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Analysis of Do the Right Thing
Media's impact on racism
Do the right thing analysis essay
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Do the Right Thing
The first word that comes to mind when thinking about Do the Right Thing is HOT. Everything about this movie was hot, from the weather down to the themes and issues it brought up. It’s interesting too watch this movie while living with a heat wave in NYC. There’s plenty of room for debate as to whether or not anyone did the right thing in this script, in my opinion most of the characters did the wrong thing. What’s interesting to me is to think about what Spike Lee considered the right and wrong thing to do in this screenplay. It’s not just his words as an actor playing a role, he also wrote, directed, and produced the vehicle for those words and actions to come to life. So it’s hard to separate Spike from Mookie, and I don’t think Spike would even want us to. I also wonder about some changes from the screenplay and the film, and the effect the have on the overall message of the film.
The one thing you know for absolute sure about this script, with not much room for interpretation is that it’s hot in Brooklyn when this story takes place. It was clearly a heat wave, and that heat wave spoke volumes as to the current racial climate in the city. A scorching hot city added to the tension the characters were feeling, but Spike did a nice job of letting the tension build throughout this piece. Even at the end of the film when the insanity at Sal’s erupts into a riot scene, you have to be surprised to see it happen. It’s like the characters were living with the oppressive heat of the summer, and you just knew that the heat was a part of life that had to live with. For most of the film, none of the characters shied at all around the subject of race either. It almost made the audience just accept that these charact...
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... lead to his involvement in the events at the end. It was tragic to see him killed, but I didn’t see the loving character that the community saw. I feel of this theme of Love and Hate, Love didn’t get enough coverage. I think this was supposed to be a story about Love losing to Hate, but I don’t think Love was fairly represented here. It was interesting to see the Community at first adamantly deny boycotting Sal’s talking about how they grew up on Sal’s food, and to see how in the course of an evening they were chanting to burn it down. This was a really compelling movie, and to a degree its hard to distance yourself from it. I am a white guy watching it, so its harder for me to see it from Spike’s point of view, but after thinking about the movie for a week or so, he does bring up a lot of excellent arguments. I just hope that violence isn’t the right conclusion.
Spike Lee does many fascinating things from a directorial standpoint, which makes his film (dare I say, joint), Do the Right Thing so interesting to watch. Writer, director Lee makes much use of the high and low angle shots. He does this to draw clear contrasts between the two elders of the block, Da Mayor and Mother Sister and to make conflict more apparent.
Racial tension is not something that can be imagined or understood without some sort of emotional history or background attached to it. Emotions like hatred or others, such as desire, that the characters feel for one another, would feel shallow and empty without the descriptions that make them seem real and understandable. All these elements need to be present in order for the story to carry itself and the reader through to the end. Snow Falling on Cedars does that and more.
Do The Right Thing was Spike Lee’s first landmark film. Do The Right Thing is a movie that brings awareness to the racial tensions when people in a Brooklyn neighborhood of different racial and cultural backgrounds coexist, which ends in a tragedy. The film was a great success receiving many of awards and earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporti...
Jacqueline and her family aren’t treated fairly, because of the color of their skin. If they sit near the front of the bus, the driver will make them move. If there is a white person walking on the sidewalk the have to step off the curb and let
It’s here as a reminder for us to respect one another, no matter how difficult it may be. The film’s title”Do the Right Thing” can be studied unto itself. The idea of do what you think is right may differ from person to person, ethnic group to ethnic group. When Mookie throws the trash can into the window of Sal’s Pizzeria making the already now large riot become even more thunderous, is he doing the right thing? We followed this man throughout the film and to see him make a decision like that, we are left to wonder. By the end of the film. This the question is the one that we think the most about. We as a community need to learn to love more and grow together than hate each
The 1989 film Do the Right Thing displays a story about racial tension in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. Spike Lee not only directed and produced this film but he was also the main character, Mookie. In spite of maintaining these three jobs, Lee incorporated cinematic techniques that allowed his film to unlock controversial ideals for both Caucasian and African-American viewers. Through the use of camera elements Lee was able to display emotions and tone of the scene without using stating it directly. Lee exhibited film methods such as low-angle shots, close ups, slow motion and panning.
Then, in the play, Wilson looks at the unpleasant expense and widespread meanings of the violent urban environment in which numerous African Americans existed th...
Do the Right Thing. Dir. Spike Lee. Perf. Danny Aiello, John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Martin Lawrence, Bill Nunn, Richard Edson, Roger Guenveur Smith and Spike Lee. Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks.1989. Streaming (Netflix)
This movie was inspiring and encouraging to anyone who is struggling with something. Overcoming his controversies in life became the main point of the movie. Knowing that this movie was based upon a true story inspires the people even more.
I have always believed that all races have their good and bad. Their is never going to be the perfect race. This movie definitely set a powerful message that life is not perfect for any race and that even though people are from different cultures, they are all interconnected somehow. The filmmakers did a great job at showing us that individuals should not be based on first impressions such as skin color or the social status.
People living in this neighborhood had affectionate love for Sal, but later on they became voiceless the moment their power to run their own businesses was taken away. It is because of communication breakdown that makes tension build up in the movie and ultimately ending up with Sal’s store burnt down and Radio Raheem killed by racist police officers. Spike Lee did an excellent job in the production of this movie. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989) has won numerous awards in the cinematographic category. It has won awards in best music, best pictures, and best original screenplay. Indeed, this is a masterpiece that deserves to scoop such awards. This is a movie which lovers of the hip-hop culture would enjoy most. Any fan of the hip-hop culture should be familiar with Spike’s groundbreaking movie released in
But the film actually made me recall a question that I always had: to what extent can we, as somewhere who are not involved in the events, criticize people, especially the wrongdoers, who did partake in the history? As people from the 21st century, we know that slavery is unjust and horrible because we were raised in a society where love and peace were honored. When I questioned myself what would I do if I were Edwin Epps, Marry Epps, or William Ford, I began to question myself how much can I criticize them people when the cruelty was norm, and all those people did really was to follow the norm. Although it would be righteous and courageous to stand up for the blacks, not everyone is all courageous and willing to challenge the society. The film reminded me to have my own judgment and not to blindly follow what everyone else consider to be the norm. This film also made me wonder: when it is many years from now, how much of the social norm today would be considered to be cruel and
Good Will Hunting is the graceful tale of a young gentleman’s struggle to find out where he belongs in the world, by first finding out who he himself is. In this film, Matt Damon takes on the role of a disturbed genius that has a keen understanding of the deepness of human character. The film is a voyage through the mind of Will Hunting as he is required to undergo psychotherapy as an alternative to serving jail time. With the assistance of a psychologist, played by Robin Williams, Will learns about himself and recognizes his individual worth in the world by comprehending what is most important to him in his own life. This motion picture serves as a source of superb example for film technique. Gus Van Sant’s directing ability joined with the writing skills of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also plays Will’s best buddy, Chuckie, is a vibrant mixture of technical features used to induce sentiment and compassion amongst the viewers of this heart-warming film. Characteristics of the color, angles, shots, camera movement, editing, and distortions are all each particularly noteworthy to the general composition of Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting.
... supremacist gang, to rioting in an Asian owned grocery store, to finally brutally murdering someone. We observe as family ties become increasingly strained in every way, the viewer can easily conclude that Derek’s racism as well as his eventual influence on his younger brother ultimately contributed to their own downfall. As controversial as this movie maybe for the offensive language and brutal violence, it is a movie that deserves to be seen, and even discussed. It really provides insight into some factors within society that cannot be contained by the law or even deterred by even the harshest punishments. Even though American society is becoming more modernized as time goes by in terms of tolerance, racism will unfortunately always be prevalent in society and inevitably it will also lead some individuals to violently express their distorted mentalities.
... is the brutality of hate and racism. The emotions running high in the movie makes it powerful and moving and the death of Derek’s younger brother Danny Vinyard is shocking enough to bring tears to many viewers’ eyes. The movie ends with Danny’s voice reading his paper out loud and he ends his paper with a very important quote by Abraham Lincoln. This quote shows how Danny’s, as well as Derek’s, mindset changed from the beginning of the movie to the end. When hearing this quote it leaves the viewers in awe that Danny finally started to look past his hateful ideologies but ends up dead because of the lifestyle him and his brother decided to lead. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained we must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature”.