Preview

Mississippi Burning

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
609 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mississippi Burning
Mississippi 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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Mississippi Burning

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mississippi Burning (1988) is a hard hitting action drama designed to shock and educate the viewers on the topics of racism, justice and the law. When three people are killed in the state of Mississippi, two FBI agents are sent in to investigate, only to find out that people are being terrorised brutally in an unfair justice system. Using tactics that are considered ‘low’, they find a way to arrest those responsible in a federal court because the state courts were unjust. The events and convections used help to teach the viewer, get them thinking about the topics raised but at the same time amuse them and keep them entertained with the suspense and slight horror of the film.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    secretly displaying. The movie and the issues with the civil rights movement, racism in the USA,…

    • 513 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Mississippi civil rights workers murders involved the 1964 lynching of three political activists during the American Civil Rights Movement.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Civil Rights Movement

    • 3501 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Bibliography: Mississippi Burning. Dir. Alan Parker. Perf. Gene Hackman, William DeFoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, and Michael Rooker. Orion Pictures Corporation, 1988.…

    • 3501 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    This film is closely based on the true events of the shameful Tuskegee project, for which the few survivors received a formal apology from President Clinton in 1997. Heat-haze and sultry music evoke the sensuality of the poverty-stricken, deep south.…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    So the movie sketches many notable points at various locations. The movie reviles that all the characters working in the movie are narrow minded either they belong to the white community or the black community. The movie shows that both the parties are trying to inserting their cast or the community but no one is trying to promote the humanity. At individual level both the parties are trying their best for this…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the film it depicts blacks in a submissive position to which they are abusing their powers, such as the scene of the state legislature portraying black legislature are drunken pigs who’s only interest is intermarriage, every white persons nightmare. It’s a foreshadow of what the nation would be like if blacks were granted positions in…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Blazing Saddles Research

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Even in the advanced world we live in today, racism is still a strong presence in our everyday lives. Racism today can be seen in a variety of ways that are different than past displays. For instance, my friends that attended public high schools said that they noticed more racism from African Americans toward Caucasians than vice versa. In a lot of movies that are released in theaters today, it seems that the directors do a very good job of not displaying racism in movies, unless the movie is obviously about racism. In one of Mel Brooks’ most well known movies the 1974 film, Blazing Saddles, racism is shown in a different manner than almost any other film. In this movie, racism is depicted as more of a comedy. Cleavon Little plays the role of the first black sheriff in a town scheduled to be demolished by a railroad that is in line for construction. Blazing Saddles is the perfect film to social commentary on racism because as Mel Brooks uses racism in a comedy goes to show how racism has more of a role of comedic relief in this film, not something to run one’s life by.…

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    New York Burning

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Jill Lepore’s New York Burning is a novel about the 1741 slave conspiracy in New York City. When ten fires blazed through Manhattan, more and more evidence surfaced that it was slaves that set those fires and that they planned to set many more. Trials began and thirty slaves were either burned at the stake or hanged and over one hundred black men and women were thrown in jail. The question is, was there really a plot? Or were dozens of innocent people persecuted due to mass hysteria? After reading New York Burning I believe that there was a plot and in 1741 the slaves of New York planned to burn down the city.…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Barn Burning

    • 2184 Words
    • 9 Pages

    In “Barn Burning”, a short story by William Faulkner, a boy finds that he can no longer be governed by his father’s ideas and tries to prevent his father from doing further harm, and leaves his family in the process. Sarty Snopes desire is to break away from the moral deficiency of his family life and live life with some resemblance of normalcy even at the expense of never seeing his family again. A growing body of evidence, suggest that humans have a moral sense from the very start of life and family does not instill this moral compass from the very start of life.…

    • 2184 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this movie, race is an issue especially for the African Americans. There was scene in the movie where the main characters were driving late at night heading to reach the next town of the debate tournament. As they were on their way, they saw two black males hung up from a tree and lynched to death.…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    End Of Watch Analysis

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the movie “End of Watch”, directed by David Ayer, Officer Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Michael Peña) aren’t your everyday ghetto cops. Officer Taylor is filming his police life for the art elective he is taking for pre-law. The numerous hours they spend together in their cruiser, constantly bickering and bantering, has formed a deep friendship and brotherhood. They have even earned the respect of some local gangs by prioritising the rule of the “street” over the book of the law.This is shown in one amazing scene where brave and scrappy Zavala drops his gun and his badge and bare knuckle fights a suspect into submission while officer Taylor just enjoys the show. As stated by the suspect, this is the mark of “real police”.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Blazing saddles is a movie made in 1975 that was directed by Mel Brooks. The movie is a western that portrays a "perfect" white town that has lost its sheriff and is in need of a new one. Through the corrupt white government a new sheriff is sent to the town but he is black. This reverse of rolls in authority is a common base of humor among most people. It would be as though a peasant was sent to rule a group of nobles and kings. This doesn't make much sense, and watching the reaction of the people when they see their new sheriff is comical. Another reverse in common roles is the portrayal of the white people being the stupid and corrupt ones and the black man being the smart character. The only white character that is portrayed as smart is the only character that isn't racist. This implies that racist are ignorant and dumb. That is a huge change in the way society viewed the racist men during that time period and especially a decade before. One of the most striking aspects of this film is that is was made by a white director and made for a mostly white audience. This shows that there was a significant progression in accepting one another and a definite effort by some of the white community to express to the rest of the country that they needed to accept the blacks too. For a white director, during this time period, to put a black man in the hero position of a movie and poke fun at the ignorance of white racist was a huge step toward tolerance and acceptance.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Like most industries in the United States, the film industry is dominated and controlled by profit. Throughout history, this greed and desire for monetary gain by Hollywood producers, directors, and screenwriters has often come at the expense of African American males, and how they are portrayed and represented in films. One of the earliest examples of this trend was initiated by W.F. Griffith’s A Birth of A Nation. It later perpetuated with films like The Color Purple, She’s Gotta Have It, and Waiting to Exhale. Through these films, the image of black males in the media has been hyper masculated, and in many ways tarnished. A prime example of this may be demonstrated in Byron Hurt’s Beyond Beats and Rhymes.…

    • 1748 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the film 'The Hurricane' directed by Normal Jewison an important message that the character Rubin helps us understand is that of Racism. Jewison shows the viewer that the victims of racism have their lives destroyed and become aggressive because of the inequality served to them. We are also shown how unprotected victims of racism are, and how they are always in danger of becoming the target to blame things on. However Jewison directed this film to change these attitudes so towards the end of the film we have a hint of hope as we see that society can change for the better. These ideas are devolved through the use of film techniques such as dialogue, camera work, lighting and sound effects.…

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays