Ghosts of Mississippi

Infobox_Film
name = Ghosts of Mississippi


caption = "Ghosts of Mississippi" film poster
director = Rob Reiner
writer = Lewis Colick
starring = Alec Baldwin
Whoopi Goldberg
James Woods
William H. Macy
Craig T. Nelson
producer = Nicholas Paleologos
Rob Reiner
Andrew Scheinman
Frederick Zollo
Charles Newirth
Jeff Stott
music = Marc Shaiman
cinematography = John Seale
editing = Robert Leighton
distributor = Columbia Pictures
Castle Rock Entertainment
released = December 20, 1996
runtime = 130 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget = $30,000,000 (estimated)
amg_id = 1:136656
imdb_id = 0116410

Ghosts of Mississippi is a 1996 drama film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg and James Woods. The plot focuses on the 1994 trial of Byron De La Beckwith, the white supremacist accused of the 1963 assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers.

James Woods was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role of Byron De La Beckwith.

The original music score was composed by Marc Shaiman and the cinematography is by John Seale.

In 2008, AFI nominated "Ghosts of Mississippi" for the Courtroom Drama segment of its AFI's 10 Top 10 special but the movie did not make the final countdown. ["AFI's Top Ten Film Genres" http://www.filmsite.org/afi10toptennoms9.html]

Main cast

Plot summary

Medgar Evers is a black civil rights activist in Mississippi who was murdered by an assassin in 1963. It is later suspected that Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist, is the murderer and he would be tried twice and both trials ended in hung juries. In 1989, Evers' widow Myrlie has been trying to bring De La Beckwith to justice for over 25 years, and she believes she has what it takes to bring him to trial again.

However, most of the evidence from the old trial have disappeared but Bobby DeLaughter, an assistant District Attorney, decides to do what he can to help her despite being warned that it might hurt his political aspirations and the strain it is causing his marriage. However, DeLaughter becomes more involved with bringing De La Beckwith to trial for the third time 30 years later. In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith is found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Trivia

* Delmar Dennis (a key witness against Byron De La Beckwith) and his family can be seen as extras in the parade scene. At the film's end, a title card indicated that Bobby DeLaughter had run for a position as a judge and been defeated. That was true at the time. Subsequently, he was appointed to be a judge and later elected overwhelmingly.
* Medgar Evers' two sons Darrell and James Van Evers played themselves in this film, as did a police detective who helped with the investigation, Detective Lloyd "Benny" Bennett. Myrlie Evers was also one of this film's consultants.
* The daughter of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., Yolanda King, played the adult daughter of Medgar Evers in the film.
* Although the film begins in 1989 and ends in 1994, the same child actors portraying Bobby DeLaughter's children are used from the beginning of the movie until the end, showing no signs of aging.
* This film was shot on location in Jackson, Mississippi, where Megdar Evers was murdered.
* Bobby DeLaughter's eldest son in the movie stars as Michael Winchell in "Friday Night Lights".

Quotes

* Myrlie Evers: "(quoting Medgar Evers)" I don't know if I'm going to heaven or to hell, but I'm going from Jackson.
* Myrlie Evers: "(quoting Medgar Evers)" When you hate, the only person who suffers is you, because most of the people you hate don't know it and the others don't care.
* "'You saying I've changed....I'm saying you haven't"

References

External links

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