Mississippi Burning

Mississippi Burning directed by Alan Parker is a film set in the mid 1960’s. It was set in the time of the Civil Rights Movement and throughout the film it is shown how badly coloured people were discriminated against during those times. The major theme in the film is racism and segregation between the white and the coloured people in Jessup County. The director has developed this theme by using different techniques such as having characters with different personalities and authority, by using various film techniques and by setting the film in a particular location.
Parker explores the theme of racism through the characters. The two main characters in the film are Agent Rupert Anderson who is played by Gene Hackman and Agent Alan Ward played by Williem Dafoe. Agent Anderson is an older, wiser character and likes to investigate cases the way he was taught whereas Agent Ward is younger and likes to complete cases differently. For example, in the diner scene Agent Ward went and sat with the coloured people as there were no seats left in the white section but Agent Anderson didn’t follow. Other characters in the film are Deputy Pell (Brad Dourif) and Sheriff Stuckey (Gailard Sartain). These two characters discriminate against coloured people the most. Parker shows this by making the two characters rude and arrogant. Both Stuckey and Pell were part of the KKK who scared and killed black people to help with the segregation of the coloured and white people. (Rest of America don't mean jack shit. You in Mississippi now. - Sheriff Stuckey.) Sheriff Stuckey said this because he believes that because he is in Mississippi the rules are different from those of other states in America.

Parker used different film techniques throughout the film such as camera angles, music and different clothing worn by the characters. In the film Parker used camera angles such as extreme wide shot. An example of when extreme wide shot was used was at the start of the film when we see the