Set in 1964 when America was terminally backwards in its racial prejudices the KKK was running rampant in the state of Mississippi. When 3 young civil rights workers, 2 white and one black disappear under very suspicious circumstances the FBI come to town to investigate.

Gene Hackman plays a streetwise ex Mississippi sheriff and Willem Dafoe is his young straight collar boss. Neither are excepted into the town very well. They realise this quickly when the black people that they confront in the town are systematically terrorised for speaking to the FBI. The sheriff and his men who are all members of the KKK make life incredibly difficult for the men and eventually they call in the back up and make their presence really known.

Without giving away too much of the plot the rest of the film portrays the effects that the FBI have on a racially prejudice society and the way the KKK reacts to this influence. Slowly but surely the KKK destroy the lives of the coloured community and slowly but surely the FBI track them down for it.

I do have one criticism of the plot. I would have preferred to not be shown in the beginning some of what had happened to the boys who disappeared. While you don’t get the full picture, and you don’t know everything that happened, it would have created a lot more suspense to find out further into the film.

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?
The transfer quality of this anamorphic picture is poor to say the least. There are some fantastic scenes of flames where you can quite easily say that the transfer is great but other than that there are flaws all over it. I would be assuming that this is due to poor quality of the source material. The most annoying trait being dust flecks on the image, which get worse towards the end of the film. Shadow detail is poor and sometimes non-existent. This is evident right from the opening scenes in the black of night. Here is no real consistency with the transfer which at times generally in the daytime scenes is soft, and then grainy, and then back to soft again. There are occasional instances of ailiasing but nothing to really distract from the film. The colour was a little bland and washed out but I believe that this is quite possibly a character trait of the film.

Video Highlights
Ch 01 01:35 – Fabulous flames
Ch 06 28:37 – Obvious washed out colours
Ch 19 1:18:02 - Severe lack of shadow detail
Ch 28 1:50:14 - Bad dust flecks on the right of Gene Hackman’s head

The audio quality is great for a Dolby 2.0 track. I was most disappointed that this wasn’t at least a 5.1 track. There is only a minimal use of the surrounds to create ambience but the front soundstage is used widely and to full effect. Dialogue was clear and sharp and I couldn’t find any sync problems at all. The soundtrack is impressive. There is a suspenseful throbbing feel to a lot of the music, which creates a fantastic feeling. I was also impressed with the use of the Negro gospel music setting a depressing mood for the film. There is little that stands out terribly in the audio transfer but overall it was great.

Audio Highlights
Ch 04 21:40 – Good use of surrounds for gun shot
Ch 09 34:34 - Fabulous pulsating music and explosions to boot!!
Ch 12 49:28 – Nicely placed gospel music

Once again we miss out on the extras, with just a theatrical trailer and the cast and crew biographies. I do not consider a menu or chapter access an extra. These are standard dvd features. So needless to say this doesn’t score highly in the extras department.