"The Ghosts of Mississippi" Film Review

     The movie Ghosts of Mississippi opens with original, historical films. The first things to be scene by the audience are black and white films of protests, African-American men voting, famous African-American athletes, a "colored entrance" sign, a "segregation forever" poster, a dance hall, etc., which are all original footage according to the IMDb review of the film. Immediately following the historical clips, the audience reads "This story is true." on the screen. However, in my opinion - and the opinion of many others - although this is based on the true events of the murder of Medgar Evers, the film Ghosts of Mississippi does not focus enough on the right things in order to be used as a good teaching tool. Ghosts of Mississippi focuses more on the life of Bobby DeLaughter - the lawyer who proved Byron de la Beckwith guilty of Medgar Ever's murder - than anything else. Much like the film Glory, Ghosts of Mississippi is based off of primary sources (such as newspaper articles), but certain things are added, dramatized, or simplified in the film.
     After the black screen with the words "This story is true." fades out, the audience is transported to "Mississippi Delta, June 1963". The first thing the audience views is a Shriner's Symbol - a symbol often worn or carried by members of the KKK - hanging from the rear view mirror of a car. Then the camera pans over to show the face of who the viewer will later come to understand is Byron de la Beckwith. The audience sees Beckwith (played by James Woods) waiting outside Ever's home, then shooting Evers (played by James Pickens Jr.) in the back as he gets out of his car. According to FindLaw.com, this scene accurately - if not a little dramatically - depicts how the murder happened, with Myrlie Evers (played by Whoopi Goldberg) and the three Evers children running out to their father has he dies. The viewer then sees as Medgar Wiley Evers is buried in Arlington National Cemetery - where Evers is actually buried (The Mississippi Writer's Page).
     The next scenes take place in Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi. They show Beckwith casually walking into the courthouse, cuffed but jovially speaking to all the white police officers. As he walks in he is treated as if he is an old friend of the police officers, not as if he is being tried for the murder of another person. Then in the courtroom, the former governor of Mississippi walks in and shakes Beckwith's hand. The audience sees Beckwith being treated much more nicely than Mrs. Evers, then reads the titles of several newspapers saying "Mistrial Decreed in Beckwith Case", "Second Beckwith Trial To Be Held In April", and "Beckwith Goes Home After Second Mistrial". The murder, the burial, and the following two trials are depicted correctly in the movie, but after that the film shifts its focus to something that - in my opinion - is not as important.
     Once the film is done showing Ever's murder and the events immediately following, the audience is introduced to Bobby DeLaughter in "October, 1989", who takes on Evers case twenty-five years after the murder. The rest of the movie focuses on his home life and his work on the case, and the audience rarely sees the Evers family until the end of the movie. The viewer sees Bobby at home with his kids, separating from his wife, getting married to a new wife, talking with his parents, etc. While most of these things are historically what happened, the producers of Ghosts of Mississippi could have tried focusing a little less on what was happening in his life, and more on what was happening in the Evers' lives and the progress of integration over those years.