This movie left out many important events that would have increased the viewer's knowledge of the time period. When we originally watched "Mississippi Burning", we were confused as to what the purpose of the murder of the civil rights activists was. One key thing they left out was what the activists were doing down in Mississippi. They failed to explain the background of the murder of the boys. The filmmakers never mentioned the Freedom Summer or the struggle of the blacks. The film also never mentioned the fact that the boys were there to help blacks in the south vote. In addition, there were three other bodies found in the process of searching for the three missing boys that they completely left out.
Selective Perception: How we interpret the news.
Without any prior knowledge of this topic, what the audience would take out of this movie would be that the FBI conducted a heroic search - rather than the struggle the African American community faced in getting their right to vote. While watching "Mississippi Burning", we perceived the white FBI agents as the heroes of the film, and the African Americans as the charity case. Both are relatively wrong, but that is what the film producers wanted us to think and they did a good job.
Cultivation: Excessive exposure to a specific way of thinking until we begin to believe it is true.
"Hatred isn't something you're born with, it gets taught. In school they said segregation is what is said in the Bible, Genesis 9:7. Seven years of age you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred."
"Hatred isn't something you're born with, it gets taught. In school they said segregation is what is said in the Bible, Genesis 9:7. Seven years of age you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred."
-Mrs. Pell "Mississippi Burning"
In this movie, the KKK preaches hatred. The audience is told again and again that blacks are inferior to whites. However, in another light, it shows that the government was in favor of the Civil Rights Movement. The underlying theme brought up throughout the movie was that the FBI was the "savior." Because of this, at the end of the film, the viewer leaves thinking that without the help of the FBI, no justice would have been served. 