Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in FBI school runs up against the small town ways of his former Sheriff partner.
Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman worked very good together as partners. I really respected Dafoe's character who always did things by the book and always held his composure. However, at the same time I really respected Hackman's character who was so angry for a change, he didn't care how it came about. Dafoe's character was a better character study who tries to do things the right way, but unfortunately, during that time period in that atmosphere, the rules needed to be bent before solutions could be made to deal with the problems. My favorite line from the film had to be when the sherriff asked Hackman's character if he liked baseball, to which Hackman replied, "Yeah, I do. You know, it's the only time when a black man can wave a stick at a white man and not start a riot."
