The beginning of the video opens with an elegant lady running towards the camera in panic as the technical diegetic sounds of sirens convey how she has done something wrong instantly letting the audience in on the action and not leaving them confused. The symbolic darkness with the contrast of the burning barrel show how this lady may be rebelling but does not want to reveal herself to an audience. Non-diegetic technical electric guitar is playing as she plummets to the floor to convey the lady rebelling against something as the sound of guitars is stereotyped with rock, misbehaviour and rebelling. We then see the slamming of a door followed by the burning of a cross instantly making it a controversial music video by playing with peoples beliefs. Fast paced editing reflects this, however, the cross is still made obvious to the viewer. The symbolic references continue as it shows Madonna heading into the church where she stumbles across Jesus, who in this video is of the black ethnicity. This is offending christians and subverting their beliefs that Jesus is of the white ethnic group.
From the video we gather that Madonna is heading to the church for help and to send a prayer to God after what she has just witnessed, such as the symbolic scene of white men beating up a lady. However, Madonna is wearing a thin black dress sporting a sex appeal while she sings to Jesus. A slow zoom is used as she sings ‘I hear your voice, like an angel sighing’ to show her love for Jesus. However, she is then shown to be kissing his foot whilst dreaming of landing in heaven by being met by a black angel, once again subverting beliefs of christians. Furthermore, we are then shown that Madonna has set Jesus free from the gate, where he kisses her and then leaves the church. This suggests that Jesus does not want to be kept in the church and is happy to have been set free, once again subverting stereotypes and beliefs. From this a pan is used to reveal an upbeat black choir, shown to be happy, which is suggesting that this choir is happy and relieved that Jesus has been able to leave the church.
The video then moves on to see what we were teased with at the beginning of the video which is the fight scene. White men are pictured beating up a white women, subverting the stereotypes of white ethnicity being heroic. A black man then jumps down and tries to save the girl from the men but he is the one who gets arrested by the police adhering stereotypes of black ethnicity being criminals. Straight cuts progress the video further revealing Madonna singing in front of five burning crosses. This may suggest that she doesn't believe in religion and thinks that it may be fake concluding in the fact that the video is so controversial and offensive to many people. Additionally, Madonna is dressed in a black lacy dress pushing a sex appeal which contrasts the religious approach. During this she is shown by parallel editing singing with the black choir promoting a family approach and unity as they all celebrate Jesus’ departure of the church. Furthermore, Madonna is pictured kissing Jesus which will offend many christians and create controversial comments. Parallel editing is used at this point during the up beat part of the song as a technical term to remind the audience of the burning crosses, the black choir and the kissing of Jesus to further promote the controversial factors of the music video.
It is then revealed that Madonna was dreaming of Jesus and her kissing as its shown with him behind the gate with the non-diegetic sound effect of a gate closing despite the fact the black choir are still in the church singing. Furthermore, Jesus is then pictured behind bars in a police station with Madonna looking very happy with herself speaking to the police guard, suggesting that Jesus shouldn't have his say and is worthy of jail, once again pushing controversy and beliefs. The final part of the video reveals that all of the stunts were just acting pulled in this video as the cast take their bows with a large red curtain behind them resembling a theatre, putting a light hearted approach on it. The curtain then falls and writing shows ‘The End’ to show the telling of a story.
In conclusion, Madonna’s video of ‘Like a Prayer’ has used technical and symbolic approaches to deal with beliefs and stereotypes through camera, editing, mise-en-scene and sound.
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