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The movie Mississippi Burning

The movie Mississippi Burning presents a fictional account of the very real tragedy that occurred in Philadelphia, Mississippi in June of 1964 when three civil rights advocates were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). While the movie is based on real events, it presents a highly charged and unreal evocation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their tactics in solving the crime. The movie paints its moral with a thick brush, presenting the KKK's brutality and the FBI's ruthlessness as unequivocal acts of terrorism.

The movie opens with the credits rolling over the vivid image of a church burning in the hot Mississippi night. The movie then moves directly to the brutal murder of the three activistsùtwo white, one blackùby hooded members of the KKK. The KKK is depicted in the harshest of lights, as terrorists in the most traditional sense of the word: their goal is to terrorize blacks. But the movie contends that their hatred for the whites who were helping blacks to claim their rights was incandescent and knew no bounds. Perhaps the most appalling quote in the movie reflects this: "You didn't leave me nothin' but a nigger," says James Chaney's killer in the movie, "But at least I killed me a nigger."

The KKK in the movie is presented as all pervasive, penetrating the highest levels of government including the Sheriff, who does his best to cover up the murders and who turns a blind eye on the constant stream of beatings, lynchings, and cross burnings that are a central motif of the movie. The KKK terrorizes the black community constantly in the movie, and the black community is presented as victims who are unable to do anything about the constant stream of hatred and violence that is rained upon them. Examples include the retaliatory burnings of black churches after the FBI finds the abandoned vehicle of the three civil rights workers, a scene in the middle of the movie when the KKK interrupts a black ...

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The movie Mississippi Burning. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:21, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1703485.html