Mississippi Burning (1988)

Gene Hackman: Agent Rupert Anderson

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Ward : Where does it come from? All this hatred?

  Anderson : You know, when I was a little boy, there was an old negro farmer that lived down the road from us, name of Monroe. And he was... well, I guess he was just a little luckier than my daddy was. He bought himself a mule. That was a big deal around that town. My daddy hated that mule, 'cause his friends were always kidding him that they saw Monroe out plowing with his new mule, and Monroe was going to rent another field now he had a mule. One morning, that mule showed up dead. They poisoned the water. After that, there wasn't any mention about that mule around my daddy. It just never came up. One time, we were driving down that road, and we passed Monroe's place and we saw it was empty. He just packed up and left, I guess, he must of went up north or something. I looked over at my daddy's face. I knew he done it. He saw that I knew. He was ashamed. I guess he was ashamed. He looked at me and said, If you ain't better than a nigger, son, who are you better than?

  Ward : You think that's an excuse?

  Anderson : No it's not an excuse. It's just a story about my daddy.

  Ward : Where's that leave you?

  Anderson : My old man was just so full of hate that he didn't know that bein' poor was what was killing him.

• Anderson : You know, if I were a Negro, I'd probably think the same way they do.

  Ward : If you were a Negro, nobody would give a damn what you thought.

• Mayor Tilman : Do you like baseball, do you, Anderson?

  Anderson : 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.

• Ward : Just don't lose sight of whose rights are being violated!

  Anderson : Don't put me on your perch, Mr. Ward.

  Ward : Don't drag me into your gutter, Mr. Anderson!

  Anderson : These people are crawling out of the SEWER, MR. WARD! Maybe the gutter's where we outta be!

• Mrs. Pell : It's not good for you to be here.

  Agent Anderson : Why?

  Mrs. Pell : It's ugly. This whole thing is so ugly. Have you any idea what it's like to live with all this? People look at us and only see bigots and racists. Hatred isn't something you're born with. It gets taught. At school, they said segregation what's said in the Bible... Genesis 9, Verse 27. At 7 years of age, you get told it enough times, you believe it. You believe the hatred. You live it... you breathe it. You marry it.

• Mayor Tilman : Fact is, we got two cultures down here: a white culture, and a colored culture. Now, that's the way it always has been, and that's the way it always will be.

  Anderson : Rest of America don't see it that way, Mr. Mayor.

  Sheriff Ray Stuckey : Rest of America don't mean jack shit. You in Mississippi now.

• Frank Bailey : Get this straight, you corn-holin' fucker. You tell your queer-ass nigger bosses that they ain't never gonna find those civil rightsers down here! So you might as well pack up and go back up North where you came from and...

  [Anderson grabs his crotch hard, Bailey screams in pain] 

  Anderson : [while grabbing Bailey by the balls]  Now get *this* straight, Shit-kicker! Don't you go confusin' me with some whole other body. You must have your brains in your *dick* if you think we're gonna just walk away from this. We're gonna stay 'till this gets done.

  [after opening his coat and exposing his gun he turns to Deputy Pell] 

  Anderson : How 'bout you, Deputy. That gun of yours just for show or do you get to shoot people once in a while?

  Anderson : [Releases his grip on Bailey, then takes a swig of beer]  Thanks for the beer.

• Anderson : Make no mistake about it, Deputy. I'll cut your fucking head clean off and not give a shit how it reads in the report sheet!

• Deputy Clinton Pell : You have to be a member to drink here.

  Anderson : Member? A member of what?

  [long pause] 

  Deputy Clinton Pell : Member of the social club.

• Anderson : Down here they say rattlesnakes don't commit suicide.

• [Anderson and Ward leave the house after talking with Deputy Clinton Pell and Mrs. Pell] 

  Ward : Tell me, Mr Anderson. How does a woman like that end up with...

  Anderson : [nods toward the Pell house]  With shithead in there? You know what these small towns are like. A girl spends all her time in high school lookin' for the guy she's gonna marry, and spends the rest of her life wonderin' why.

  Ward : Something's wrong. He's too confident.

  Anderson : Did you see the wedding photograph? His three pals, the ushers, had their thumbs hooked in their belts, with their three fingers pointing down.

  Ward : So what is that? Some sort of Masonic thing?

  Anderson : [holds up three fingers]  No! "K-K-K."

• [Ward stops Anderson from taking vigilante action against Pell] 

  Ward : We'll go after all of them. Together.

  Anderson : You wouldn't know how!

  Ward : You're going to *teach me* how.

  Anderson : You don't have the GUTS!

  Ward : Not only do I HAVE the guts I have the AUTHORITY!

• Anderson : [Anderson is in a barbershop, shaving Clinton's face with a razor blade and simultaneously interrogating him]  This is tricky. They make it look so easy, don't they? I got a question for you, Clinton. You don't mind if I call you Clinton, do you? I feel like I know you so well. The way we have it, on the night of the murders... you made a short speech as the bulldozer buried the kids in the dam. How does Lester tell it? "Mississippi will be proud of you. You've struck a blow for the white man." Is that what you said, Clinton? Hm? Is that what you said? It must've been you... because Clayton Townley and Ray Stuckey, they were too smart to be there. And you was too stupid to think anybody'd remember what you had to say. But old Lester, he got a good memory.

  [Anderson groans as he accidentally cuts Clinton with the razor blade] 

  Anderson : I'm sorry. I haven't done this for a long time. Did you make a speech the night that you beat up your wife, Clinton? Huh? Did ya? Did you strike a blow for the white man that night? Huh?

  [Anderson lifts Clinton out of his barber chair and thrusts his face towards a mirror] 

  Anderson : You got a stupid smile. You know that, Pell?

  [Anderson pushes Clinton's face right up against the mirror] 

  Anderson : Can you see it? Huh? Good!

  [Anderson pulls Pell away from the mirror and throws him up against a wall] 

  Anderson : Did you smile when the bulldozer ran over the black kid's body? Did ya?

  [Anderson pulls Clinton away from the wall and walks him towards a sink filled with water. Anderson then pushes Clinton's face into the water then quickly pulls him back out] 

  Anderson : Did you smile when the bodies were covered over? Did ya?

  [Anderson throws Clinton towards a wall. Clinton hits the wall and falls to the ground] 

  Anderson : Get up here.

  [Anderson pulls Clinton up off the ground] 

  Anderson : Come on. Get up! Did you smile that same stupid smile, huh?

  [Anderson smacks Clinton in the face] 

  Anderson : Did ya? You...

  [Anderson throws Clinton towards a line of chairs, knocking them over and landing on the ground] 

  Anderson : You... Did ya smile, Pell? Did ya smile? Huh? Did ya?

  [Anderson pushes Clinton onto a barber chair and holds the razor blade to his face] 

  Anderson : Make no mistake about it, Deputy. I'll cut your fuckin' head off and not give a shit how it reads in the report sheet.

  [Anderson walks away, leaving Clinton lying dazed and beaten in the spinning barber chair] 

• Anderson : What's got 4 eyes/I's and cant see?

  Ward : What?

  Anderson : Mississippi

• Ward : Some things are worth dying for.

  Anderson : Down here, things are different; here, they believe that some things are worth killing for.

• Anderson : Don't you have the whole world to save?

• Anderson : Did you make a speech like that the night you beat your wife?

• [the FBI saved Lester Cowans from a lynching] 

  Anderson : You're lucky we've been watching your ass, Lester.

  Ward : If you go on the record, Mr. Cowans, we'll give you protection. If not...

  Anderson : If not, they're going to kill you anyway.

  [sniffs] 

  Anderson : Oooh Lester, you need a toilet.

• Anderson : [after the altercation with Ward where Ward pulled his gun on Anderson]  Do you think he would have shot me?

  Agent Bird : Oh, yes sir.

  Anderson : Ballsy little bastard, isn't he?

• Ward : Good morning. My name is Alan Ward. I'm with the FBI.

  Deputy Clinton Pell : Federal Bureau of Integration?

  [laughs] 

  Deputy Clinton Pell : That getup you ain't exactly undercover, are you now?

  Ward : We're here to see Sheriff Stuckey.

  Deputy Clinton Pell : Sheriff's right busy now. You'll have to wait or come back some other time.

  Ward : [Smiling]  We'll wait.

  Anderson : [Approaches Deputy Pell]  Listen to me you backwoods shitass you. You got about two seconds to get the Sheriff out here or I'm gonna kick the God damn door in. OK?

  [Smiles] 

• [about the black passenger] 

  Lester Cowans : I didn't kill him, I only shot him in the ass.

  Anderson : We know that. He was already dead when you put your slug in him. But your buddy sees it differently. He says it like YOU killed the kid. Now either you go on the record with us right now, or it'll be YOUR ass we're talking about, not just the black kid's!

• [last lines] 

  Agent Ward : You wanna drive, Rupert?

  Agent Anderson : Yeah.

• Anderson : Don't mean shit to have a gun unless you ready to use it.

• Anderson : [quoting racist song]  Never! Never! Never I saaaay! Cuz the Ku Klux Klan is here to stay!

• Mayor Tilman : Any jackass can point a finger, Ward, but that ain't evidence. Now down here us old cotton choppers are still stupid enough to believe in democracy. And you can rest assured, sir, we know our rights under the law!

  Anderson : You know something, all right. I'll bet a cotton-choppin' dollar on that.