DTRT: Love and Hate

• Beginning the scene with a tracking shot following Mookie, RR's leitmotif of 'fight the power' blasting the scene as they approach eachother
• The radio = symbolic images to introduce characters
• The camera arcs to the front, centre framing RR as he directs his 'love and hate' anecdote to the camera, Lee directly addressing the audience, breaking the film boundaries.
• RR's speech on the relationship between love and hate stands out for how it uses camera work to bring up complex issues of racial antagonism, belonging, property and identity.
• “Let me tell you the story of right hand, left hand; the story of good and evil…the story of life is this, static. One hand is always fighting the other hand.”
• Raheem’s speech is a re-enactment of a famous scene from Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter (1955)
• RR = a kind of street preacher, using the DTRT anthem to preach.
• Raheem performs the monologue directly to the camera, punching at the audience, the sequence actually has the effect of making Raheem seem harmless.
• The red/yellow/green flag of Cameroon that both Buggin' Out and Raheem wear hold representation to the pan-African spirit; yellow = happiness, green = hope and red = unity.
• RR's knuckle-rings act as boxing gloves during his monologue, connoting that his battle between love and hate is a physical one and has the power to manifest into violence: foreshadowing the ending.
• RR never lets hate win, until he 'hates' when his boombox is destroyed by Sal.
• The camera arcs back to a side angle MLS between Mookie and RR, his nonchalant reaction showing the disregard of RR due to his controversial boombox.
• RR's boombox can be viewed as a metaphorical cross, both the object of his downfall and his identity
• Following this monologue: is a heated argument between Sal and RR over the boombox/
• Spike Lee employs a dolly zoom from inside the pizzeria as RR approaches, creating a distorted sense of doom he is approaching. Links to Hitchcock auteur.
• It shifts into a LA CU of RR, his voice muffled under the overwhelmingly loud diegetic music.
• Cutting to canted angle, MS of Sal, sweat collaring his t-shirt and the orange glow of heat creating this visual stress from the heat.
• 'no service till you turn that shit off' aggression immediately meets RR.
• ECU, wide angle lens + the canted angle distorts RR's appearance and highlights the sweat dripping from his forehead.
• The cinematography consists of SRS between RR + Sal, RR being in an low, canted angle, ECU and sals being the reversal of a high canted angle MS.
• For RR, like Judy, the boombox equates his culture. Turning it off would be a concede to the white man's wishes.
• The dolly zoom has a disorientating and ominous effect, foreshadowing the later events that transpire in the pizzeria ( a kettle location ) that leads to RR's death. This links to Vertigo since the Kettle location + transformation of judy is haunting and linked to death.
• As the story progresses, characters are filmed at increasingly canted angles, which reflects the building agitation.
• The characters’ worlds are shifting and becoming askew, which is mirrored in the unconventional filming.
• When Raheem is on screen, he takes up almost the entire shot, which creates a claustrophobic effect. This, combined with the blaring music and the shouts of the characters, overwhelms the viewer in a way that parallels the feeling in the onscreen environment.
• Raheem’s extreme close-ups show his lack of control over the situation and make him appear much less capable of checking his temper than Sal.
• The spacial dynamic of the scenes are completely different, the L+H scene taking place in the wide expanse of the streets compared to the confrontation in the crowded pizzeria.
• The juxtaposition of the colorful, open outdoors with the walled, wallpapered, and cluttered pizzeria that has ceiling fans whirring in the background that create a constant movement and the blaring soundtrack of “Fight the Power” (which is much quieter in the first half of the sequence) makes the total effect of those two scenes more potent when put together.
• Like Sal + RR, the knuckle rings are obvious opposites, the camera giving them both equal attention in the scene focusing on them both and their vital roles in Lee's didactic message.
• The orange lighting creates this sense of anger.
• There are aspects of classical continuity editing through the SRS, but SL nuances it with his canted angle and disregard for three point lighting: similar to Hitchcocks use of the green ghostly glow.