Mississippi Burning

Mississippi Burning (1988) is Alan Parker's crime drama you can watch online on iFILM. One summer in the Deep South, three young men working to register Black voters vanish without a trace, and two federal agents arrive to dig into what happened.

Agent Ward (Willem Dafoe) is by-the-book, young, sure that procedure will crack the case. His partner Anderson, played by Gene Hackman, once wore a sheriff's badge in a town just like this one and understands that the silence here is a bargain, not fear. By day the place looks neighborly; after dark come the hoods and the burning crosses. It is the deputy's wife (Frances McDormand) who finally says out loud what she has seen, and the wall starts to crack.

The story draws on the 1964 killings the Bureau pursued under the file name MIBURN. The film took the Academy Award for cinematography and earned six more nominations, including both lead actors. Watching Hackman lean on a wall of silence is reason enough to stay for the full two hours. Stream Mississippi Burning (1988) online on iFILM.