Ghosts of Mississippi

As directed by Rob Reiner from a script by Lewis Colick, it offers the most decent and convincing portrait of the contemporary south I’ve seen in ages (apart from Sling Blade). Read full review

Rob Reiner directed "Ghosts of Mississippi" from Lewis Colick's screenplay, and both deserve credit for their conscientious work. In the end, though, a race-related irony lingers in the movie despite its positive achievements. [20 Dec 1996, p.12]

As a movie, it's respectably well-acted by everyone, directed with Reiner's usual panache and intelligence, but fits so snugly into the Grisham-movie formula that it's hard not to be a bit suspicious. [20 Dec 1996]

If the thunder-and-lightning sort of movie that Reiner has come up with doesn't square with the quiet power of the material, some of that power breaks through nevertheless. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that a smaller-scaled production - possibly even a documentary - would have better served this particular story. [03 Jan 1997, p.17]

A scary performance by James Woods as a racist assassin brought to justice after 30 years and the sheer importance of the true story redeem an awful script. [03 Jan 1997, p.16]

Among the pleasures of "Ghosts of Mississippi" is the rare chance to see Goldberg, who is such a fine actress, in a serious role. [03 Jan 1997, p.E03]

Whatever its faults, Ghosts of Mississippi is certainly an involving drama. However, while I have no doubt that Reiner meant for this to be an indictment against racist attitudes and a survey of some of the successes and failures of the Civil Rights movement, it succeeds only sporadically at those goals. Read full review

Ghosts of the Mississippi doesn't glorify in happy endings. That's because it haunts with the reminder that racism remains an unhealed wound. Read full review

As an amalgam of drama and history, Reiner and scriptwriter Lewis Colick strike a surprisingly satisfying compromise. Read full review

Ultimately, Reiner's attempt at an inspiring story of a black woman and a white man working together to further the cause of racial justice ends up being overwhelmed by the looming specter of impossibly complex racial politics. [03 Jan 1997, p.04]

In focusing on the courtroom drama that finally culminated in a guilty verdict for murderer Byron De La Beckwith, Reiner and screenwriter Lewis Colick miss the potent human drama. [03 Jan 1997, p.03]

The result is the kind of competent, earnest, well-made but unexciting film that could just as easily have been produced for television. [20 Dec 1996]

Reiner should have had faith in his sensational material to make its points without a minister in the pulpit. The movie would have been much better, and much shorter, too. [03 Jan 1997]

It closes a chapter in history, but scarcely brings it to life. Read full review

This flashy aloofness puts it in a league with the John Grisham racism-courtroom movie "A Time to Kill" rather than the more moving - and far superior - Harper Lee one, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Read full review

We’re presented with another movie in the “Mississippi Burning” tradition that focuses on a heroic white person getting his eyes opened about the nature of his own and society’s racism. Read full review

What with Goldberg’s somnambulistic nobility, and the fact that this is yet another civil rights movie in which the struggles of black Americans take a backseat to the heroics of wealthy white guys, Woods’ presence is the least of Ghosts‘ problems. Read full review

If it's a necessary piece of history, it's a paltry piece of drama, with intentions so grand, they're absolutely deadening. [20 Dec 1996, p.C]

Rob Reiner's self-congratulatory Ghosts of Mississippi portrays Medgar Evers' slaying from the viewpoint of a white guy and can't even do a capable job of that. [20 Dec 1996]

Scene after scene falls flat, goes nowhere. Reiner seems to have left his storytelling skills up north. He even garbles the chronology. [13 Jan 1997, p.L23]

Reiner made another one of those stodgy courtroom pieces and forgot the first rule of a witness: Tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. [03 Jan 1997, p.5]

Ghosts of Mississippi isn’t a bad film by any means; it’s just not a very good film. Read full review

The movie tries to turn boringness into a virtue. Every time Rob Reiner builds a little suspense, he goes off into a civics lesson, but he has nothing interesting to say. Read full review

True as it is, Reiner's film feels like the Hollywood version. Read full review

No amount of emotional ballast in the film can make up for the tedium and repetition inevitable when a murder is shown and then dissected in two separate court hearings. Read full review

Tepid and two-dimensional in the manner of many telepics, this “Ghost” bodes to haunt the vid shelves after a short theatrical life. Read full review

Patronizing, dull and offensive, this drama about a knight in shining white skin out to serve justice in the name of po' black folk is Hollywood at its sanctimonious, bleeding-heart worst: A movie made by people who are sitting so high up on their hills, they long ago stopped realizing they're looking down at the world. [03 Jan 1997, p.5G]