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