Idea – Attitudes and Beliefs
Parker and Jewison present a Southern United-States setting of Mississippi, revealing how the attitudes and beliefs of the white community influenced the separation between the blacks. Parker portrays Mississippi as a place governed by the white population, resulting in the isolation of the black community. By contrasting the two, the whites are portrayed as the dominant race through revealing the disregard they show towards the blacks, as well as the differing lifestyle both communities live. The whites are displayed living a plentiful lifestyle, whereas the blacks are revealed to live in rural areas with poor housing and sanitary conditions. Parker conveys this separation through employing mise en scéne to continuously emphasise the division between the two.
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The opening shot of the film begins with two drinking fountains, one labelled for whites and the other for coloured people which creates a direct contrast in the same medium shot. It is obvious that the coloured population is the oppressed race where their fountain is of a poor standard, and the whites’ fountain is new. Through positioning, a white man is shown accessing the tap first, followed by a coloured child accessing the tap afterwards. Parker begins the film by immediately presenting the segregation within the township. Whites are shown to come first, and the coloured are shown to be second class which emphasises the segregated social setting. The introduction of the protagonists shows their car trip into Mississippi. Parker focusses on the grand entrance with a “welcome sign” billboard. The symbolism behind this is how a white family is pictured on this sign, while on average, coloured Americans made up sixty percent of the population of these Southern US states Ultimately reinstating the idea how whites control the state of