willem dafoe be a by the book fbi investigator and be assist by ex southern sheriff gene hackman in the real life inquiry into the death of three civil right worker in mississippi in 1964. the three kid disappear . no one and black or white and be willing to cooperate with the hoover boys that poke around in the small town business . the black would not cooperate because theyre afraid and the white for more obvious reason . and some less obvious one . a the clued in hackman put it and they have to live here long after be pack up and go . just about every character be a stereotype that play out like a card in a hand of bridge . the head of the local ku klux klan and who call himself a local businessman be a bald nincompoop who hat not just black but papist and jew and probably brobdignagians . he doesn not have a family . not even a dog or a cat as far a we can tell . the other heavy and include the prototypical redneck michael rooker with his frozen sneer and do not have family either and except for deputy brad dourif and who have a wife . but he only have a wife so that the movie can show u that not all southern white be murder racist . some be sweet and lovable and attractive and in the way that carol burnett be attractive and and and as just about sublimely play by france mcdormand and be so haunt by distaste for these illegal caste ridden shenanigan that she able and willing to squeal to gene hackman fbi agent about the murder . that indiscretion get her clobbered . the performance be all good and some be splendid . hackman could not be good . every move he make and every line of dialog and carry weight . dafoe character be less colorfully delineate . mcdormand be outstanding and and so be rooker and dourif and and the guy who play the kkk head . ( what a trio of villain . ) the tobacco chew sheriff be great in a small supporting role . when the fbi be stretch to it official limit without result and hackman be give license to use his own method . enter two unofficial fbi heavy . one be a balding red head with bulging eye who have since make a career out of play serial murderer . the other be a huge black guy with an ominous and resonant baritone who threaten to castrate the mayor unless he spill the bean and which the mayor do and lead to almost all the desired conviction . the direction be tasteful . when the decomposing corps be uncovered and it in long shot . when dourif beat hell out of mcdormand and we only get a few introductory blow before the cut and just so we know what go to happen next . location shooting be evocative . it a convince small southern town shimmering in the summer heat . most southern scene the silent guy on the choctaw reservation who be carve up catfish . the character and although they may as well carry sandwich board advertise their function in the script and be pretty well draw . if there a problem with the film it that it be lay out like a dramatic movie in the usual form of rise climax . the payoff towards the end simply do not fit in with the otherwise realistic depiction of event . i do not for a moment believe that undercover fbi agent be bring in to kidnap the mayor and threaten to cut off his family jewel . that belong to a movie script and or to some black hole of a cia prison in bulgaria and not to a narrative that purport to be base on an historic event . the final impression the film leave you with be how surprisingly easy it be for a deeply felt and thoroughly entrenched set of value to change so quickly . a generation have pass and only a generation and since the governor of mississippi neighbor state stand in the doorway of the university and proclaim and segregation now and segregation tomorrow and segregation forever . the situation display here and in 1964 and isn not perfect now . nothing be perfect . but it a hell of a lot good than it be then . this be actually a curiously mixed blessing . it leave southern white people with still another defeat that they must get over . and it leave black with a great deal of anti white resentment that have no place to go .