Madonna: Like a Prayer

'Like A Prayer' (1989)

'Like a Prayer' is a pop rock song recorded by the American singer, Madonna.  The soundtrack also contains elements of gospel music giving it a more spiritual feel. The music video, which was directed by Mary Lambert, created a lot of controversy at the time that it first came out, and remains a very controversial video to this day.  Images of crucifixes being set alright, the Ku Klux Klan and what seemed to be a black Jesus, made the video very unpopular with religious groups.
Three main reoccurring themes throughout the video are sex, race and religion.

The narrative of the video shows a white girl being murdered by a group of white supremacists, however a young black man gets framed although he was trying to help. Madonna hides in a church to try and find courage to go to court as a witness of the events.

Religion
As mentioned before, Madonna looks for guidance once entering the church as to what she should do, so it is no wonder that it is a reoccurring theme throughout the video. 

The video has some very quick shots of different religious iconography at the beginning, such as the crucifix, and along with her being inside a church, the audience is being given the idea that it will be a very religious video.  

Images of Stigmata are also used, the appearance of injures o the body that Jesus would have suffered, to show that Madonna is going through a religious experience in an extreme case.

The problems with religion begin to arise when in the video she is stood by burning crosses, which gives the connotation of the KKK. The violence that is connoted with a gang goes against what Catholics believed and that is why it was a risky decision to include that in the video.  Perhaps by doing it Madonna was trying to draw more awareness to the racism that was about at the time, and the video is her way of saying that it isn't right.

Race

The use of race within the video caused a stir amongst the population when they watched the video, notably with religious groups.  The saint that is used, Saint Thomas, was seen by many as being a 'black Jesus' and many devout Catholics thought that it wasn't right.  

The video subverts the normal stereotypes of a black man harming a young white woman, and a white man coming to her rescue.  In this case it is a white criminal and a black man comes to her aid, however racism is still involved in the video when the man gets caught and charged with the murder although he wasn't the one who committed it in the first place.

Futhermore, the idea of Madonna having a relationship with the black man in the video could have also caused quite a bit of controversy when it was first released as it wasn't common for a white girl and a black man to be together.

Gender + Star Image

The video shows the objectification of women when the young girl is harassed and killed by the group of young men.

Also Madonna gives herself a very sexual image throughout the video.  In one hand the audiences sees the religious aspect but on the other what Madonna is wearing totally goes against the Catholic idea of remaining pure and innocent until marriage.

We are given very sexual images, with many different close up on the tight dress that she is wearing and her chest area.

Other Images

The imagery of the roses and the dagger within the film portray romance, as they relate to the story of Romeo and Juliet.  

There is a dream like element to the video, Madonna falls from the sky and is caught by a a woman dressed in chorus robes.  This adds to the miracle element of the video, and the idea that Madonna is being 'saved' by the church spiritually and they put her back on course.

The use of the gospel choir at the end of the video, as Madonna explained herself, 'As the choir sings, she reaches an orgasmic crescendo of sexual fulfillment intertwined with her love of God. She knows that nothing's going to happen to her if she does what she believes is right. She wakes up, goes to the jail, tells the police the man is innocent, and he is freed. Then everybody takes a bow as if to say we all play a part in this little scenario."

The final scene ends with a curtain closing on all of the 'actors' within the video, including Madonna herself. The idea of this I believe would have been because Madonna knew that the whole video would have caused a lot of controversy that by turning it into a 'play' at the end she could pretend that it was all just to please the audience.