Mississippi Burning

"1964. When America was at war with itself."

1988 2h 8m EN

🙌

7.7

BANGER

🍅

79%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.8

IMDB

★7.7TMDB · 2,037🍅79%Rotten Tomatoes●65Metacritic★7.8IMDB · 125,709

DramaCrimeMysteryThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his partner, a former sheriff.

“1964. When America was at war with itself.”

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Cast

Gene Hackman
Agent Rupert Anderson
Willem Dafoe
Agent Alan Ward
Frances McDormand
Mrs. Pell
Brad Dourif
Deputy Clinton Pell
R. Lee Ermey
Mayor Tilman
Gailard Sartain
Sheriff Stuckey
Stephen Tobolowsky
Townley
Michael Rooker
Frank Bailey

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alan Parker
Writers: Chris Gerolmo
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

38 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alan Parker, shot by Peter Biziou. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Trevor Jones. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Gerry Hambling shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe and Frances McDormand carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "1964. When America was at war with itself.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0095647 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alan Parker directs. Peter Biziou behind the camera. Trevor Jones scores. Gerry Hambling cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

138 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by Alan Parker, shot by Peter Biziou. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Trevor Jones. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Gerry Hambling shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe and Frances McDormand carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "1964. When America was at war with itself.".
7IMDB entry: tt0095647 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 23 themes, including "suicide", "sheriff", "police", "funeral".

The technical file

Cinematography: Peter Biziou
Original score: Trevor Jones
Editing: Gerry Hambling
Production design: Philip Harrison
Costume design: Aude Bronson-Howard
Makeup / hair: Paul LeBlanc
Sound: Robert J. Litt
Stunt coordinator: John Robotham
Runtime: 128 min · 2h 8m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $15,000,000
Box office: $34,604,000
Return: 231% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Mississippi Burning (1988)
Rotten Tomatoes: 79% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 65/100
IMDB rating: 7.8/10 · 125,709 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 17 wins & 25 nominations total

National Board of Review Award for Best Film
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Alan Parker

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

kevin20192024-04-19
★ 10/10
"Mississippi Burning" has both insight and intelligence and it is an incredibly uncompromising scrutinization of how racism blighted American society and it is frightening to think the residents of Jessop in Mississippi possess minds much smaller than their town. This film also prompts you to seriously examine your own conscience in relation to the matter of the race issue, but how many people will actually be enthusiastically prepared to carry out such a thing? And how many of us will be shocked to discover something of Mayor Tilman in ourselves: we know all about what is going on and yet we choose to do nothing about it? That is the real lasting power of this superb film and that is why it will continue to have great longevity and deservedly so.
CinemaSerf2024-04-28
★ 7/10
When three men go missing from their small-town Mississippi home, the FBI sends a team to investigate. "Anderson" (Gene Hackman) is very much the more hands-on of the pair leading the team, with "Ward" (Willem Dafoe) more inclined to play by the book. Their arrival exposes them to an open culture of racial hatred that's not only tolerated by the local sheriff "Stuckey" (Gailard Sartain) but enthusiastically supported by his deputy "Pell" (Brad Dourif). Their arrival only seems to empower the bigots as more Negro property is trashed or razed to the ground and the people themselves subjected to increasingly dangerous violence. The audience watching this know the local dynamic and who is pulling the strings, so the thrust of this rather potent look at the ghastliness going on here comes as we follow the differing styles of policing these men use to get to the bottom of things - and in a way that will make the equally complicit judicial system sit up and take note. With a media carnival only fanning the flames and tempers flying on both sides, the agents put into place a complex sting operation to turn the weapons of these intimidators into the very things that will hopefully entrap them. Hackman and Dafoe make for a formidable coupling in this well written and presented thriller that shines an unashamed light on the toxic attitudes of the white population whose concern for the missing men amounted to little more than "they got whet they deserved". Dourif is also on good form as his truly odious character emerges - not just against his black neighbours, but against his own wife (Frances McDormand) too. Alan Parker and Chris Gerolmo have created a palpably criminal scenario here and the ensemble deliver well that sense of fear, loathing and superiority. The photography captures well this increasingly menacing, dark and swamp-infested environment and by the denouement I did feel that this was all a perfectly plausible train of events in the mid-1960s USA.