Ghosts of Mississippi
by Rob Reiner
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Susanna Thompson, Virginia Madsen, Whoopi GoldbergDirector: Rob Reiner
DVD: 2 Sides, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-01-18
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Movie Reviews of Ghosts of Mississippi
Movie Review: Falls flat of its initial promise...
Summary: 2 Stars
The biggest problem with `Ghosts of Mississippi' is that it is bland. The story is not technically a bland one, I mean it is a true story of the murder of a civil rights activist and the trial that brought a terrible man to justice, but the way Reiner goes about delivering this story is anything but exciting. The acting is decent, and at times engaging, but for the most part they are merely passable and do nothing for the film in general.
I really wanted to like this movie.
The film opens with the devastating murder of Medger Evers, a young husband and father of three who was a civil rights leader in Mississippi. In 1963 his life was snuffed out by outraged racist Byron De La Beckwith. Due to a racist judge and a racists jury Byron was found `not guilty' Medger's widow Myrlie tried for thirty years to get justice for her husband but to no avail; and then Bobby DeLaughter walked into her life, or should I say that she walked into his. Moved by her story, and the similarities to his own life (he is also a husband in his thirties and father of three), DeLaughter works around the clock to reopen the case, sacrificing his own marriage and his own safety to finally do right by this scorned and broken woman.
Sounds like a real attention grabber, doesn't it.
Sadly, it's not.
One issue I have with the film is the acting. Baldwin, Goldberg, Woods; they are all capable actors but none of them really rise to the occasion as far as I am concerned. Baldwin probably does the best job, and that's mostly because he has far more screen time and so he has more opportunity to make up for his overall blandness. Woods is just plain hammy at best. He succeeds in creating a creep, but he comes of as no more than a gimmick. I was really disappointed with Goldberg, who has delivered so often in the past. She was just way too reserved here, too conservative. I felt no real emotion come from her. It all just felt like an overly rehearsed line reading. The direction doesn't help the film any either. Reiner builds no tension within the film and so it just tends to drag on. There is no excitement, no reason for us to pay attention because it feels like nothing is happening.
There is a scene where DeLaughter rushes his family outside because he fears there is a bomb in his house. This is supposed to be tense. It is not. Watch `The Insider' and notice how Michael Mann builds so much tension with a similar `rush out of the house' type scene.
There are many films that deal with this type of subject; in fact I've seen quite a few of them the past week. This is one of the worst. Watch the glorious `Mississippi Burning' or even `A Time to Kill', which was released the very same year. Both films are much more respectable and much more engaging than this wasted opportunity. It's sad, because this is as important story that deserved a better storyteller.
Summary of Ghosts of Mississippi
Rob Reiner, who used to be more interested in personal style as a filmmaker, continues to duck behind bland movies about important ideas with this based-on-fact film about the embattled white prosecutor (Alec Baldwin) who brought racist killer Byron De La Beckwith (James Woods) to justice after 30 years of failed attempts. Charged with the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Beckwith slimes up the film pretty well via Woods's somewhat showy performance, while Baldwin generously assumes the usual clich?s surrounding reluctant heroes. Whoopi Goldberg is at her most stately as Evers's widow. The whole self-important production is dogged by the obvious thought that it might have played better (and to far more people than it did in theaters) on television. --Tom KeoghDrama DVD Video
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