4K ULTRA HD MINI-REVIEW SCREENSHOTS - “MISSISSIPPI BURNING”
Gene Hackman stars as FBI agent Rupert Anderson in the gritty police drama investigating the disappearance of three young civil rights activists in Mississippi during the summer of 1964.
(Click an image to scroll the larger versions)
“MISSISSIPPI BURNING”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray, 1988, R for Violence and language
Best extra: Commentary with director Alan Parker
GENE HACKMAN was one of Hollywood’s hardest working actors.
In 1988, the fourth of his six films from that year, he received his fourth Oscar nomination. He played FBI agent Rupert Anderson, working with Agent Alan Ward, played by Willem Dafoe. They arrive in a fictional county in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of three young civil rights activists in the summer of 1964.
The film is based on the true killings of civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner during a voter registration drive in Mississippi. British director Alan Parker (“Midnight Express,” “Angel Heart”) helmed the production, and it received seven golden nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Hackman, Best Supporting Actress for Frances McDormand, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and won the Academy Award for Cinematography.
“If ever there was a time in his career when he almost inherited the mantle of the great Spencer Tracy, this was it,” says The Guardian. Hackman received the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear award for Best Actor.
The following HDR screenshots highlight Hackman’s performance and was filmed in Lafayette, Alabama, and Jackson, Mississippi. The excellent 4K master with Dolby Vision and a heavy dose of natural film grain was captured from the original 35mm camera negative and made available on 4K Ultra HD by Capelight Pictures in Germany last September.
Hackman’s unlikely acting journey had many turns. First, at age 10, he decided he wanted to be an actor but joined the U.S. Marines at 16 and served at a stationed in China, before the Communists took control. In 1956, he joined the Pasadena Playhouse, a training ground for actors, and became friends with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall. The three shared apartments in New York City during the early ‘60s. Hackman’s first major role was in Arthur Penn’s “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor as Buck Barrow, the older brother of bank robber Clyde. He received his second Oscar nomination in 1970 for “I Never Sang for My Father.”
At age 40, Hackman played the vicious NYPD narc Popeye Doyle in William Friedkin’s gritty “The French Connection,” which features one of cinema’s greatest chase scenes. Most of the time, it’s a stunt driver, but Hackman has his moments behind the wheel of the 1971 Pontiac LeMans, and half of the shots in the final cut Hackman was driving. The car weaves through traffic at nearly 90 m.p.h. chasing an elevated train in Brooklyn. During one of the stunts, Hackman was scheduled to nearly miss a car at the corner of Sitwell and 86th Street, but he accidently hit the car, and Friedkin decided to keep the footage in the movie.
Monday night, April 10, 1972, Hackman walked onto the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion stage as actress Liza Minnelli handed him his first gold statue. During his acceptance speech, he thanked his acting teacher, George Morrison, and director, Mr. Billy Friedkin, “And last, a young lady who I met in New York many years ago. Miss Felippa Maltese, and she brought me uptown. Thank you.” Maltese was Hackman’s first wife until 1986, and they had three children.
Hackman received his second Oscar in 1992, as the sadistic sheriff Daggett, in Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven.”
After nearly 80 films (“The Conversation,” “Night Moves,” “Superman,” “Hoosiers,” “No Way Out,” “The Firm,” “The Quick and the Dead,” “Crimson Tide,” “Get Shorty,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Runaway Jury”) Hackman retired from acting in 2004.
He and his second wife, Betsy Arakawa, left Hollywood for the quiet life in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He spent his days painting and writing novels with friend Daniel Lenihan and served on the board of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
The “suspicious” death of Mr. Hackman and his wife and one of the dogs has shocked the world, as the Santa Fe police continue their ongoing investigation.
“The lost of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity, I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.” – Director Francis Ford Coppola, who worked with Hackman in the suspense thriller “The Conversation” (1974)
