criticlh-1

I have loved this movie since I saw its original theatrical release. The new (2009) DVD release finally does it justice. Digital stitching technology has made the 3-part Cinerama image almost literally seamless. In fact there is less distortion where the frames meet than there was in the original theatrical screening. And for the first time in a video release the full width of the Cinerama screen has been captured. About a third of each of the two side images was missing in previous video versions. This version is so wide that a wide-screen HDTV still requires black bars at top and bottom to fit the image on the screen.

Yes, there are moments we wish we could re-write, such as the narrator's reference to "primitive" people. This is balanced, however, by an unusually fair (for the time) treatment of the plight of the plains Indians. The movie holds up remarkably well, thanks to a well- written script and strong performances by a large A-list cast. With the exception of a scene in which Debbie Reynolds breaks into a song-and- dance number in a wagon-train encampment (the excuse being that her character is a singer) there is almost nothing that betrays the era when the film was made. Well, there is the fact that most of the cast members are long dead.

As a professional historian, I have to say that the almost complete absence of reference to specific historical events (except the battle of Shiloh) is part of the secret of the film's success. This is a movie that captures the myth of the American west, a myth that is still alive and powerful.

This movie was made for the biggest screen ever, prior to the Imax era. The absence of true close-up shots (a limitation of the Cinerama process) is more noticeable on a smaller screen. It deserves to be seen on the biggest wide-screen TV you can find. And it does deserve to be seen.

There was something special about seeing this film at the Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, Mississippi. There were some in the audience who did not know that proms were still segregated in some cities. Of course, they don't have to be segregated in Jackson because the vast majority of white students there attend private schools.

Be that as it may, this film makes it clear that racism is not an either-or proposition. There are some students who have black friends but would only date whites, a few who either by their own choice or under pressure from their parents will not attend an integrated prom, and one interracial couple who decide to become really public by going to the prom together. On one thing the students seem almost unanimous: separate proms is their parents' idea, not theirs.

Almost everyone seemed to be willing to talk to the film makers, except the small group of parents who organized their own whites-only prom. Perhaps the most powerful portion of the film is an interview with a white father who struggles with his own racist attitudes while refusing to give up on his daughter, whose boyfriend is black. I cannot think of a movie more likely to promote discussion about issues of race than Prom Night. And on top of that, it's just plain worth watching.

During Freedom Summer 1964, three young civil rights workers were brutally murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, an event that inspired the theatrical film Mississippi Burning. Even though the identity of the killers was an open secret, no one was brought to justice for more than 40 years. Finally in 2005 the alleged ringleader, Rev. Edgar Ray Killen, was indicted for the murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwermer.

Neshoba follows Killen throughout the trial, and for the first time gives us Killen's chilling racism in his own words. Interviews with family members of the three victims ground the film in the reality of the events of that summer, and the comments of residents make it clear that the city of Philadelphia and Neshoba County are still divided more than forty years after the murders. Some are struggling to come to terms with their own past, while others just wish people wouldn't keep bringing it up. The resulting film is a surprisingly balanced treatment of a potentially explosive situation, one that provides real insights into a society that produced state-sponsored terrorism.

I saw this film almost on its home ground, at the Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, Mississippi, where it was very warmly received. No one should see Mississippi Burning or Ghosts of Mississippi without also seeing Neshoba. And when you see it, don't get up to leave before the final credits, because they provide one last powerful and disturbing insight into the massive injustices of our nation's recent past.