Mississippi Burning Parent Guide

Those of us who are too young to remember the Civil Rights Movement too often see it through a rosy haze of non-violent protests, soaring rhetoric, and a victory won in a righteous cause. Mississippi Burning reminds us that this part of American history is also a story of fire, blood, hate, and terror – and that there’s still a long way to go.

Mississippi Burning is a fictional movie, but it’s loosely based on a real event, the June 1964 murder of three civil rights activists – Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney. In the film, the young men remain nameless and the story is focused on the efforts of the FBI agents tasked with tracking down their murderers. Agent Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) is a rising star in the agency, bullet-scarred and tested in the trenches. He’s determined to run a textbook investigation and clear the case with dispatch. His junior is Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman), some years older, with his own life experience as a sheriff in Mississippi.

The story gains its tension from two conflicts: the first between the FBI and the local sheriff’s office, which is determined to protect the killers; and the second, between Ward and Anderson who are at loggerheads over strategy. Both conflicts heat up in an atmosphere of brutal, pervasive cruelty.

It’s difficult to overstate the amount of violence in this film – but it’s not surprising given the horrors perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan on African Americans for generations. Mississippi Burning doesn’t ignore or sugarcoat the savagery of the time – there are two scenes of lynchings, repeated scenes of physical assault (including the punching and kicking of a child leaving church), a riot involving assault and arson, and multiple images of black-owned homes and churches being set on fire. I don’t think this film goes more than ten minutes at a stretch without a violent episode. Even the FBI gets in on the action, with Anderson deploying dirty tricks, including kidnapping a suspect and threatening him with castration. When Ward protests that illegal tactics put the FBI in the gutter, Anderson’s response is “They crawled out of the sewer. Maybe the gutter’s where we should be.” That’s certainly where they wind up.

Given the sheer viciousness of some of the film’s scenes (and the 60+ profanities and racial slurs), parents and teachers are going to want to carefully consider showing this movie to teens. It accurately depicts the fiery terror of the civil rights era in the deep South and forces viewers to confront their own feelings on issues such as race, segregation, and policing but that knowledge comes at the cost of watching deeply disturbing images.

I struggle with the content issues in Mississippi Burning because, although they are pervasive and troubling, they are true to the time and removing them would lessen the impact of this film. Should this movie be widely watched? Yes. Should it be watched by teens? That’s a question that will need to be determined by teachers and parents on an individual basis. The violence is disquieting, but it’s also part of history – and the current reality for many young people. Perhaps movies like this, by showing the agony of racial violence, will motivate us to bring it to an end.