Film Review : Film Registry

In Spike Lee 's Do the Right Thing, the story takes places in 1989, another year in the long struggle for equality for African-Americans. The film portrays the racial tensions between locals of the neighborhood and an Italian-American family in the majority Black and Hispanic neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy) in Brooklyn, New York. Spike Lee shows us what a day in the life of the Brooklyn neighborhood consists of and throughout the movie he portrays several different aspects of a modern urban neighborhood, using the many unique personalities of the characters in the movie.

While the 1970’s and 80’s marked a decline in movies featuring black actors and a lack of black directors, the mid 1980’s through the 1990’s invited a new generation of filmmakers and rappers, engaging with the “New Jack” image, transforming the Ghettos of yesteryears into the hood of today. A major director that emerged during this time was Spike Lee. According to Paula Massood’s book titled, Black City Cinema, African American Urban Experiences in Film, “…Lee not only transformed African American city spaces and black filmmaking practices, he also changed American filmmaking as a whole.” Lee is perhaps one of the most influential film makers of the time, likely of all time. He thrusted black Brooklyn into light, shifting away from the popularity of Harlem. By putting complex characters into an urban space that is not only defined by poverty, drugs, and crime, it suggests the community is more than the black city it once was, it is instead a complex cityscape. Despite them being addressed to an African American audience, Lee’s film attract a mixed audience. Spike lee’s Do the Right Thing painted a different image of the African American community, “The construction of the African American city as community differs from more mainstream examples of the represents black city spaces from the rime period, such as Colors…, which presented its African American and Mexican American communities through the eyes of white LAPD officers.”

Do the Right Thing is a dramatic comedic film that was directed by Spike Lee. The movie was released in 1989. Lee served in three capacities for the film: writer, director and producer of the movie, Ernest Dickenson was the cinematographer and Barry Alexander Brown was the film’s editor. For this film, Lee garnered together some notable actors and actresses, including Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Rosie Perez, Samuel L. Jackson, John Tuturro and Martin Lawrence. The setting of the movie is in Bedford-Stuyvesant; which is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. This particular neighborhood is made up of several ethnic groups that include African Americas, Italians, Koreans, and Puerto Ricans. The movie takes place on a particularly hot day

The 18th Amendment was passed in 1918 to prohibit the manufacture, transport and sale of alcoholic beverages. While it had "noble" intentions,it produced another entire set of problems for the country. The amendment itself was repealed in 1933 in an effort to restore order. Why was this ammendement ever introduced, by whom and what events led to national attention because of it?

Lee makes excellent use of these shots as a way of bringing the viewer into the action of the movie. His use of high and low angle, point of view shots both heighten tension and give the feeling that the characters

The film Do the Right Thing is a very relevant on issues of race. The film shows how there is tension between all races. The film shows racial tension between the communities in the hottest day of the year. The heat is a theme in the film. Heat in general gets people on edge and raises tension. The film relates to W.E.B. Dubois work “The Soul of Black Folk.” Dubois (1903) work includes the concepts of the veil and double consciousness. The African Americans in the film deal with the idea of a veil. Mookie the protagonist deals with the idea of double consciousness.

In the film, Do the Right Thing, director Spike Lee presents the audience with the theme of racism. The title represents the everyday choices that we as Americans of various ethnicities, cultures, and race. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing allows the viewers to decide for themselves the right thing to do about racism. Everyone has the choice to be accepting of cultures, or people different from them. The film portrays how an Italian American named Sal has a neighborhood pizzeria in Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York. The neighborhood is primarily African American, but there is a diverse amount of other cultures made up of, Hispanics, European Americans, also there is a store owned by Koreans. This film displays the discrimination between the races and how this can lead to violence.

He starts off with a medium shot of the individual in the center of the screen; they start rapidly listing off racial slurs and stereotypes and the camera zooms in which emphasizes how violent it is. By the end of the rampage, the shot is an extreme close-up of the character’s face and you can feel the anger and hatred they have for that particular race. The climactic buildup at the end of the film was full of canted angles, shadowy lighting, dozens of fast shot/reverse shots that in full only lasted less than two minutes. The scene at the end of the movie, the hierarchy of confrontations and tensions between the characters, is a canted low angle shot of Radio Raheem and Buggin’ Out after they stormed into Sal’s Pizza Shop makes them appear more powerful and intimidating than Sal. All the shots of Sal are a counterclockwise tilt high angle, causing him to look inferior. The quick cuts back and forth between the two gives the film a sense of the tensions and anger. It is not until Sal rises up to the plate and smashes the radio, that he is being filmed at a leveled angle to show that he is not inferior anymore, but at the same

In the film “Do The Right Thing” by Spike Lee, cinematography and editing serve as critical components to emphasize the racial tensions between the various characters. Set in a predominantly black neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, the action of the film consists of a series of unfolding events that take place over the

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

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing focuses on scenes representing failed communication, dire stereotyping, absence of trust, and wrongful violence that reflects the existing concerns about racism in America. The intense language and strong gestures enhance the film creating a realistic view for the audience.

It is unfortunate that intolerance continues to exist in our nation (or anywhere else for that matter). Racism, one of the largest and most prevalent forms of intolerance, commonly destroys relationships and can eventually lead to violence. The existence of such hateful ideologies is so prevalent in our society that popular culture is constantly trying to challenge the ignorant basis of racial conflict. Spike Lee’s film, Do the Right Thing, connects with this concept of racial conflict that is so foreign to my past. Through the application of my social and political views, I will demonstrate how Spike Lee’s film is difficult for me to relate to and, in my opinion, conveys a misleading message.

In Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing, we dive head first into a world of racial and social ills. The movie is set in the African American and Puerto Rican neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on the hottest day of the year. We follow a young man named Mookie, who lives with his sister Jade, and works as a pizza delivery guy for a local pizzeria owed by Sal. Sal’s “Wall of Fame” is soon questioned by a man named Buggin’ Out, who believes that Sal should place some pictures of African American celebrities on his wall to represent the African American society he serves. Sal refuses and Buggn’ Out attempts to

In an attempt to enlighten audiences with a powerful message about the cancer that hate and violence can bring to a society; writer, director, Spike Lee brings Do the Right Thing to the screen. Fusing a powerful story with creative film making, Lee gives us an insider’s look at life on a blistering summer day in Brooklyn.

Cinema is an interesting art form that appeals to a wide variety of individuals through varied genres and styles. Of the various major film genres, I am most attracted to action/adventure films and comedy films. I particularly like action/adventure films because they allow e to be transported to a fantasy world where good always triumphs over evil. There are a great variety of action films I enjoy watching, however, one of the things that they all have in common is an unusually high rate of violence. Through these films, I am able to be transported to a dangerous environment while remaining in a safe location. Additionally, these action films transport me to another place and time, which I find thoroughly enjoyable because it allows me to see how directors believe these different things can be depicted on film.