Do The Right Thing And The Godfather Sparknotes

The struggle of attaining the American Dream is often the subject of American cinematic classics, such as “Do the Right Thing” and “The Godfather”. James Truslow Adams described the American Dream as a “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement... regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth.” “Do the Right Thing” and “The Godfather” depict the stories of Mookie and Michael Corleone, respectively, on their way to achieving the American Dream.

Mookie, a young African-American from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, is the main character of Spike lee’s “Do the Right Thing”. Back at home Mookie has a son, Hector, and girlfriend, Tina,

whom he has to care for. Caring for them and making sure they’re alright is Mookies version of the American Dream.

They are what motivate him to take up a job as a pizza delivery boy at Sal’s Famous Pizzeria. This road to his dream isn’t the most effective, although it’s in the right direction. Delivering pizza isn’t the most rewarding of jobs, and often times Mookie and Sal argue over his paycheck. Despite his issues with income, Mookie manages to support his small family. He was on his way to achieving his American Dream. However, due to the riot at Sal’s Mookie loses his job and has to start over again. Because Mookie and Michael have different renditions of the American Dream, they pursue it in different ways. Michael Corleone, the son of Vito Corleone, is a second generation Sicilian immigrant living in New York City. “The Godfather” follows Michaels transformation from a law abiding civilian outside of the family business, to a ruthless mob boss at the head of the Corleone family. It was Vito’s version of the American Dream for his sons to have a better life than he. Vito wished for Michael, his youngest son, to be the first college-educated member of the family. Michael fulfilled his father’s dream and followed his own. When we meet Michael

he has recently returned from fighting in WWII and is settling down with a non-Italian woman. However after the attempted murder of his father, Michael realizes that he has to protect his family and fills his father’s role. By killing Sollozzo and McCluskey, Michael effectively ends his chances at fulfilling Vito’s, and his own American Dream. Neither of the characters manage to attain their American Dream. One difference between the two is that Mookie will still be able to get back on the path to success, while Michael is stuck in the family business with no safe way out.

Both directors of “Do the Right Thing” and “The Godfather” , Spike Lee and Francis Ford Coppola respectively, use film techniques such as camera work, sound, direct talking to the audience, and cross cutting to illustrate growing tension and enhance the quality of the film. Spike Lee incorporated direct talking to the audience, and cross cutting in one particular scene that powerfully depicted the growing tensions in “Do the Right Thing.” Mookie and Pino have an argument about race which leads to a firestorm of racial slurs from every racial group living in Bedstuy directed at the audience. As the camera crosscut to a different character, it becomes clear that what they are revealing to the viewers are their suppressed feelings. The scene shows the audience the level of strain on the community, that will eventually give way when the riot breaks out at Sal’s. Francis Ford Coppola uses a similar cinematographic style in the famous baptism scene in “The Godfather.” While Michael’s newborn son is being baptised, a practice associated with the cleansing of the soul, his hit men are “taking care of family business”, a different kind of cleansing. The scene has a powerful music score in the background that intensifies the meaning of the scene. In addition the timing of the crosscuts aid in the depiction of context of the scene. As part of the ritual Michael is asked if he believes in the Lord, if he renounces Satan and so on. Upon each prompt the camera cuts to another hit, further connecting the cleansing of the baptism with the cleansing of the Corleones’ enemies.