Alan Parker (Midnight Express, Evita) directed this powerful indictment of racism based on a factual incident. The FBI tries to determine what happened to three young civil rights workers in an area of the Deep South that is still steeped in prejudice. Gene Hackman has one of his best roles as an experienced agent who is frustratingly shackled by his by-the-book superior (Willem Dafoe). Frances McDormand, in one of her best early performances, plays a housewife who dares to do something about the mindless violence. Eye-opening, sometimes shocking, and completely memorable.
