Meathead March – Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) – MovieRob

For today’s final review of Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), here are my thought on it

“[Quoting Medgar Evers] When you hate, the only one that suffers is you because most of the people you hate don’t know it and the rest don’t care.” – Myrlie Evers

Number of Times Seen – 1 (11 Mar 2015)

Brief Synopsis – 30 years after a black civil rights leader is murdered, a city prosecutor decides to retry the case reigniting old racial tensions. Based on a true story

My Take on it – For some reason, this movie is one that I never really had much interest in seeing despite it being directed by Rob Reiner and having such an A list cast of actors attached to it.

Alec Baldwin, Whoopie Goldberg, James Woods, Craig T. Nelson, William H. Macy and Margo Martindale are all great here.  Despite all of them having to adapt local accents. 🙂

It amazes me that even in the 1990’s the scars on both the white and black populations were so apparent that there was still so much distrust between both sides despite the ending of segregation 30+ years earlier.  I actually wonder what it’s like now 20 years later.

Since this movie is mostly based on fact, it’s sometimes hard to believe some of the scenes in the way people speak and act, but within the context of racial prejudice, anything is possible to believe that it could have happened.

The courtroom scenes are well depicted, but the power of this movie is on the tension and mistrust between all of the characters that brings this story to life.

Bottom Line – Great depiction of the scars held in the South even up until the 1990’s.  Very good cast that all needed to adapt Southern accents for this.  Amazing that much of this is true. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Lloyd “Benny” Bennett is a real life polic officer/investigator in Jackson, Mississippi. Director Rob Reiner met him when filming “Ghosts Of Mississippi” and was so taken by him that he offered “Benny” the chance to play himself in the film. Later, actor William H. Macy, who had several outstanding scenes with “Benny” wrote him into the script of The Con (1998) (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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