Mississippi Burning

There's a real ugliness in people, a festering sickness in one's soul that emerges time and time again. And it's shown its presence throughout history, its effects lingering for decades after. Worse still, it's something that never fully disappears.

Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning isn't just simmering in hatred -- it's full-on marinated in it. (It's telling that non-American directors are more than willing to expose America's hideousness.) It may have been a few decades after the film's setting but as the coming years would also show, very little had changed.

Frustratingly, for a film about the civil rights movement, Mississippi Burning doesn't put a lot of focus on the Black characters. Preferring to spotlight the agents played by Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe, the film only gives the Black characters any attention when they're about to be subjected to violence, as they're being brutalized, or as they're licking their figurative and literal wounds -- in other words, they only exist to suffer. Were this made today, that would absolutely not happen.

That aspect aside, Mississippi Burning is captured stunningly by cinematographer Peter Biziou. You can practically feel the Mississippi heat through the screen, the smell of the swamps. It's little wonder that Biziou was a regular for Parker (and that his work got him an Oscar).

Mississippi Burning is very much not an easy watch. (Then again, what else would one expect from the man responsible for Midnight Express the previous decade?) To say things have changed since both the setting's time period and the film's release would be a colossal lie. If anything, we're repeating what had happened ad nauseam.

My Rating: ****

Shoot the Moon

When we first see George Dunlap (Albert Finney) in Alan Parker's Shoot the Moon, it's clear that he's overwhelmed by domestic life. He soon gets on the phone with his mistress Sandy (Karen Allen), and he admits to her that he can't stand being without her. And shortly after that, we find out that his marriage to Faith (Diane Keaton) is deeply fractured.

What follows in Shoot the Moon is George and Faith trying to cope in the aftermath of his actions. In a vein similar to Kramer vs. Kramer, Parker captures the struggles of raising a family during a time of separation. But how will this formerly tight-knit family handle the changes?

By this point in their careers, Finney and Keaton were well-established in Hollywood (he had two Oscar nominations under his belt, and she had won one and had another nomination). With Shoot the Moon, both actors continue to show why they quickly became desirable performers early on in their careers. (Now if only someone would give Keaton another meaty role...)

Shoot the Moon doesn't just focus on George and Faith adjusting to the changes in their lives. Their daughters, particularly Sherry (Dana Hill), feel resentment towards George for breaking up their family. But what will be the final fate of the Dunlaps?

Shoot the Moon is a very mature depiction of the collapse of a marriage and its aftermath. The work from Finney and Keaton proves that it's a film that should be sought out more. (And seriously, Keaton needs to do another solid drama.)

My Rating: ****1/2

Midnight Express

Saying Alan Parker's Midnight Express is hard to watch at times is an understatement. Saying the film is one of the best products of the 1970's is also an understatement.

Even if some of the facts are tweaked for Hollywood standards, Oliver Stone's script stays true to the plight of Billy Hayes (Brad Davis), an American imprisoned in Turkey for trying to smuggle drugs out of the country. In prison for nearly five years, Hayes suffered abuse you can't even begin to believe.

Davis plays Hayes with a tumult of emotions yet never overplays any of them. He shows that he's scared just from the look in his eyes. Same thing can be said for his anger and his sorrow. It's an ability not many actors have, and Davis was one of the fortunate ones.

A later scene in Midnight Express shows what Hayes has gone through. He has become numb from the frequent beatings and abuse. When he's temporarily out of the presence of guards and other prisoners, his true emotions pour out. He's absolutely scared shitless and he knows he's going to die if he doesn't get out. It's a hell of a moment.

Midnight Express as mentioned above is damn good. It's definitely a prison film that's in a field of its own. A tad violent in scenes (what else do you expect from something scripted by Oliver Stone?) but they're in small enough doses to handle. Anyone that can watch this more than once is braver than me.

My Rating: *****