THE GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI
A film review by John Schuurman
Copyright 1997 John Schuurman
Directed by Rob Reiner Written by Leo Colick
"You are dealing with the past in Mississippi. That is not where you want to be," so says State's Attorney Ed Peters (Craig T. Nelson) to his assistant, Bobby DeLaughter (Alec Baldwin). The utterance expresses the agony of both this story and that of the "New South": You don't want to go back, because it is shameful and painful back there, but sometimes you have to go back; things change and if you don't go back, sometimes you can't go anywhere.
One such time was years 1989-1994 when the Medgar Evers murder case of 1963 was revisited by the States Attorney's office of Mississippi. THE GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI is the story of that revisitation.
Medgar Evers was a civil rights worker in Mississippi in the early 1960's. He was shot in the back by a white supremacist, Byron De La Beckwith (played with chilling accuracy by James Woods). Beckwith had been tried before two all-white, all-male juries in the 60's but both juries were divided and he went free.
Now, 30 years later, Evers' widow, (Whoopi Goldberg), after a nearly solitary struggle to get the case reopened, has finally managed to get a little bit of action out of the State's Attorney's office. Bobby DeLaughter, assistant S.A., is assigned to look into it again. DeLaughter, is a perfect character to pick up this cross. He is a son of the Old South, married to DIXIE De Laughter ("the daughter of the most racist judge in Mississippi"), he puts his kids to bed by singing, "Dixie," and he loves his home, his life and his state.
According to this partly fictionalized movie, (some scenes and dialogue were invented for dramatic effect), De Laughter's looking into it and his developing passion for the case are occasioned not so much by the facts that he uncovers -- the evidence that Beckwith killed Evers was beyond dispute -- but more by his reflection on the fact that a man, (like himself), with young children, (like his), was violently taken away from those children. His moral outrage at the violation of those children's right to their father is the engine that drives him to stick with the case in spite of the hate mail, threats, vandalism, and the disapproval of his own family. When tempted to abandon the painful old case that only the very few still care about, he goes to the scene of the crime. He plays it over in his mind and always there are the children. "No man has the right to take a man away from his children."
While flawed with energy lapses, and some writing that is more than a little contrived, the film works pretty well on the premise that we finally seek justice and redress of wrongs for the sake of succeeding generations. All of our logic says, "Let it go. No one cares anymore. Why stir up painful things?" A glance at the trusting, upturned faces says, "Go back. Try again. This is not about what is easy; it is about what is right."
This movie is a great lesson in history and a Biblical understanding of hope. We see the sinful past -- in this case the sad and violent story of the Old South -- a South that still can hurt and still thrashes around as if in death throws. And then we see the future: there are the children and the promise of the New South -- a New South that is already blossoming and coming to life. As one character says, "This whole case is one big resurrection." And -- as always -- we stand at the crossroads with a burden on our shoulders and decisions to make.
Biblical hope is exactly like that: Fully (painfully) aware of a shocking and shameful past, the hopeful one returns to it on occasion for the sake of repentance. As De Laughter says, "We never get even for the wrong we do." And then, having grown, the hopeful, turns and starts living in a future that has already begun.
The ghosts of Mississippi will still come around -- there are more defeats they have yet to suffer. But the future belongs to the resurrection, to healing and to peace.
John Schuurman Wheaton, Illinois for more review by John Schuurman see: http://www.mcs.com/~wcrc/movies.html
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