Mississippi Burning Essay

Burning is a movie about racial hate and bigotry. How has the director Alan Parker presented the genre through the use of Camera, Music and other techniques? Racial hate has been one of the biggest issues in society over the past 100 years. Film has traditionally been considered a very effective medium in presenting a message about this. Mississippi Burning is a heart wrenching film based on racial hate and bigotry. Alan Parker is the director of the film and has incorporated many techniques such as, camera angles and lighting, costume and language and sound. All of these techniques are to suit particular scenes in the film and or to highlight certain attributes. Alan Parker provides a theme and or message with in his film, and his techniques used without help to provide the message and or theme he wishes to portray. Camera Angles and Lighting are highly influenced in the film as they help symbolise certain objects and highlight hidden meanings. SCENE displays this as once the FBI men have had the fright of their life they spot something outside, to then see it is a burning cross. At this point the cross is burning bright and the environment around is dull, almost not there. This is highlighting the fact that at this point of time the police are winning and their ways are brighter and better then there’s. This proves that the police believe that treating black people like dogs is okay. Throughout the film there are dramatic camera angles, the best one that highlights the whole movie is the opening scene, where we are looking directly at a white mans’ drinking fountain and a black mans’ drinking fountain, the differences in the fountains show that black men have no rights and white men have too many. Alan Parker uses language and costume to highlight certain characters and their actions. Language being a strong point throughout the film, Alan highlights the fact that the police for example are pig headed by the way they speak. They have a lot of slag and a lot of attitude. Alan highlights the fact that the black people have a voice as when they do speak, they are polite and confident. The way the characters all dress reflects them too, as Alan tries to portray a message that the black people cannot afford not only nice clothes but a better life, that the white men can afford to dress nice but cannot afford a nice attitude. Sound is used to help maintain a scene, to help make it more dramatic, to make you more excited, to prove a point or make you sadder. Sound helps portray messages in such a way that words cant. Mississippi Burning without fail reaches to enhance these points as the film carries out many strong ‘sound’ points. SCENE when the three civil right men are found, the funeral is withheld and a black woman with a strong voice take the scene as she evokes the point that the two white boys were not allowed to be buried near the black boy and not only she, but the whole black culture has had enough of being treated like dirt. This scene shows a rise up, a community of black people standing together for the last time as dirt and rising up together as strong-willed people. Mississippi Burning uses a wide range of techniques to provoke messages being hidden throughout the film. Racial hate and bigotry are constantly highlighted behind mixed messages and a hidden meaning as Alan Parker allows a viewer to withhold their own opinion on not just the film, but racism itself.