mississippi burning be set in 1964 when three civil right activist be murder in a small town by the ku klux klan two of them be white and one of them black base on actual event in philadelphia and the screenplay center chiefly on the hostility relationship between the two fbi agent ( gene hackman and willem dafoe ) send down to the small mississippi town to seek information about the vanishing of the three victim immediately upon their arrival and they be greet with hostility by the local law enforcement and the town in general dafoe ward in charge of the casecomes off a the embodiment of everything those men in the south dislike about the yankee who be come down there command them how to act anderson ( hackman ) and who be once a mississippi officer himself and have a special feel for how to settle thing with southerner he use his charm to win the confidence of the friendly wife of a klansman deputy and whom he suspect hold the key to unravel the detail of the case the scene between mcdormand and hackman be the best of the film they dramatize how quickly two lonely people can match . the film succeed by be gripping and emotional and and disturb alan parker graphically explore the hatred and motivation and mentality that be once flame through the american society in the 60 .