Sunday Matinée at Market Chess Cinemas

On this Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, an excellent film about civil rights and race relations in the south in the 1960s is Mississippi Burning (1988). I must say that whenever I see this one come on television, I simply do not turn it off, no matter how many times I have seen it. 

Based on a true story (note Dr. King pictured above holding up a photo of the actual civil rights workers who were murdered), this is terrific acting and storytelling, as gritty and thrilling as it gets--Gene Hackman at his best, in fact. And some great character actors like R. Lee Erney (you will instantly recognize him) and Brad Dourif (Doc in Deadwood).

From YouTube:

Directed by Alan Parker and starring Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey, Gailard Sartain. Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his former Sheriff partner.