Do The Right Thing (Lee, 1989)

• Do the Right Thing is arguably Spike Lee’s finest

  film. It is a visually and sonically inventive

  piece of cinema, which beautifully captures

  the heat and bubbling racial tensions of late

  1980’s Brooklyn. Its themes of division, anger

  and police brutality are as important today as

  they were when the film was first made.
• The vivid mise-en-scène reflects the heightened reality presented in the film.
• The audience quickly becomes aware of the brownstone buildings, the radio station with its vast window, the stores, and of course the pizzeria.
• A number of confrontations also occur on the hot streets.
• The highly stylised use of costume and attention to detail in the film, where the wrong or right sort of trainer is given a huge amount of significance, is a reflection of the heightened reality.
• The major conflict in the film is underpinned by the pictures in Sal’s Pizzeria, showing prominent ItalianAmericans.
• Buggin’ Out wants these replaced by photographs that reflect the full spectrum of famous African-Americans from Michael Jordan to Malcolm X.
• The film doesn’t leave this during the timeframe of the narrative.
• The strong emphasis on the setting of the block adds to the growing intensity around the film’s events.
• The conflict based on what these props represent is vital to understanding the climax of the film.
• Major discourses pursued throughout the film.
• Lee utilises a number of aspects of what might be considered a standard Hollywood style of editing, utilising continuity and parallel editing and developing the events of the narrative over a short time-span of a day.
• There are also examples of fast editing in places with aspects of dialogue sometimes crosscut on each line.
• The ‘racial slur montage’ is a notable example of fast editing.
• The film utilises the juxtaposition of different, racist viewpoints to excellent effect, by showing the undercurrent of anger bubbling under New York’s surface fuelled by ethnic difference.
• The film ends with the diametrically opposed use of quotations by Dr Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
• The powerful ending to the film can be read as summing up a number of the themes explored in the film.
• Music is a significant way in which meaning is created in Spike Lee's films, particularly in Do the Right Thing.
• Public Enemy's 'Fight the Power' is used throughout the film in various contexts, from Tina's dance during the title sequence to Radio Raheem's use of it on his boombox.
• The politicised nature of 'Fight the Power's lyrics is enhanced by the loudness with which Raheem plays it in the neighbourhood.
• The enduring quality and influence of African-American music is celebrated in a beautiful monologue by Mr Senor Love Daddy.
• Bill Lee's (Spike's father) lush, orchestral score for Do the Right Thing is steeped in a classic, Hollywood tradition, with a nostalgic, at times melodramatic quality, underscoring key moments in the film.
• Bill Lee's score also has its roots in a deeper African-American musical tradition, with a dreamy, bluesy, jazzy feel.
• The screenplay for Do the Right Thing was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and much of the dialogue is delivered with real gusto.
• The argument between Clifton and Buggin Out is a fine example of this, as are the scenes between Mookie and Pino.
• The film throws up a huge amount of areas to study under the heading of Representations, including Lee's own middle-class, black background, the urban Afro-American experience, gender, age, ethnicity, racial conflict/division, and the multi-ethnic nature of the BedStuy neighbourhood on the hottest day of the year.
• The representations of Tina and Jade have been criticised as being overtly exploiting their bodies and sexuality.
• Jade is often viewed through Sal’s point of view and Tina from the opening credits is both heavily sexualised and portrayed as the nagging girlfriend.
• Gender has long been an issue in Lee’s films, with his conventional construction of masculinity and stereotypically negative portrayal of women as passive and powerless being sharply criticised by black feminist writers.
• The men in this film seem to want to solve their issues through loud vocal set-pieces and ultimately through violent actions.
• In terms of female representations, Jade and Tina do challenge some of these preconceptions of passivity, the sexualisation of Tina arguably from the start and the infamous ice-cube scene undermine this reading.
• The positioning of Jade as ‘the good girl’ and the simplistic portrayal of Mother Sister as the block’s symbol of matriarchy may also be considered problematic.
• The Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn where the film is set, does offer an interesting discourse on the ‘melting pot’ ideology of the American Dream, with Puerto-Ricans, Koreans, Italian-Americans and Afro-Americans all coexisting in the neighbourhood.
• The film’s heated atmosphere brings all the bubbling tensions to the core.
• There is also an indication of encroaching gentrification, as shown by Clifton’s confrontation with Buggin’ Out.
• This predicts what has happened in Brooklyn today with rising rents and the eviction of long-standing (mainly black) residents.
• Age is also an important feature in the film, most obviously with Da Mayor and Mother Sister.
• Aesthetics in film include the 'look and feel' of the film, which can be influenced by various elements such as visual style, context, and motifs.
• These protagonists represent a surviving, generational difference from the younger characters.
• The feel and mood of the film are often deep-rooted in its contextual basis and its portrayal of a viciously hot day in Brooklyn.