Preview

Film Sequence Analysis of "Do the Right Thing"

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1925 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Film Sequence Analysis of "Do the Right Thing"
Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing is able to effectively explore the problem of racial conflict in America by skilfully manipulating cinematic devices such as staging, narrative, cinematography, editing and sound. The concentration and emphasis on characters' certain physical attributes with the use of photography and camera framing, the fast pace editing style and manipulation of sound all contribute to film's overall meaning. In analysing the short sequence beginning with a small girl drawing a chalk painting on the road and ending with Sal, the local pizzeria owner, making Radio Raheem, "a hulking misunderstood home-boy" , two slices of pizza, these devices are seen to illustrate the hostility between Black and Italian working class Americans.

The narrative style in this double scene sequence encapsulates the major oppositions at work in the film, that is racial acceptance and alienation. This can be seen in the juxtaposition of two scenes that show Radio Raheem's acceptance of his Black friend Mookie and his rejection and disdain of the White Italian pizzeria owners. The story is told within the course of one day and scenes follow each other sequentially. This particular sequence begins with Mookie treading over the young girl's drawing of a harmonious scene with the sun shining and people smiling, implying to the viewer that such harmony does not exist. The scene then goes on to present Radio Raheem's new ring pieces, entitled "Love" and "Hate". Radio Raheem explains to Mookie how life is a constant battle between these conflicting emotions and that these emotions are determined and unchanging. This scene sees Radio Raheem, in the Black part of town, express his love for Mookie, saying, "I love you, man." This is contrasted with the following scene as Radio Raheem is in Sal's pizzeria, where he expresses only hostility and hate for the Italians. Here, Radio Raheem seems to summarise the major theme of the film, namely acceptance for one's own kind



Bibliography: Bordwell, D and Thompson, K, Film Art, An Introduction. Seventh Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004) Kinder M, Close-up; A Critical Perspective of Film (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972) Lee, Spike (Dir.) Do the Right Thing. Universal City Studios. 1989 (Universal City Studios Home DVD) Page, C, "Spike Lee 's Warning about Race Relations", Chicago Tribune (Chicago: Chicago Tribune Company, 1989)

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lee wants the viewer to respond with shock and horror to this evidence of the legacy of racism in American society. He shows how racism ran so deep in the South that even children became causalities of the efforts to integrate.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In today’s world, with the increase in the reporting of police brutality and political tensions on the rise as well the world is on the edge of something that is similar to the events that happened in Do The Right Thing. A movie about the results of when the tensions and the heat of the climate run high resulting in a breakout that requires characters to do the right thing. After watching the film, the audience will be asking the same questions about their own actions. Spike Lee’s film Do The Right Thing uses film elements such as color, narration, and the movement of the camera to tell a story about racial tension in the 20th century. The audience should take away from the film the need to do what is fair in this world.…

    • 135 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is ever the right thing to do? The film Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee is a hard-hitting drama that deals with violence and racism in today’s society. Lee’s film conveys two contradictorily ideas of two powerful civil rights leaders: Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The main themes of the film are violence, racial intolerance, and police brutality. Its themes of racial intolerance and the ways in which our society, particularly those who are oppressed and marginalized, chooses to deal with it. Filmmakers used powerful techniques like cinematography and music, to drive that message home.…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The camera angle of the film emphasize emotion and power. At the beginning of the film, as the men are at a restaurant having small talk, close ups of the men occur, which in a way, introduce them. Furthermore, they show us their emotions and or reactions to certain discussion, which…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    So the movie sketches many notable points at various locations. The movie reviles that all the characters working in the movie are narrow minded either they belong to the white community or the black community. The movie shows that both the parties are trying to inserting their cast or the community but no one is trying to promote the humanity. At individual level both the parties are trying their best for this…

    • 1195 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his film, 1989’s Do The Right Thing examined all of the above and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989. It was his third full-length feature, is one of the director's most daring and controversial achievements, presenting one sweltering day, which culminates in a riot in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn (Lee, Spike…). It was a story about the tension between different races in the neighborhood in New York; it showed all the anger and hate everyone has towards each other. It also expresses why they carry those type of emotion. Throughout the film, Lee uses canted frames, dolly shots, tight close ups, high and low angles, parallelism, source music as well as his mis-en-scene. Some of the famous scenes from this movie are close ups, he begins the camera from a long shot and quickly zooms in to the character talking about how they dislike another race. Many years later, this film is still praised for being beautifully directed. His aesthetic techniques are one of the aspects that made this film such a controversial success. Lee wanted his message to get across and he used dramatic and subtle techniques to achieve it (Spike Lee’s…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Spike Lee

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Shelton Jackson Lee was eventually called spike by his mom because of his distinct personality. Spike made his first quality film called “She’s Gotta Have It” in the year of 1986. With only two weeks of shooting the movie grossed well over $700,000 in the United Stated with a $160,000 budget. Spike faced a lot of controversy for both his main films and statements but Spike always takes a serious outlook on race relations, political issues and urban crime violence. When “Do the Right Thing” was released in 1989, it gave examples of all the three and was chosen for an Academy Award for most excellent unique screenplay in that same year.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One of the elements seen in both films that is presented has been that of racism. In ‘Boyz N the Hood’ and ‘Do the Right Thing’ racism is shown through police brutality and ignorance of the police. In Boyz N the Hood, a police officer held Trey at gunpoint as he threatened him while calling him…

    • 159 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mr W Lowe

    • 9739 Words
    • 39 Pages

    Spike Lee and the Sympathetic Racist Author(s): Dan Flory Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 64, No. 1, Special Issue: Thinking through Cinema: Film as Philosophy (Winter, 2006), pp. 67-79 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3700493 . Accessed: 10/01/2012 20:49…

    • 9739 Words
    • 39 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Spike Lee's movie Do the Right Thing is an excellent portrayal of what life was and is most certainly like in some areas of New York City and across the United States of America.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The majority of the people in the community are black; however, the neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York is also home to some Hispanics and few whites. This is a diverse community with all races living within one block of each other co inhabiting the streets of Brooklyn together. In this mixed race minority community many concepts are brought to light through Spike Lee’s vision. Culture is everything humans do to create to enhance their survival and well being. Community is where people share a common living area. In a community, all races have something in common. Some do not like to socialize with others outside their…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Do The Right Thing Essay

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In the broadest sense, Do the Right Thing follows the shifting images of blackness in “commercial narrative cinema, attending to its insults and insurgencies, and its rare instances of black empowerment” (Guerrero 3). The dynamic opening dance number operates as an interlude for the later acts that establish the tone of the film. First, in the opening scene, the colorful background shifts from red, yellow, and orange. The red background signifies unbridled rage while yellow and orange suggest a greater restraint, albeit the colors still evoke anger. By tactfully using these colors, Lee hints at the frustrations of a diverse group of marginalized people facing the summer’s heat, police brutality, and gentrification before even showing them in their own neighborhood. However, assisting the colors in adding subtext is the opening dance routine. The aggressive dance routine of characters such as Tina, who shadowboxes, symbolize a strong resistance to authority as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” swells over the dancing black bodies, as if enticing the audience to join the cause and “fight the powers that be.” While this opening scene may seem quite straightforward when isolated from the rest of the film, it is not as forthright as it seems when looked at as a small part of a…

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the film, Do the Right Thing, Rosie Perez (Tina), became a well-known figure in one of the greatest films of all time. She played Mookie’s (Spike Lee) ostentatious girlfriend. Tina’s character allowed viewers' reactions to the issues of classism. Many were offended claiming that this is not a positive representation of who Latinos and African Americans. I would conclude that Spike Lee believed that any classist or racist response would only come from White people, but it didn’t.…

    • 425 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Shelton Jackson, formally known as Spike Lee, has established himself as a well respected American film director, producer, writer, and actor known for bringing to attention the issues of identity, racism, and socialization towards the black community in his work. In the film “Do The Right Thing” we can tie in the idea of W.E.B. Du Bois’s double consciousness when examining the pivotal role of the character Mookie. Throughout the film Mookie is constantly walking on a thin line between two highly segregated social groups, which as a result leaves Mookie torn to where his place in society should stand.…

    • 2166 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Racial Stereotypes

    • 1983 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Omi, Michael. “In Living Color: Race and American Culture” Signs of Life in the USA. Ed.…

    • 1983 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays