Notes and analysis in regard to 1989 Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing!. Detailed examples and context responding to the film. Includes questions and detailed full sentence answers
Response to Do The Right Thing!
How distinctive is Spike Lee’s style as director?
Spike Lee’s has a very peculiar style, but unique. His mix of camera movement, colour saturation and
theme are the most notable. Lee often times has long takes that encompass many characters. In
order to capture the entire group, Lee swiftly swings the camera round to each character and most
obviously in confrontational scenes, the camera swings to gauge each ‘side’s reaction to the action.
An example of this is the battle of the boomboxes between Radio Raheem and the Latina youth
group. This is most notable because the reactions are detailed because of the camera movement
delays the action audiences see on screen. These bold moves are distinctively Spike Lee, as any other
director would just shot-reverse-shot to show the confrontation but, for Lee, the fluid camera
movements add an element of realism.
Colour saturation is the most obvious feature of Lee. The deep reds, oranges and bronze reflect the
heat of the day. Lee had production designer Wynn Thomas remove all the blues and greens he
could from the costumes, props, sets and makeup. This amplifies the heat. The red church Smiley
stands in front of at the beginning of the film is also a good example. These vibrant, bold use of
colour is characteristic of Lee. Lastly, the themes of his films are similar. You won’t find a simple love
story from Lee. He insists of tackles themes that have affected him or others around him deeply. For
instance, issues of racism and police brutality is explicitly shown and talked about. This may have
shocked his audience, but Lee is always quite confrontational with his political and social themes.
How does he create a shocking final confrontation?
- The final riot
The final outpour of tension is achieved quite realistically. There is no cinematic overlay of prolific
strings but just raw direct sound that is unsettling and uncomfortable. The shouts, screams and
crying paired with the sirens and crashing create a sensory overloud that is shocking to hear due to
its close proximity to reality. This scene could be news footage. It’s confrontational with the action
fully in focus alongside character coming together to literally ‘fight the power’, while inadvertently
directing their violence to the least at fault (Sal and each other). Lee confronts the audience with
issues of morality, quality of protest and violence and considering the light-hearted humour of the
start of the film, this ending is shocking.
- The final confrontation with Sal and Mookie
This final confrontation is much more sympathetic and calm. In the lieu of the loud riot the night
before, this, albeit small, confrontation marks a future of reconciliation. It hugely contrasts the
previous night’s events and comes as a welcome peace from the ringing in the audiences’ ears. It
also brings the film full circle and gives hope to an audience in shock as it would teach that violence
is not the be all end all and that it can be resolved. Despite the strong language and aggressive
gestures, it is gentler compared to the chaos that has transpired before this point. Mookie doesn’t
want the more money than he his owed and has tried to get throughout the film. This could be seen
as a vast contradiction of his character as the first time we see Mookie he is counting his fortune
whereas, it ends with Mookie rejecting money from Sal.
How relevant is DTRT to audiences today?
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