1.
In “Do The Right
Thing,” Spike Lee brings many different aspects to the table: drama, a political
message, comedy, and even crime. In the
Washington Post Review, Desson Howe portrayed this movie to be controversial
among its characters, where people live in a black New York neighborhood, “Italians
serve pizza, Koreans sell vegetables, but blacks do all the buying” (Howe).
During the film, this is the same conversation that ML, Coconut Sid, and
Sweet Dick Willie have as they sit in lawn chairs on the street. One man stated, “It’s because were black,”
yet one of the other’s said that being black is just a poor excuse. So why is it that other people are able to
run business on their street? This is a
major problem to some of these people in this neighborhood. This is just one of the bases that Spike Lee
covers in this film. He stresses that no
one is perfect, or is directly responsible for things getting out of hand in
the neighborhood. All the different
races, ages, and sexes of people seem to argue with one another, which eventually
leads to an escalade. Sadly it seems to
have taken the death of young Radio Raheem for people to see the destruction
they made for themselves. If they had
done the right thing in the first place, maybe things wouldn’t have turned out
the way they did. 
At the very
beginning and end of the film Love Daddy calls, “Waaaaaake up!” He is speaking to the neighborhood radio
station WE-LOVE. First there is a close up
of Love Daddy’s lips, then the mike and clock, later on the camera pulls back
through the glass to a WE-LOVE booth (Emerson). Love Daddy is literally trying to tell
people to wake up, but also figuratively.
Spike Lee is discretely informing these characters to stop arguing,
being hardheaded, and stubborn in the way they act toward other people. This is also shown in the scene with Radio
Raheem, in which he shows Mookie his love and hate rings. This symbolizes the struggle, as well as the
difference between right and wrong. This
struggle seems unresolvable when Mookie throws a trashcan into Sal’s Pizzeria,
while screaming, “HATE.” This in itself
ultimately starts a riot, leading to the total destruction of the pizza
shop. The Emerson Review makes a good
point in saying, “Rage is understandable, maybe even justifiable—but is it
right” (Emerson Review)? I don’t know.
Is it right for Sal to charge an extra $2.00 for extra cheese on
pizza? Is it right that Radio Raheem
doesn’t turn down his radio in Sal’s restaurant? Is it right that the Mookie’s friends batter
Da Mayor, saying he is a “drunk ass?” Is
it right that Vito calls most of people in the neighborhood “nigga?” Is it
right for Mookie to throw the trashcan into Sal’s? Throughout this movie hate has dominated
love, yet in the very end we have to realize that we need love, or everything
will fall apart. This is evident once
again when the film ends with another “Waaaaaaaaake up, ” from Love Daddy the
next morning. The audience is then
presented with the outside of the radio station, with WE- LOVE, in giant
letters. Spike Lee is telling us to wake
up and love other people.
As I stated
before, “Do the Right Thing” touches on the immediate struggle between love and
hate. As Roger Ebert states, this is a
movie that isn’t entirely filled with brotherly love, nor is it entirely filled
with hate either (Ebert). There is no
fine line between the two. Even in this small town during the late 1980’s
people are still struggling with discrimination. At the time of this film,
thirty years after the civil rights movement, people still don’t address the
violence and discrimination in their hometown.
Today, it has been almost fifty years since the civil rights movement,
yet we still see a sense of unkindness, hatred, and brutality among races. May it be, Asian, Korean, African American,
Iraqi, Indian, European, Russian, etc.
This film speaks to an endless time.
Even to this day, we wish to see love between different races in America. Yet, we the people are afraid, scared,
stubborn, and turn away from these problems.
“Do the Right Thing” isn’t telling us to pick a side on the racial pole,
but to understand and look at both sides, even when the society we’re put in
seems unfair (Ebert).
2.
Throughout the
movie there are tensions between characters: Radio and the Asian shopkeepers,
Da Mayor and Mother Sister, Vito and Pino, Sal and Radio, Buggin’ Out and the biker. Whenever there is any type of confrontation
about to occur, the audience knows it.
For instance, note the disturbance between Radio and the Asian shopkeepers. Radio wanted twenty D batteries. There was an oblique angle being used. Both groups of people were yelling,
screaming, and swearing about something as small as batteries. The camera cut from each character using the
180-degree rule, Radio Raheem is visualized from a low angle to make him look
tough and possessive. Meanwhile, the two
shopkeepers were seen from a high angle, looking almost scared. In these types of scenes the frame is very
tight due to the very close up shots of the characters. The cutting is so fast, it gives the audience
the knowledge that a fight is subject to occur. This contributes content as
well as meaning.
This same type
of awkward content is used in an oblique angle when Da Mayor stops in front of
Mother Sister’s stoop. When Da Mayor
comes to talk to Mother Sister, from her point of view, she sees him at a high
angle, like he is beneath her. She yells
at him, saying that he is a drunk. Yet
from Da Major’s point of view, he sees her from a low angle, like she is a
prize that he is trying to win. He tells
her that he loves everybody and someday she will have to learn to love him,
even if it is after she dies.
Another great
use of camera, frame composition, and editing is in the scene when all the
Hispanic boys are on the porch. The camera is panning these boys, and then
there is a close up to the radio on the car.
I also noticed that there was a telephoto shot of one of the boys
standing up next to his car in focus, meanwhile Mother Sister is fuzzy in the
background watching everyone on her stoop.
We see the panning continue to Radio Raheem as he walks up the
block. Then the camera continues to pan
back to the Hispanics who yell and badger Radio about his boom box! Throughout this entire scene there is no
cutting of the camera. The camera just
follows their duel between which boom box is louder and better. Later this leads to a crane shot of Radio
walking away down the street. This scene
allows the viewers to question whether or not a fight is going to break
out. Yet, because this is a long take,
the frame is pretty open, and the shots are medium or long, the viewer is able
to realize that this situation is going to die out. No fight is going to occur. This is how the camera can guide the audience
through scenes and provide meaning with frames, editing, and camera
movement.
3. For some reason one clip that really stuck
out to me was a very short scene. It was
while Mookie is out on a pizza delivery.
I felt like this was important use of mise en scene. There was a cut to
a bird’s eye view of a long shot of a little girl playing on the sidewalk. Her back is to the camera, she seems
disconnected to what the world is actually doing, much like the characters in
this movie. The characters are
disconnected to what is really important, which is love. The little girl is drawing with chalk on the sidewalk. She had a drawing of a happy house, the sun,
and people, meanwhile right next to her is a cute little doll. This is a reminder to the audience of what
this town could look like, what it should look like. There should be happy people, a giant sun,
and beautiful houses. Only seconds later
we see the camera tilt a little bit to Mookie walking right over her
drawing. He could have walked around it,
but instead he walks straight through her chalk drawings of happiness and
love. This in itself just symbolizes
this ongoing struggle between love and hate, which the characters are trying to
grasp.
Another great
clip that involved mise en scene is when Pino and Sal are have a conversation
in the pizza shop by themselves. They
are both sitting down at a table with low-key lighting, both in profile
position. No one else is around or in
the picture, thus a close frame. There
are no cuts and the camera is slightly getting closer to the medium shot of the
two characters. Note that the
cinematographer could have used a 180-degree rule to record their conversation,
but instead he used a long take. The
viewer notices all the empty tables, leading us to believe that at this time of
day they have slow business. Through the
window behind the two characters, the audience can see the shops next door,
cars parked on the road, and people just walking around. The audience sees that there is one red flower
on the table, the one object between their very personal proxemics. The only thing that really stands out is that
single red flower on the table. The next
thing that happens is Smiley who walks up to the window. During their conversation Pino just yells at
him saying“Get the Fuck out of here,” obviously filled with anger. The viewers feel bad for Smiley and want Sal
to react to his son’s rude and disturbing behavior. Meanwhile, Sal just sits at
the table stagnant. He then walks out of
the shop and tries to make things right, but his son just made things
worse.
Worked Cited:
Ebert, Roger.
"Do The Right Thing." Rev. of "Do The Right Thing"
27 May 2001: n. pag. Web. 3 July 2013.
<http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-do-the-right-thing-1989>.
Emerson, Jim.
"Do The Right Thing." Rev. of "Do The Right Thing"
1989: n. pag. Cinepad. Web.
3 July 2013. <http://cinepad.com/reviews/doright.htm>.
Howe, Desson.
"Do The Right Thing." Rev. of "Do The Right Thing"
30 June 1989: n. pag. Washington
Post. Washington Post Company. Web. 3 July 2013. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/dotherightthingrhowe_a0b222.htm>.
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