Murder in Mississippi (film)
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| Murder in Mississippi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Crime Drama |
| Written by | Stanley Weiser |
| Directed by | Roger Young |
| Starring | Tom Hulce Blair Underwood Jennifer Grey |
| Music by | Mason K. Daring Elmer Bernstein (uncredited score withdrawn) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | David L. Wolper Bernard Sofronski |
| Producers | Mark Wolper Tova Laiter (co-executive producer) |
| Cinematography | Donald M. Morgan |
| Editor | Benjamin A. Weissman |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Production company | Warner Bros. Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | February 5, 1990 |
Murder in Mississippi is a 1990 television film which dramatized the last weeks of civil rights activists Michael "Mickey" Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, and the events leading up to their disappearance and subsequent murder during Freedom Summer in 1964. It starred Tom Hulce as Schwerner, Jennifer Grey as his wife Rita, Blair Underwood as Chaney, and Josh Charles as Goodman. Hulce received a nomination for Best Actor in a TV Miniseries at the 1990 Golden Globes.
As a historical docudrama, Murder in Mississippi precedes the storylines of both 1975's Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan and 1988's Mississippi Burning.
Murder in Mississippi is the title of a 1964 Norman Rockwell painting depicting the same events. The painting is also known as Southern Justice.
Plot[edit]
In 1964, members of the Ku Klux Klan murdered three Civil Rights workers who had traveled to the South to encourage African-American voter registration. The film examines the last three weeks in the lives of the slain activists.
Cast[edit]
- Tom Hulce as Michael "Mickey" Schwerner
- Blair Underwood as James Chaney
- Jennifer Grey as Rita Schwerner
- Josh Charles as Andrew Goodman
- CCH Pounder as Fannie Lee Chaney
- Andre Braugher as Dennis
- Walton Goggins as Lyle
- Royce D. Applegate as Deputy Winter (based on Cecil Price)
- Scott Lawrence as Matt Suarez
- John Dennis Johnston as Hatchet-Faced Man
In addition, Murder in Mississippi features an early role of Greg Kinnear, who was a television personality at the time; Kinnear appears at the end as a reporter - also named Greg Kinnear - covering the discovery of the remains of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman.
See also[edit]
- Civil rights movement in popular culture
- Neshoba (2010 documentary film)
External links[edit]
- Murder in Mississippi at IMDb
- Murder in Mississippi at AllMovie
- Murder in Mississippi at Rotten Tomatoes
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- 1990 television films
- 1990 films
- American television films
- 1990s English-language films
- 1990 drama films
- Films directed by Roger Young
- Films set in 1964
- Films set in Mississippi
- Films about the Ku Klux Klan
- Films about racism
- Civil rights movement in television
- The Wolper Organization films
- NBC original films
- Films with screenplays by Stanley Weiser
- American drama television film stubs
- Civil rights movement stubs