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Do The Right Thing Revision - Coggle Diagram
Do The Right Thing Revision
Auteur Theory
Andrew Sarris - The strong director imposes his own personality on a film; the weak director allows the personalities of others to run rampant. So who is an auteur, and how might they be recognised from a 'normal' film director?
Metteurs En Scene - Dubbed by Francois Truffaut - They are perfectly good directors but are not considered an auteur because they don't have the artistic control required
Spike Lee Auteur Signatures - Use of Same Cast, He appears himself, Dolly Tracking Shot, Recurring Themes, Colour Symbolism, Jump Cuts, Split Screen, Use of Same Crew, Canted Angles, Long Takes, Brechtian Techniques, Locations, Intertextuality
Lee has his own Production Company in 40 Acres and a Mule giving him more autonomy
Lee had final cut privileges for Do The Right Thing
David Denby described DTRT as an incendiary film that would heighten racial tensions
Characters
Sal - Danny Aiello - Hot Tempered, Family Orientated, Welcoming At First
Mookie - Spike Lee - Lazy, Rebellious, Intermediate
Buggin Out - Giancarlo Esposito - Defiant, Angry, Overbearing
Radio Raheem - Bill Nunn - Aggressive, Defiant, Victim
Contexts
Spike Lee (Director), Tom Pollock (Chairman of Universal Pictures), Ernest Dickerson (Cinematographer) and Bill Lee (Composer)
1989 American-comedy drama produced by 40 Acres and a Mule, funded by Universal Pictures
Initially rejected by Paramount - due to incendiary final sequence - but accepted by Universal Studios
Lesser budget of $6 million in order to retain full creative control & final cut privileges - hoped he would get $10 million from Columbia
Tom Pollock believed in the project where other executives wouldn't, despite recent failures
Part of the Black New Wave of Cinema and New Hollywood
Politically-conscious auteur - themes of civil rights, inequality and disruption of the system - treats racism with nuance, levity and irreverence.
$6 million budget and grossed $26 million - controversial, critical success due to “uncomfortable” themes
Gained 2 Oscar nominations (i.e. Best Writing) and won three Chicago Film Critics Association Awards e.g. Best Picture.
Film Form
Cinematography
The use of colour is fundamental in stressing the heat and intensity of the day. There is a controlled palate by Ernest Dickerson which directly reflects the heat with its warm range of shades - yellow, reds, ambers and warm tones
There is an intermittent use of canted angles to reflect the increasingly fragmenting atmosphere generated by the film's events, as well as discordant shifts in framing. There are also a number of shots which move with fast dollies, stopping abruptly in front of characters
There are also examples of characters caught in medium close up, looking directly into the lens breaking the fourth wall
Mise en Scene
The vivid mise en scene reflects the heightened reality presented in the film. This is reflected in the highly stylised use of costume and the attention to detail where the wrong or right sort of trainer is given a huge amount of significance
The major conflict of the film is underpinned by the pictures in Sal's Pizzeria, showing prominent Italian Americans. Buggin Out wants to replace these with photographs that represent the full spectrum of African Americans from Michael Jordan to Malcom X. This conflict based on what these props represent is vital to understanding the climax of the film
The strong emphasis on the setting of the block adds to the growing intensity around he film's events. The film doesn't leave this during the timeframe of the narrative. The audience quickly become aware of the brownstone buildings, the radio station, the stores and of course the pizzeria
Editing
Lee does utilise a number of aspects of what might be considered a standard of 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 also 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 Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. This powerful ending to the film can be read as a summing up a number of the major discourses pursued throughout the film
Sound
Music is very often a significant way in which meaning is created in Spike Lee's films and this is evident in DTRT. Public Enemy's polemical track Fight The Power is used throughout the film in a number of different contexts from Tina's dance during the title sequence to Radio Raheem's use of it in his boombox. The politicised nature of its lyrics is enhanced by the loudness by which Raheem plays it.
Bill Lee's lush, orchestral score is steeped in a classic, Hollywood tradition. It has a nostalgic, at times melodramatic quality and it underscores a number of key moments in the film. It too has its roots in a deeper African American musical tradition with at times a dreamy, bluesy jazzy feel
Much of the dialogue is whip fast and the interplay between some of the characters in confrontational situations 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
Production Figures
Spike Lee - Director
Ernest Dickerson - Cinematographer
Bill Lee - Composer
Songs from Public Enemy - Fight The Power
Tom Pollock - Chairman of Universal Records
Meaning and Response
Representations
The urban Afro-American experience is captured in this film and is also underpinned by a number of further frameworks around gender and age adding a level of complexity which challenges more conventional stereotyping of black character in Hollywood
Ethnicity and racial conflict/division is at the core of the film. The multi-ethnic nature of Bed Stuy on the hottest day of the year is a melting point which reaches its boiling point
The seemingly besieged Italian pizzeria owning family, the Korean shop owners, the Puerto Rican kids and the largely white NYPD are all framed and developed in contrasting ways
The representations of Jade and Tina have been criticised as being overtly exploiting their bodies and sexuality. Jade for example, is often viewed through Sal's POV and Tina from the opening credits is both heavily sexualised and portrayed as the nagging girlfriend
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 as problematic
The Bed Stuy neighbourhood of Brooklyn does offer an interesting discourse on the melting pot ideology of the American Dream
Age is also an important feature in the film, most obviously with Da Mayor and Mother Sister, they represent a surviving, generational difference from the younger characters. Their names are linked directly to concepts like extended family and community and even though Da Mayor is a drunk, he holds a particular dignified power that impacts the film
Aesthetics
The feel and the mood of the film is deep rooted in its contextual basis and also in its portrayal of a viciously hot day in Brooklyn developed by the key elements of film form
The episodic nature of the narrative also helps to underpin the slow fragmentation of the community. The narrative is framed initially by Mister Senor Love Daddy who observes a number of events occurring outside his window. This is supported by De Mayor rambling through the streets eliciting different reactions. Mookie's position of being caught in the middle of the main confrontation can also be said to be where the spectator is positioned
The angry tone of the film is a key part of Lee's signature as a black director and his reaction to a number of events. The main influence was an incident at Howard Beach where a young black man Michael Griffiths was murdered by white youths for asking for directions at a white pizza parlour