Spike
Lee’s Do The Right Thing sprouted
much controversy at its release in 1989 because it provided viewers with a
truthful, yet unbiased approach to racial segregation within the United States. The film has kept “things open to wide
interpretation,” giving reason as to why such a sensitive subject matter is
considered “unbiased” toward one side of the racial spectrum (Howe). Even by today’s set of standards, the
film holds up as a rather monumental development in establishing the “space
between right and wrong, justice and retribution, reason and outrage, that
Spike Lee wants to urge his audiences to explore for themselves”
(Emerson). In other words, there
is not one “true” protagonist or antagonist, but rather a combination of societal-based
differences that eventually lead up to the film’s ultimate conclusion. One could agree that many of these
racial issues are still heavily prevalent in modern society.
The
idea of these so-called “societal-based differences” occur on a number of occasions throughout the film, however, one in particular happens when the characters
Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) confront Sal
Fragione (Danny Aiello), owner of “Sal’s Famous Pizzeria,” about his “Wall of Fame”
neglecting to include photos of famous Africa-American figures. It is here where things become heated
to say the least. Now, it is
obvious that both Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem show little respect toward Sal
in their attempt to confront him, but so too does Sal when his short temper causes
him to blurt racial slurs and stereotypes to get his point across. The two African-American characters
avoid belittling remarks. Sal’s
anger, and one could say the extreme outside temperatures, causes him to resort
to such derogative terms.
Anger
can release a person’s true colors, and, in this case, Sal’s anger displays his
inner racial tendencies. In this
sequence, both sides, neither bad nor good, fuel the inevitable riot. The late Roger Ebert puts it best in
his review by stating, “It requires you to decide what you think about it”
(Ebert). The “it” factor promotes
the question, “Who did the right thing?”
The answer to that question is hard to decipher because each side has
pros and cons. And if the film
were biased than the viewer would not have the option of choice. Furthermore, the conclusion would
succumb to presenting viewers with a clear-cut antagonist. Instead, it becomes the job of the viewers
to thoroughly conduct an open-minded answer for his or herself.
Every
race has faults and is guilty, one time or another, of racial stereotyping,
which is made evident in one sequences of the film. Within this sequence, a dolly shot rolls up from a full shot
to a close-up of each race depicted within the film such as, an African,
Italian, Mexican, Korean, and a white.
Each race fumes racist comments directly at the camera lens. The shots are supposed to be the
internal thoughts of each race and what they think truthfully of the other race(s). The reason to think that these shots
are meant to be internal thoughts is because in each shot only one specific character
is visible within the established frame—no one else is included to see or hear
them speak out offensive comments.
In
terms of the film’s photography, the formalistic tendencies in style helps to
convey the build up of tension, especially in the final sequence of events. From the second Buggin’ Out and Radio
Raheem step through the door, the oblique positioning of the camera angle,
followed by the dolly back shot at a low angle, signals something that will
lead to a violence outcome. The
high angle on Sal puts him into a vulnerable position, adding a preemptive
sense of entrapment to the scene.
Notice that the characters stare directly into the camera lens. Each shot is from the characters
point-of-view, looking directly at one another. Buggin’ Out and
Radio Raheem, standing opposite of Sal, feel that they had an advantage in
power. Sal is being ganged up
on. The high angle also shows that
Sal will lose control of whatever existing power he has left if he does not stand up for himself.
In addition, the song, “Fight the Power,”
brings forth another dimension of meaning, and it symbolizes, perhaps, the idea
of white society as the acting “power.”
The so-called “minority” characters are fighting this “power” to obtain
equal ground rather than continue to be segregated. It turns out, though, that the song’s lyric “fight” does
little to resolve the problem because Sal goes on to refers to it as “jungle”
music. He then positions himself
on equal footing as the eye-level, medium shot illustrates this when he smashes
the radio into piece. Destroying
the radio separates a once cultural melting pot of a neighborhood into a street
corner of racial hatred and violence.
Fighting does not help the cause, and, as a result, Radio Raheem is murdered. The death regresses the
progress of becoming one as a society of people, both from a mental and physical standpoint.
One
shot in particular in which mise en scène occurs is when Pino (John Tutrturro)
and Sal sit at the front window of the pizzeria. It starts at long shot, followed by a slow dolly shot moving
toward both Pino and Sal, talking amongst each other at the window. The shot stops at a medium range,
two-shot, along with an eye-level shot. Within the background stands the Korean’s “Fruit and Vegetable
Delight” corner store in addition to the red and blue neon lights decorating it. Three different cultures exist
in one shot, African’s, Italian’s, and Korean’s. The coloring of the shot has spurts of red, white, and blue throughout. America is the symbol of freedom and
equality, yet the society living in it, for the most part, struggles to allow
this idea of equality to co-exist with other cultures. The window is the symbol for saying things behind closed
doors. Pino says that they (whites) do not
belong in the same neighborhood as “these people” (blacks). Therefore, the notion is that Pino is not afraid to express
himself when he is separated or closed off from the public ear, metaphorically
speaking. The window is what
blocks the words of truth.
The
shot seems to be lit with mainly backlighting, putting little emphasis on fill
and key lighting so as to create a dusk effect. Much continues to go on in this one continuous take,
especially when Smiley (Roger Guenveur
Smith) comes
to the window asking Sal and Pino to buy pictures of Malcolm X and Martin
Luther King Jr. The camera does
not cut to a different shot, even as Pino gets up from his chair and walks
outside, yelling at Smiley to get lost. The reaction of Sal is made evident as he sits with his hands on his face, while listening to the bickering outside
the windows. Maybe in this moment,
he changes his perspective of things, comes to the realization of Pino’s
argument, even though he gives his reasons to Pino for staying beforehand. He does change in this moment, although
not entirely, by the way in which he views the people living in the
neighborhood. Plus, Sal really does not
do anything to stop Pino from scaring off Smiley, or arguing with the
off-screen black man across the street corner.
The frustration is beginning to brew in Sal. For the time being, however, he is holding his true emotions back.
Do the Right Thing has a formalistic tone, at times, in
terms of its camera work, and whatnot, but the story tends to lean more toward
realism. One way the story can be
looked at as formalistic is the presence of a narrator, and the character of
Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) adds that undertone. He acts as the man behind the curtain, looking over everyone
else and observing. The editing
style is a form of classical editing because there really is not any noticeable
distortions that are meant to be intentional, much of that has to do with the camera
work. The film uses matching
action to connect one shot to another, including the 180-degree rule for the
dialogue scene especially. The
speed of the cuts depends on the scene.
Some scenes are slow, while scenes like the riot in the latter half of the
film contain fast cuts, causing a sense of confusion and distortion in order to
simulate, to some degree, a rioting situation. The camera angles range from birds-eye, close-up, high, long, low, medium, oblique, to wide. The movements are mostly crane, dolly, pan, and zooms. Much is formalistic, but highly affective in setting a certain mood for individual shots.
Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. "Do The Right Thing." Rogerebert.com. Chicago Sun Times, 30 June 1989.
Web. 8 July 2013.
Emerson, Jim. "Do The Right Thing." Cinepad.com. Web. 8 July 2013.
Howe, Desson. “Do The Right Thing." Washingtonpost.com. Washington Post, 30 June 1989.
Web. 8 July 2013.
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