The shameful era of life in the American South, circa early-sixties, came flooding back in this powerful 1989 drama.
Directed by Alan Parker and inspired by real-life events, the story begins with the murder of three young civil rights workers – two white and one black – in small-town Mississippi. At first considered a missing-persons case, the FBI airlifts in two agents named Anderson and Ward, played by Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe. Ward is the by-the-book type, while Anderson is more personable and more understanding of the Southern culture. Both men feel the local law enforcement’s seething distrust at their presence and both are shocked at the open displays of bigotry in the town. Once the bodies are discovered, the agents have reason to suspect the Ku Klux Klan, but all efforts to gain information on the local chapter prove fruitless. Hackman and Dafoe are outstanding as the G-men thrust into the racially charged environment. The dramatic quotient is pushed higher by several brand-name support players, including Michael Rooker and Brad Dourif, as townsfolk and, most notably, Frances McDormand as the wife of an unrepentant Klansman. As in all her screen performances, McDormand is a powerful presence in a small role.
Friday, PBS at 8 p.m.
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