gripping, emotional, and disturbing... Alan parker graphically explores the hatred, motivations and mentality that were once flaming through the American society in the 60's.

4/5 3 stars out of 4
  by One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
The Bottom Line:

Neither historically accurate nor an effective police procedural, Mississippi Burning succeeds despite its flaws due to the fact that it can boast a trio of fine performances and an exquisite sense of atmosphere and menace.