If you ain't better than a nigger President, who are you better than ? ... "
Donald J. Trump
***
Mississippi Burning ( 1988 )
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Anderson: Where does it come from? All this hatred?
Anderson: You know, when I was a little boy, there was an old negro farmer that lived down the road from us, name of Monroe. And he was... well, I guess he was just a little luckier than my daddy was. He bought himself a mule. That was a big deal around that town. My daddy hated that mule, 'cause his friends were always kidding him that they saw Monroe out plowing with his new mule, and Monroe was going to rent another field now he had a mule. One morning, that mule showed up dead. They poisoned the water. After that, there wasn't any mention about that mule around my daddy. It just never came up. One time, we were driving down that road, and we passed Monroe's place and we saw it was empty. He just packed up and left, I guess, he must of went up north or something. I looked over at my daddy's face. I knew he done it. He saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he *was* ashamed. He looked at me and said, "If you ain't better than a nigger, son, who are you better than?"
Ward: You think that's an excuse?
Anderson: No it's not an excuse. It's just a story about my daddy.
Ward: Where's that leave you?
Anderson: My old man was just so full of hate that he didn't know that bein' poor was what was killin' him.
***
Mississippi Burning is a 1988 American crime thriller film directed by Alan Parker. The script by Chris Gerolmo is loosely based on the 1964 Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner murder investigation in Mississippi. The film stars Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents assigned to investigate the disappearance of three civil rights workers in fictional Jessup County, Mississippi. The investigation is met with hostility and backlash by the town's residents, local police, and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Gerolmo began work on the original script in 1985, after researching the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. He and producer Frederick Zollo took the script to Orion Pictures, and Parker was subsequently hired by the studio to direct the film. Both the writer and director had disputes over the script, which resulted in Orion allowing Parker to make uncredited rewrites. Principal photography commenced in March 1988 and concluded in May of that year with a budget of $15 million. The film was shot in a number of locations in Mississippi and Alabama.
Upon release, Mississippi Burning became embroiled in controversy; it was heavily criticized by African-American activists involved in the civil rights movement and the families of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner for its fictionalization of history. Critical reaction was mixed, though the performances of Hackman, Dafoe, and Frances McDormand were generally praised. Mississippi Burning grossed $34.6 million in North American box-office revenue. The film received seven Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture, but won only for Best Cinematography.