Released in 1988, Mississippi Burning is a crime thriller film directed by Alan Parker. Though released in the late 1980's, it features some of America's touchiest Civil Right's Era topics - a disappearance of three civil rights activists is met by the malice of the town's people, and the Ku Klux Klan gets involved. The movie is loosely based on a true crime murder investigation of three men in Mississippi. Writer Chris Gerolmo investigated this instance, and took his script to Orion Pictures, where Alan Parker decided it must be made into a film.
When the film was released, there was much controversy surrounding it because of the touchy subjects. Particularly, African Americans were upset that the movie fictionalized such horrific events, and made them into a source of profitable entertainment in a cinema.
Alan Parker was born in 1944, and is an English director and screenwriter. Becoming involved in television production in his teens, Parker became popular in Japan after writing the script to Melody, a 1971 love film. Later, he went on to direct successful films like Bugsy Malone, Pink Floyd - The Wall, and Evita. His films have collected him ten Golden Globe awards.
