Cinematographic Analysis Of The Film Do The Right Thing By Spike Lee
The film I have chosen is Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee. I will analyze the sequence in terms of cultural context social and will use cinematography, motifs, symbols, themes, narrative structure and sound to illustrate how the director used these to convey meaning according to his intentions, vision and influences.
The scene I chose was 1:48:00 --- 1:51:58. This scene is where Mookie is going to find Sal in front of the broken shop and got his money from Sal. The scene was chosen because Mookie is the only black man who had a job, and he wanted to get paid. Sal threw him five hundreds dollars, but his salary was only two fifty dolars. Mookie didn’t take all of the money. He threw back the two hundreds and said he own Sal fifty dollars. This scene showed Mookie is not a greedy black man and he want to work. Mookie can work and get paid, which is possible for other black people.
Do Right Thing is a film that focuses on one day of life in the low-level community of Brooklyn, New York. However, the normal day occurs on the hottest day of the summer. At the main point of the film is how the social class, racial and ethical decisions made by the characters directly influence how people interact with each other. First, all of the movie's characters woke up to start their day. The main plot of the film is the police killed a young black man named Radio Raheem, who was fighting at a pizzeria with an old Italian restaurant owner named Sal. Then rioted outside the street. Although the film was released in 1989, its social commentary on the impact of race on police brutality is as important as it was when it was released 26 years ago.
At the beginning of the film, the characters appear one by one in different forms. Meyer who is an idle old man wakes up from the noise of the radio every day and repeats the same life. On a hot day, the repeated life was broken because Sal's radio was smashed. Sal, an Italian white, is the owner of the pizza shop in the black community. He was very helpless for the sweeping problem with his two sons in the pizza shop. In the end, the employees who were invited to the conflict broke into the store and burned the pizza shop. Mookie who is the only black man in the black community who works and works in a pizza shop opened by an Italian. He wore a No. 23 jersey and sat in a light and warm room to count the money. He looked very serious and looked childish. Radio Raheem, who plays radio communications, works every day to look at the scenery on the streets. One day I went to the pizza shop to buy pizza and clash with the pizza shop owner, and was finally taken away from the black community by the police. Pino is the son of the pizza shop owner, his father told him to tell Vito every time he asked him to sweep the floor. I hate black people very much, and I don't trust Mookie. I always advise his father to leave this black community. Vito and his brother have been quarreled, because the problem of sweeping the floor and his brother argued. During this period, Vito with Mookie to take out the take-away, and slowly listened to Mookie's opinion, the relationship with Mookie became better, and advised his brother Pino not always embarrassed Mookie.
Throughout the film, all characters not only point out the differences in their races, but also show the ideas in Marxism through their social interaction. According to film theory, "Marxism is considered a revolutionary theory, trying to explain and reveal the power relations in capitalist society. " It also pointed out that Karl Marx, the founder of Marxism, "focuses on the relationship between the ruling class and the working class “Significant differences”. In the film, Buggin Out attacked a property with a white man because the white man suppressed his new Air Jordans and asked him "What is happening near your home?" In this short plot, Lee can show a poor black man. The role of the neighbor feels the psychological need to compete with others. This is an example of the cultural industry and Buggin'Out, because he bought the latest shoes and did not want him to think that his literal meaning and symbolism were overwhelmed by a person richer than him.
One of the scenes begins with the recording of the Conga drum being played, and the camera gradually disappears to the next scene. In that scene there was a group of Puerto Rican men who matched the national image of Puerto Rico. At the same time there is the very noisy Salsa music of Ruben Blades. Spike Lee uses a lot of icons to open the scene, and chooses men's clothes, language and facial expressions to make it strong. A man of the center area speaks in Spanish, he is talking about the beautiful Puerto Rican region. However, his friends call it a nightmare, and they disagree with its beauty. When the camera pans, the loud salsa music actually comes from an old speaker. The camera continues to pan to the right and then moves up from the ground. Finally, the camera focused on two large new stereos in the hands of two large African Americans wearing gold rings. This type of photography shows that Lee focuses on half of the characters body rather than the face and objects. When the camera is paused, the viewer can hear Raheem's music more clearly. This will show signs of economic overcapacity. Gold rings and excessive noise represent economic strength and status. Then the camera focused on Raheem's serious face, and the African medallion hung around his neck. When the camera is focused on Raheem, the audience can hear Puerto Ricans yelling at the sound of their salsa music being drowned. As the camera rotates to the right again and passes through the green shrubs that represent the tropical climate, Salsa music is once again heard by the audience. Another important scene is a few minutes after Radio Raheem was killed by the police. The polices responded to the street struggle between Radio Raheem and Sal. This scene represents a way of suspicion becoming anger, as other black people call the names of other victims of police violence. At this point, the audience began to realize that this may not be an accident, but it has actually happened repeatedly in this community. Residents of this lower-level community now know that it is their normal state to become victims of the police. The older man Meyer said, "They don't have to kill the boy. " When the camera panned to Mookie's shocked face, it showed that Mookie had decided not to stand on the three whites because other neighbors and friends were watching. His position is very important because Thrall is standing in the middle and his two sons are standing behind him. Mookie was also next to him, but his body was slightly away from them, indicating that he was rethinking his position on them. He looked at Thrall and then began to leave Thrall and his sons. This behavior is very important, because Mookie feels loyalty to Sal through employment, but now Mookie has drawn a line between them. After Mookie left, Sal's facial expression became more tense because he realized that the only black man who might help him left him, and that other blacks were even more dissatisfied with him or his son.
There are two important segments to contrast the relationship between white and black people. The film is located in a dominant black community, and only two families see their business as Italian-American or Korean-American. Therefore, some black characters like them because they are business owners, while others do not like them for the same reason. This is the first segment. However, at the end of the movie, the only business owner whose business was destroyed and burned was white. Lee said that despite the conflict between Korean Americans and African Americans, the history between whites and blacks is even more contradictory. In addition, even black characters like Sal's Pizzeria. However when they felt Buggin’s threat, they realize the true idea of Sal and denied that they had the opportunity to put black people on the wall of the pizzeria. The film also clearly shows how did Sal control black customers in his restaurant by denying black people photos. The two film segments to be discussed will be analyzed using racial and Marxist views. The first fragment shows the black and Hispanic characters in the material property conflict, but ultimately respect each other. The second fragment shows that Mookie realizes that although he tries to somehow ease the peaceful relationship between the white and black characters. Mookie still fight for what he thinks, even if it means losing his job.
Although the film ultimately shows it is so dangerous to react to others based on race. It is ironic that Lee portrays the stereotypes of the characters in the film through their language and aesthetics. Spike Lee is addicted to stereotypes by using images to represent different ethnic groups in the movie. He does this in a number of ways, such as Italian-Americans wearing vests and vest shirts. He also depicts Radio Raheem by wearing an African medallion necklace, while carrying a large speaker that plays loud rap music. Even a group of Puerto Rican senior friends will listen to salsa while speaking Spanish and drink beer on the porch of the apartment building. Lee also pointed out that his role recognizes that their different races can openly insult each other in a funny and serious way through racial slurs, leading to power struggles.
There is no clear main line in the film, or the lazy and ridiculous black community daily life is the main line of the film. And the climax scene is derived from the barbaric growth of one of the story lines. The timeline of the film story is basically within a day, and the location is in the black community of Brooklyn, New York. When the film was opened, the first group of shots was an exaggerated dance by two black actors accompanied by black rap music. The lyrics continually clamored for "struggling with power, " and expressed disdain for the representative of American white hero John Wayne. The black bodybuilder looks revolutionary and full of power under the red light.
