Radio Has Come A Long Way

Do the Right Thing is a beautifully intense film directed by the talented Spike Lee, which revolves around the very diverse community of the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn on a hot summer Sunday. Throughout the entire film, characters are faced with obstacles and injustices that bring up the grand question of what the “right thing” even is. One scene in particular sums up the whole premise of the film into a concise and poetic speech spoken by the one and only Radio Raheem. This scene is imperative to have in the film as well as for the viewers. Without this scene, the film itself would not have the same impact and possibly the same message it has already given all of its spectators.

Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing is a great example about society and Individual racism. The movie takes place on a hot summer day in Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, and began with a sexy dance with Rosie Parize and a song in Public Enemy’s title: “ You got to fight the power, fight power, fight the power to be.” Then is the wake up call from Mister Señor Love Daddy. The society or the bigger racism is happening in Sal’s Pizzeria, owned by a family of Italians who have their own idea about the community. The vast majority of the customers of the pizzeria are black, and that becomes the source of the racial conflict. The first pick of the conflict is happening when Sal has been challenged by Buggin’ Out about why there is only Italians on the wall of fame. They yelled to each other about it for a while and the argue ended by Buggin’ Out leaving the pizzeria. But the spark has not extinct and the fuses of the next conflict have appeared. As Radio Raheem, who always carrying his boom

The movie I chose to do my scene analysis on is Do the Right Thing. The scene I chose in the movie is the scene of the 20 “D” Batteries. The scene of the 20 “D” Batteries reflects the movie and the scene because it betrays the ethnic and racial tensions between each race and the cross-cultural communication between them. Throughout the movie the filmmaker Spike Lee uses wide variety of angles but in this scene he uses high angle and low angle. The character Radio Raheem is walking down the sidewalk listening to “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy on his Boom box, the director Spike Lee uses a low angle to make Radio Raheem seem as if he is powerful. In contrast when Radio Raheem walks into the store we see the little Asian boy

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.

In Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", the cinematography is portrayed specifically in a way that will stress the racial tensions between the characters. This is shown is through camera angles, camera movements, lighting. Throughout the entire film, camera angles are used to show the relationship between the characters. A scene where the camera angles are shown is when Radio Raheem and Buggin Out go into the pizza parlor and they start arguing with Sal. The camera transitions between them using canted angles.

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.”

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.

When we think of pop culture, especially in movies we think of celebrities, fashion, and tag lines. While Do the Right Thing (DTRT) by Spike Lee has maybe one of those, but its powerful themes, characters and presentation turned it into one of the most notable films ever. It heavily employs the interactionist approach by showing different cultures interacting with one another, and making major points of their own stereotypical racial biases, bigotry and degrees of discrimination, as well as the initial signs of gentrification which culminate into series of ever intensifying events that forever change the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Sty). DTRT utilizes metaphor of heat and pop culture themes of music, fashion and racial conflict, to address real social, economic, institutional and political inequities that still plague our society today.

Author Guthrie Ramsey states in Musing New Hoods that the music used in Do The Right Thing depicts a range of associations that include “black male and female subjectivity, ethnic identity, a sense of location, emotional and mental states, a specific historical moment, and the perspectives of age groups” (Ramsey 314). The various characters in Do The Right Thing such as radio host Mister Señor Love Daddy (played be Samuel L. Jackson) and Radio Raheem (played by Bill Nunn) use hip-hop music to establish a sense of location, emotional states, and ethnic identity that is present throughout the movie. In one scene, Radio Raheem is shown in a confrontation with a group of Latinos playing Salsa music. Radio Raheem proceeds to blast his hip-hop music at full volume in order to outplay the Latinos’ Salsa music. This is another example of how music is used in the film to display the ethnic identities of individuals, as well as the various emotional and mental states that music can create. In addition to hip-hop music, Spike Lee implements a variety of music genres in Do The Right Thing in order to create a certain ambiance and feeling. The use of orchestral music throughout the film plays an important role in establishing specific emotions during scenes. Jazz and soul music are also used to display emotion during various exchanges between characters. According to Victoria E. Johnson, the music used in Do The Right Thing “serves to convey a romanticized vision of community in the ethnically mixed neighborhood in which the story takes place” (Ramsey 315).

Throughout the film he is portrayed as expressing various emotions of anger toward individuals of different race and peace to those he respects. Also, we see walking with his radio playing “Fight the Power” by the rap group Public Enemy. The lyrics matter because it describes his emotional state of mind that results in the events that occur towards the end of the film. The film depicts the the discrimination of race between cultures and each one wanting respect. After a heated confrontation Sal breaks his radio and Radio Raheem loses it and this is where everything goes wrong. We see Radio Raheem murdered by the police in full view of the community. Neither Sal nor Radio Raheem were right in the behavior that escalated the situation. However, the life of man was lost by aggressive police force. The song Radio Raheem loved also indicated, “what we need is awareness, we can’t get careless” which can be somewhat confusing. In part because the song reflects fighting back in its lyrics, “To revolutionize make a change nothing's strange, People, people we are the same, No we're not the same, Cause we don't know the game” but then indicates bringing awareness. Maybe this was Radio Raheem struggled in both his feeling of love and hate. However, his death played a role in bringing awareness of the struggles of oppressed black

The music and lyrics of the song simultaneously start, creating a feeling of hurriedness, and not leaving any time for the listener to think about the music and the feeling it creates on its own. This reflects the lifestyle teenage boys were thrown into upon the entrance of high school and their rushed, and somewhat forced, decision to join the Panther football team. Halfway through the song, the music becomes

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

For decades, National Public Radio has maintained a legacy as a successful worldwide news organization. However, the news produced tends to be consumed mainly by an older audience. It has a reputation among millennials as one of the less entertaining news outlets. It is essential for news to be exciting in order to capture the attention of this millennial audience, and NPR tends to lack the excitement value it needs to fully reach this massive demographic. In order for the station to better attract and maintain millennial readers, viewers and listeners, the organization needs to cater to their lifestyle habits and preferences. In a constantly changing and developing world, NPR needs to be ahead of the game in technological advancements.

This song belongs on my life soundtrack because it has been a huge part of my life this year. This song is the meaning of what I love to do, which is play guitar. This was the first song I ever learned on guitar and I just started last Christmas. So it means so much to me because I absolutely love playing guitar. It describes what is going on in my life right now because that is how i spend almost all of my free time. My favorite part is after he says “Watch me explode” there is a super cool string bend that I love playing because its terrific

As a listener, I enjoy music that I can relate to literally, or in one form or another. I like music that will sometimes test my intellect, thus limiting the ultimatum between thinking and listening. I like music to feel like a book more than a movie. And it’s easy to pick an artist to listen to based on one sample of the material placed in their lyrics/sounds. A lot of people in the modern-day listening age seem to tune out in the problems of their peers being things like getting money, women, etc. But when an artist’s music is basically a window into the life they lived at the time, and the way their society was built. It’s no longer just art, it’s almost history.