In this 1996 docudrama Rob Reiner takes the viewer on a wild roller coaster with the murder of Medgar Evers. Medgar Evers was a black civil rights activist who was assassinated outside of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Thirty years later a lawyer by the name of Bobby Delaughter played by Alec Baldwin is asked to open up a case that has no leads towards the murderer but one culprit. This culprit is the one and only Bobby De La Beckwith, played by James Woods. Bobby De La Beckwith is a character of his own from being a bigot to bragging about killing a black man and getting away with it. On a scale from 1 star to five stars, I'd give this movie a five star rating due to the butterfly feeling this movie gave me.
This film is a good representation of this historical event. According to the NAACP, "On June 12, 1963, Evers pulled into his driveway after returning from an integration meeting where he had conferred with NAACP lawyers. Emerging from his car and carrying NAACP T-shirts that stated, "Jim Crow Must Go", Evers was struck in the back with a bullet that ricocheted into his home. The opening scene of Ghosts of Mississippi Medgar Evers was shot in his back outside of his house. Also according to the NAACP "during the course of his first 1964 trial, De La Beckwith was visited by former Mississippi governor Ross Barnett and one time Army Major General Edwin A. Walker." In the movie during the first trial a Governor went up to De La Beckwith and shook his hand during the trial. These are two examples that show that the movie is being based on facts.
Review of Ghosts of Mississippi
