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All Movie Info
Starring:
Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg, James Woods, Craig T. Nelson, Wayne Rogers, William H. Macy, Michael O'Keefe, Susanna Thompson, Lucas Black, James Pickens Jr., Virginia Madsen, Bill Cobbs
Directed By:
Rob Reiner
Written By:
Lewis Colick
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Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
February 3rd, 2008
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'Ghosts of Mississippi' begins with the assassination of prominent civil rights leader Medger Evers in 1963, five years before Martin Luther King would meet the same fate, and one could point out that this was the same length of time between the murders of John and Bobby Kennedy. John F Kennedy, as president, gave a famous, stirring speech about the injustices against African-Americans on the day Evers was gunned down, a speech that may have served as a catalyst for change and inspired Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy's successor, to push the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act through Congress, which alienated many southern whites and made them Republicans, so at least for a time, they supported the party Lincoln was a member of. How's that for irony? The movie focuses primarily on the efforts of Evers's widow, Myrlie (Whoopi Goldberg), to bring her husband's killer, Byron de la Beckwith (James Woods) to justice after three decades. Beckwith was obviously guilty, but was never convicted by the all-white jury that handled his original trial. Myrlie is convinced on the one hand that justice is impossible, but that is until she meets Bobby DeLaughter (Alec Baldwin), a brilliant prosecutor who decides to re-examine the case, despite the objections of his wife, Dixie (Virginia Madsen), whose father was the judge at the first trial, and believes Bobby is dishonoring her family. Bobby's own parents still harbor racist views, and he is threatened by local thugs.
He finds support, though, from a nice nurse at the hospital, whom he later marries, and who encourages to do what is right regardless of what stands in his way. His boss, Ed Peters (Craig T Nelson) stands behind him, and he recruits investigator Charlie Crisco (William H Macy) to help him dig up information and prepare the evidence that will put Beckwith away for the rest of his miserable life. Beckwith, by this time, is an old man, whose views have not changed in the least. He is still a white supremacist, thinks of blacks as little more than animals, all but boasts about his crime, and is confident that he will never go to prison. Woods makes Beckwith a vile and disgusting character; we hate him from beginning to end.
It is a fantastic performance, and earned an Oscar nomination. So, too, did the artists who created Woods's old age make-up, which is remarkably convincing. One of the other issues Reiner and screenwriter Lewis Colick explore is the way in which Mississippi (and the rest of the south) can come to terms with the legacy of Jim Crow, and demonstrate an ability to heal the wounds of the past and move on, improve relations between the black and white communities by showing that justice is indeed color-blind. This is, of course, too idealistic, but it is what Bobby believes in, and he tries to gain Myrlie's trust, which is not terribly easy. Bobby is someone we can cheer for; the courtroom scenes are very effective and well-written, though the outcome is largely inevitable. Baldwin is terrific, and so is Goldberg, as the smart and practical Myrlie. T
\here are few problems, one related to the fact that Myrlie has the transcripts of the original trial, which is crucial to the success of the new one, and she withholds them until the very end, when she finally appears and presents them to Bobby. This resolves the tension and distrust between them, but it takes far too long, and doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. There is also the question of whether the predominantly white perspective is indeed the right one to use in telling this story. Myrlie is not really sidelined, and there is a powerful scene where Bobby visits Medger's brother Charles (Bill Cobbs) and asks him to come to the trial, a request he declines, but not before describing why. There are certainly better movies about similar topics (Mississippi Burning comes to mind, and A Time to Kill), but this is still a solid and compelling motion picture.
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