Saule Kozhakhmetova/20090725 During any ideological analysis, question that asks a time period of the scene and the

historical context the ideology belongs to is very important. The leading traits of 20th-century ideology are the regimes of political views and the astounding, often uncontested, control these regimes have had, and in some societies still have, over people. Communism and fascism are two principal ideologies of the past century which had such excessive impact over entire societies, America in 1930s being one of them. The scene and the movie itself represent the dominant discourse of power to show the concerns and cultural beliefs of Southern USA in the 1930's, while comparing these beliefs to today's situation. So analyzing the ideology of the chosen scene when John Coffey, denounced to death for the rape and murder of two small girls in a Southern town arrives to the Louisiana prison, viewers observe the difficult times of America during the Depression in the 1930s, which reflect explicit race ideology and many of the left-wing values of Roosevelt's New Deal that is summarized as a practice of the government authority as an syndicated format of self-help for all class levels and groups and sections of America. People supporting the left-wing values think that social progress can be effectively obtained by a cooperative effort of all citizens toward a common goal. The notion of authority shown in scene represents that when it is abused the consequences that transpire have a harmful reflection on everyone even who is not involved, as it happens in the case of Darcy Persie, young cell-block supervisor and a nephew of State Governors wife, who slams John with a knobstick. Those who has power or indirect authority like Darcy Persie, positioned themselves so that they can take full advantage of their situation, while those who does not have such power like John Coffey can not act without being defamed. Example of Darcy Persie clearly shows the dominant reading as the power used as a form of life. Decades before the 1930's, was the period of time where most families gained their fortune, authority and respect from the community. So that the family accusing John Coffey in the murder was a result of this history and was considered to be well off, therefore the judgement is undoubtedly swift. This case again shows the strength of powerful people words that are never questioned. Being lower

and middle class people, John Coffey and even Paul Edgecomb are powerless to change societal concepts.

In short, we came to the conclusion that the scene uses explicit race ideology and many of the left-wing values. but it is more interesting is to discuss the film elements like camera, Mise en Scene, editing, narrative, tone - through which ideology is conveyed as language system here, which often disguised in codes. Camera positioning and expressive, predominately low key, lighting used in this particular scene create high contrast and shadow to convey a dark expressive mood of 1930s in South America helping to frame John Coffy as a black man of that time. An abundance of lower camera angles alternating with eye level shots present John Coffy as unusual mighty giant. Frequent close-ups focused on his clothing inherent for working class people, his bare feet, glistening biceps, his sculptured body, and powerful physique presents him as a sharecropper or migrant worker, used to work as slave to ensure his life. That was common for that type of regime needed immediate relief from economic collapse and depression. Setting and location of this particular scene and film itself, one of elements of Mise en Scene, used to convey the race ideology of that period of time is the American Prison, that is the place where an overrepresented amount of African American men is increasing due to these same ideologies. Focusing on the character performance, exactly on their gaze and body contact, viewers meet with the explicit ideology, that is clearly shown during the dialogue between John Coffy and Paul Edgecomb, white supervisor of Green Mile cell-block. Despite of being such mighty giant John renders possesses a recurring stammer and tries to politely answer the question smirkingly posed by the supervisor that again shows the predominance of powerful people. The narrative of the movie itself is

insistently directing to racist practices institutionalized within the penal system so that it comes to the John Coffeys electrocution, creating an opinion that he, black man begging his guards to execute rather than exonerating or releasing him, or chooses the death to the life, due to difficulties and pressure black man of those times met with. Previously discussed material creates a tone of the highest order melodrama, a magnificently determined fantasy with an essence of genuine honesty and sadness.

To conclude the analysis of the scene, incredible credits are given to the time period and its historical context in which the action takes place. The explicit race ideology of the scene is determined by the dominant discourse of power and many of the left-wing values of 1930s, consequently representing black and low class peoples culture as a culture of outsiders, some of them sympathetic, most of them racist and ignorant.