YMMV / Ghosts of Mississippi

• Audience-Alienating Premise: The movie failed to attract audiences and thus bombed at the box office in 1996, with it being speculated that a big reason for this was that it not only came off as undemanding Oscar Bait, but it was far more focused on the perspectives of the white people involved in the story (both lawyer Bobby DeLaughter and murderer Byron De La Beckwith) rather than Medgar Evers and his family, especially given Medgar's widow Myrlie was the one who fought for decades to get justice; several reviews noted that this made the film feel like a cliched white saviour narrative and that the story would've been more interesting if told from the perspective of the Evers family. Considering that the trial at the centre of the movie took place only two years before its release, a lot of people also already knew how things played out and the movie doesn't provide much in the way of new information to counter this.
• Love to Hate: Being a racist killer, De La Beckwith was not going to be a nice man. But James Woods' performance makes him a fascinatingly unpleasant man.
• Retroactive Recognition: Yes, that's Hollis Mann as Bobby's second wife.
• So Okay, It's Average: Most critics and general audiences find the film to be competently-made and well-intentioned, with good performances from the actors, but beyond that it's a fairly typical courtroom drama that isn't as compelling as it could've been (especially given the true story it was based on).
• Tear Jerker: The assassination scene is both this and Nightmare Fuel, as Medgar was just getting out of his car, looking to spend an evening with his family, suspecting nothing wrong, before De La Beckwith comes and murders him cold blood. The fact that this actually happened serves to make it even worse.

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