I believe that every film undergoes somewhat of an editing process which would make it "abridged."  Certainly, Mississippi Burning would meet this qualification.  The film is abridged in this light.  I think that Parker's film can be considered "abridged" in another sense.  There are many questions regarding how the historical record detailing the execution of the three Civil Rights Workers have been distorted for the Hollywood film.  Parker's film has significantly abridged the historical accuracy of the event in question.  This is not said as a pejorative statement regarding the film.  Rather, it seeks to bring out the issue of abridgement in the historical detail of the film.  The film seeks to forge a rather simplistic view of the historical events through characterizations that might not reflect the historical reality.  This is an area where the film is abridged in that it does not accurately depict the historical nuances.  In seeking to be a film that is not rooted in the history, it is abridged in this regard.  Through its depiction of two agents of the FBI who acted independently of the culture of the time, the film abridges the intricate work of coalitions in the South that sought to bring about the change to embedded ways of life in American culture.  In this, there is an issue of