To the editors:
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The film made no claim to be a docudrama on the Goodman-Schwerner-Chaney murders. It should not be judged as one. It is, however, a powerful film. If one judged Mississippi Burning only by Rosenbaum’s review, one wouldn’t know that it depicts civil rights marches or the beginnings of armed Black self-defense against the Klan.
Most of the funeral scene that Rosenbaum maligns consists of a march through town, to the voice-over of a speech cribbed from activist Dave Dennis’ impassioned eulogy at James Chaney’s funeral: “I am sick and tired of going to the funerals of Black men who have been murdered by white men . . . I’m not going to stand here and ask anyone not to be angry . . .”
Worse, he complains that the film’s “simple melodramatic approach” drains “complexity” out of most of the characters, including the racists. Perhaps Rosenbaum would have considered the film stronger if it had portrayed some of the Klansmen as likable “family men” whose motives are simply misunderstood.
