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1996
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GHOSTS
OF MISSISSIPPI
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STARRING:ALEC
BALDWIN,WHOOPI GOLDBERG,JAMES WOODS,SUSANNA THOMPSON,CRAIG T.NELSON,WILLAIM
H.MACY,LUCAS BLACK,JOSEPH TELLO,ALEXA VEGA,VIRGINIA MADSEN
WRITTEN
BY LEWIS COLICK
PRODUCED
BY NICHOLAS PALEOLOGOS,ROB REINER,ANDREW SCHEINMEN & FREDERICK
ZOLLO
DIRECTED
BY ROB REINER
GENRE:DRAMA/BIOGRAPHY
RATED:AUSTRALIA:M/UK:15/USA:PG-13
RUNNING
TIME:130 MIN
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In
Mississippi, June, 1963, black civil rights leader Medgar Evers was
killed in front of his house, and his killer Byron De La Beckwith
(James Woods) was let off after two mistrials. 26 years later, Bob
DeLaughter (Alec Baldwin) a district attorney for Mississippi is asked
to re-open the case by Evers' widow, Myrlie (Whoopi Goldberg) after
the story broke that the juries were fixed during Beckwith's trials.
DeLaughter excepts, facing the impossible task of locating all of
the key witnesses from a 26 year old murder case as his marriage falls
apart and his life is threatened.
For a movie to be based on a true story of justice in the face of
intolerance to constantly stumble over its own cliché sappiness
is nothing sort of disappointing. It does not have the emotional punch
to move you, with the films opening credits showing documentary footage
of the history of Black America, including those opposed their freedoms
and those who fought for their freedoms (Evers, Malcolm X, Martin
Luther King) the only exception.
It is a movie about a state struggling to accept the sins of its past,
but when compared to Mississippi Burning or A
Time to Kill it doesn't even match up. This is due to Rob
Reiner's lackluster direction (when was the last time he made a good
film?) and Marc Shaiman's awful score making Ghosts of Mississippi
seem more like a woeful TV movie than a feature film.
Neither Alec Baldwin nor Whoopi Goldberg leave much of an impression,
Baldwin's southern accent sticking out like a sore thumb while Goldberg
is very bland.
The films lone saving grace is James Woods who is spectacular as Beckwith,
the smiling assassin who is secured by the thought that no white man
has been convicted for killing a black man in the state of Mississippi,
with Matthew W. Mungle and Deborah La Mia Denaver receiving well deserved
Oscar nominations for their excellent make up aging Woods. |
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