The movie that I am going to talk about is 'Ghosts of Mississippi'. This movie is a lawyer/court trial movie. I enjoy watching movies like this a lot, so if you do not like court movies, then maybe this is not a movie for you.
The movie takes place in Mississippi. The movie starts out in the early 1960's with Byron De La Beckwith driving in his car down a road, then parking the car, pulling a rifle from his trunk and then hiding in the woods were he overlooks a family's house. A black man pulls up in the driveway, this man is Medgar Evers, a strong Civil Rights Leader for the African-Americans, and this is his house. Medgar Evers gets out of his car and while walking up to his front door, is shot by the back by Byron De La Beckwith.
Medgar Evers (July 2, 1925–June 12, 1963) was an...
English: Mark Reiley 1994 star witness testifies a...
Byron De La BeckwithThe next scenes of the movie are events that took place during the trial and the retrials of Byron De La Beckwith. Byron De La Beckwith was never convicted for the murder of Medgar Evers. The audience is never given a true idea of who Medgar Evers really was. There is some talk of the accomplishments he made for African-Americans, but we never get a clear idea of his importance. If they showed that I believe that the audience would understand the importance of the retrial in the present day.
Once the local news gets wind that the District Attorney's office is reopening the Byron De La Beckwith case, the white public responds with anger and hate towards the attorney and his family. The black public does not do much supporting in the beginning, but once the trial gets closer they show up in the thousands to support the conviction of the well-known racist, Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers.
The retrial was much different than the first trial. Back in the 1960's the jury was all white males, while the present day trial was well integrated with many different races of people, male and female. Also, the evidence was different because most of the witnesses were deceased. Since most of them were dead it was extremely hard for the District Attorney to produce new evidence to the case and even find the old evidence along with the original court transcripts.
Everything came together in the end and the jury came back with a Guilty verdict, which caught Byron De La Beckwith off guard. Finally after all those years the man that murdered Medgar Evers was now going to pay for his crimes.
I like this movie because it shows the audience the justice will always prevail and good will always win over evil. I am glad that Byron De La Beckwith finally got what he deserved. It does not matter, either race nor creed or time, if a man takes the life of another, he should pay for what he has done. I hate that it took that much time before Byron De La Beckwith was convicted, but I would hate it ever more if he went free that day. I would recommend this movie to all my friends.
English:
Medgar Evers, Assassinated Civil Rights Hero (The ...
Medgar Evers