In 1989, the scenario writer Alan Parker tackles a large piece of his filmography: “Mississippi Burning”. Worn by Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman, did you know that the feature film is inspired by a true story that took place in 1964?
Mississippi Burning: huge classic
After Midnight Express, Pink Floyd The Walland Angel Heart, filmmaker Alan Parker returned with another masterpiece in 1989: Mississippi Burning. Led by Willem Dafoe, Gene Hackman, Frances McDormand, and even Michael Rooker, the film takes place in 1964.
It relates the investigation of two FBI agents (Dafoe and Hackman) who are interested in the disappearance of three activists in the state of Mississippi. Very quickly, their investigations disturb the locals. Racist violence breaks out in a city where the Ku Klux Klan has a lot of control.
Mississippi Burning is considered today as an enormous classic of the seventh art. The feature film is nominated 7 times for the Oscars (including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor) but leaves with only one statuette: that of Best Cinematography for Peter Biziou.
Inspired by a True Story
Mississippi Burning also left a lasting impression because it was inspired by a true story. In 1964 (the date the film takes place), three young activists, two whites and one black, named Michael Schwerner (24), Andrew Goodman (20), and James Chaney (21), are violently murdered.
Goodman and Schwerner were shot, and Chaney was beaten to death. This horrific murder takes place on June 21, on a road in Mississippi towards Philadelphia. The three men were first arrested by the police for no real reason, before being released. They are assassinated a few hours later in the night.
The bodies were not found until August 4, 1964. That is more than a month after the fact, following an investigation by the FBI office. This case, dubbed the “Freedom Summer Murders”, was orchestrated by the Ku Klux Klan, extremely established in the region at the time. In that summer of 1964, nicknamed freedom summer thousands of young activists traveled to the American South to help African Americans register to vote.
In 1967, these murders led to the arrest of around twenty members of the Ku Klux Klan. A total of 18 people were charged with these three murders. But only 7 of them were sentenced to 10 years in prison. A conviction not for murder, but for “civil rights violation”. Very lenient sanctions, since most of the judges at the time, were supporters of the KKK.
In 1998, one of the 7 condemned decides to confess everything and denounces Edgar Ray Killen, a former Klu Klux Klan official, who allegedly orchestrated the whole thing. The case is therefore reopened in 2005, and new testimonies establish the implication of this new suspect. A new trial takes place, and Edgar Ray Killen is condemned to 60 years of criminal imprisonment. Aged 80 at the time of his trial, this former leader of the KKK died, in prison, in January 2018.
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