Do The Right Thing

William Weathersbee

Amanda McClain

Intro to Film

11/20/15

Do the right thing Produced in 1989, written and directed by Spike Lee.  The story takes place in a Brooklyn neighborhood and the racial tensions reside within.The main theme of this movie is peace and conflict battling against each other. For instance the opening scene the female dancing aggressively in a boxing outfit while “ Fight the power” is playing in the background,this sets a intense tone. A tone that the  audience will think about throughout the movie because  of this opening scene.

Another instance of how the movie portrays this power struggle between peace and conflict is the two characters “Mister Senor Love Daddy” and  “Radio Raheem”, These two characters represent the conflict in physical form. Mister senor love Daddy is peaceful and calm,tries to resolve any conflict and  reduce tensions in the neighborhood.While Radio Raheem is a source for the tension throughout the film, the complete opposite of Mister Senor love Daddy.

Mookie acted as the mediator or ethnic backup for Sal so he would ask him to handle  ethnic controversial happening at the store.Toward the end of the movie,the event that take place was related to this. After Radio Raheem’s murder by the New York City cops; Mookie, Sal, and his sons are standing in front of the pizzeria with a angry mob. mookie walks over to the mob,picks up a trash can, and throws it through the pizzerias window. Mookie breaking the window symbolize how he doesn't want to be the mediator between Sal and the black Community.As  mookie breaks the glass window with the trashcan, it sets off the rest of the crowd to destroy Sal’s Pizzeria.This respent the peace being trampled over by hatred.

Another form symbolism seen in the movie was the use of black and white clothing.For instance Sal’s sons Vito and Vito were dressed in black and white clothes according to their beliefs. Pito is a racist and detests Sal’s shop because of their area,wear white.While Vito who is friends with mookie which is black,Wear black colored clothing to show he isn’t a racist like his brother.

Another use of symbolism used in the movie is the heat. The symbolism the racial tensions.The rising heat in the movie shows the audience racial relations in New York at the time the film takes place.The character and environment are a sort of ticking time-bomb. The tensions keeps building and building until it gets to it’s boiling point.Once the boiling point is reached chaos breaks loose and runs rampant.

Spike Lee employ many film techniques to make the audience believe the racial tension  happening in the movie.