Mississippi Burning is a 1988 film based on the investigation into the real-life murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964. The movie focuses on two fictional FBI agents (portrayed by Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe) who investigate the murders. Gene Hackman's character is loosely based on the actions of FBI Agent John Proctor. Dafoe's character is very lately based on FBI agent Joseph Sullivan.

The film has been criticized by many, including historian Howard Zinn, for its fictionalization of history. While FBI agents are presented as heroes who descend upon the town by the hundreds, in reality the FBI and the Justice Department only reluctantly protected civil rights workers and protesters and reportedly witnessed beatings without intervening.

Mississippi Burning was preceded in 1975 by a television docudrama titled Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan, depicting many of the same events, and both productions follow the events portrayed in the 1990 TV-movie Murder in Mississippi. None of the movies used the real names of the murderers, due to legal considerations. Mississippi Burning never even mentions the names of the victims. They are referred to as "The Boys" The film presents the policeman's wife as the informant. The identity of the real informant - known as "Mr. X." was a closely held secret for 40 years. In the process of reopening the case, journalist Jerry Mitchell and teacher Barry Bradford uncovered his real name.

While the film produced an Academy award and several nominations, critics noted that blacks were portrayed in the film merely as victims who must rely on white heroes from the FBI to bring any of the criminals to justice. They point out that in a story in which black people and their struggle against injustice are paramount, there is no signifcant black character to represent the courage of African Americans of this period.

The French Connection is a 1971 Hollywood film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore. It tells the story of two New York City policemen who are trying to intercept a heroin shipment coming in from France. It is based on the actual, infamous "French Connection" trafficking scheme. It stars Gene Hackman (as porkpie hat-wearing New York City police detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle), Roy Scheider (as his partner Cloudy), and Fernando Rey. It also features Eddie Egan and Sonny "Cloudy" Grosso, the real-life police detectives on whom Hackman's and Scheider's characters were based.

Plot:

The film revolves around the smuggling of narcotics between Marseilles, France and New York City. The film opens in Marseilles with a policeman staking out Alain Charnier, a French criminal who ostensibly works as a former stevedore-turned-shipping executive but is in fact involved in smuggling heroin from France to the United States (at one point, Charnier remarks that he hasn't done an honest day's work "since [he] stepped off the crane"). The French policeman is eventually assassinated by Charnier's henchman, Pierre Nicoli.


"Popeye" Doyle and "Cloudy" RussoIn New York City, detectives "Popeye" Doyle and "Cloudy" Russo are also performing an undercover stakeout, with Doyle dressed as Santa Claus and Russo pretending to be a hot dog stand operator. Eventually the suspect they are waiting for makes a break for it, and the detectives pursue him on foot. After catching up with their suspect (and delivering a severe beating after the suspect cuts Russo on the arm with a knife), the detectives aggressively interrogate the man and eventually force him to reveal where his "connection" is based (during this scene, a long-running joke is established, as Doyle bewilders the suspect by demanding to know if he "picks [his] feet in Poughkeepsie").

After Russo's arm injury is treated, Doyle convinces him to go out for a drink. At the nightclub they go to, Doyle becomes interested in two people: Sal Boca and his beautiful young wife, Angie. Doyle persuades his partner to come along as they tail the couple; several scenes are shown establishing the fact that although the Bocas run a modest newsstand/diner, their extravagant lifestyle (which includes nearly nightly trips to several nightclubs, as well as driving several different new cars) indicates they may be involved in some sort of criminal activity. Eventually there is a link established between the Bocas and a well-to-do person named Joel Weinstock, who is rumored to have extensive connections in the narcotics underworld. After rousting an all-black nightclub which involves Doyle questioning (and then beating up) his informant--about an apparent shortage of hard drugs on the street; Doyle is told that there is word a major shipment of heroin is on its way. The detectives convince their supervisor, Simonson, to pursue wiretapping the Bocas' phones and use several ruses (including Russo playfully flirting with Angie while her husband is out of earshot) to try to obtain more information on their subjects.

The film then centers on three main points: the criminals' efforts to smuggle drugs into the U.S. (which is made easier when Charnier dupes his friend Henri Devereaux into importing an automobile into the U.S.; unbeknownst to Deveraux, the drugs are carefully concealed within the vehicle) and the eventual sale of the drugs to Weinstock and Sal Boca; the efforts of Doyle and Russo to shadow Boca and Charnier; and the conflicts the two detectives have with both Simonson (their superior) and a federal agent named Mulderig. Both Doyle and Mulderig openly dislike each other; Russo and Doyle feel that they can handle the bust without the government's help; and Mulderig never hesitates to criticize Doyle on items ranging from trivialities like Doyle's appearance ("You look like shit") to an unspecified incident in the past, where Mulderig caustically states, "the last time you were dead certain, we had a dead cop" (the two nearly come to blows after this statement is made).

Charnier soon "makes" Doyle and decides he has to be eliminated. Charnier's henchman Nicoli (the one who assassinated the French detective) offers to do the job and tries to kill Doyle from a rooftop with a rifle. However, he botches the job and a cat-and-mouse pursuit begins, which eventually leads up to the car chase scene described below. The chase ends when the elevated train Nicoli has hijacked crashes into another train; when Doyle catches up with Nicoli, he shoots Nicoli in the back (Nicoli was attempting to escape yet again by running back up the stairs leading to the train platform).


A car accident that serves as the setting for the Doyle-Mulderig scuffle, and an allusion to the epic car chase that occurs later in the film.The car containing the drugs that Devereaux imported into the U.S. is eventually staked out by the police and impounded when some young thieves try to strip the car of its' valuables (the police initially thought the car's owners were returning to retrieve the drugs). Doyle and Russo then rip the car apart in an hours-long search, before eventually finding the narcotics after the mechanic states that he has stripped everything on the car except the rocker panels.

At the film's climax, it seems like the drug deal (which took place at an abandoned factory) has been a major success; Boca and Weinstock's resident heroin expert tests the substance and declares it to be of top quality. In return, using an old car that Sal Boca's brother Lou picked out, the criminals stash the money in almost the same hiding place that was used on the car Devereaux brought in (the car is to be imported into France, where Charnier will then retrieve the money). Charnier and Sal Boca drive off and only moments later run into a roadblock consisting of a large force of police officers, led by Doyle. The police chase Charnier and Sal Boca back to the factory grounds, where Sal is killed during a shootout with the police and almost all of the others surrender after tear gas is used by the police.

Charnier escapes into the warehouse and a tense sequence ensues as Doyle hunts Charnier down. Russo joins him in the search, which takes a sudden shocking turn as Doyle, trigger-happy and high on adrenaline, sees a shadowy figure in the distance and empties his pistol at it only a split-second after shouting a warning. To Russo's horror, the man Doyle kills is not Charnier, but Mulderig. Doyle seems unfazed by this and vows to capture Charnier, reloading his pistol and running off into another room in the distance. The last sound heard in the film is a single gunshot.

Title cards before the closing credits note that of the people arrested and tried, only Joel Weinstock and Angie Boca got away without any prison time (the case against Weinstock was dismissed, and Angie received a suspended sentence). Alain Charnier was never found or tried in the U.S. It also states that both Doyle and Russo were transferred out of the narcotics division.