Section A: Do The Right Thing Flashcards
Release Date
1989
Production Context
Spike Lee’s 3rd feature but he
was already established as a critically and
commercially successful filmmaker with his own
production company (Forty Acres and a Mule).
Production budget
SL negotiated with Paramount & Columbia, but they were afraid film would increase racial tension - wanted to cut final riot. Reached final agreement with Universal to produce the film, but with reduced budget but retained control and kept ending.
Wave?
New Black Cinema of 80s and 90s along with Director John Singelton
New Black Cinema made films about…?
Black experience in USA
Institutional racism and police brutality
Ghettoisation of some black neighbourhoods Gentrification of other neighbourhoods
Cast and crew
Black. Challenged white hegemony
Social context
NYC was experiencing increased racially charged
incidents, e.g. the mob killings of Michael Griffiths and
Yusaf Hawkins invoked in the film’s opening & the
deteriorating relationship between police & black youth.
Rise of Hip Hop
Public Enemy were by far the most politicised
of these artists, articulating their anger at their position
in what they saw as a racially divided America. Fight the
power was written for this film.
Political context - World and US
End of the Cold War, and a
lack of foreign enemy to fight, America started to turn
inward and reexamine itself - particularly race. This is
shown clearly in the film not just through
colour but ethnic difference.
Political Context - U.S
Republican domination
in US politics, with the end of the Reagan
era and the start of Bush senior’s
Mayor Koch
Dump Koch graffiti. Mayor Koch had overseen the rejuvenation
of New York’s fortunes after being nearly bankrupt in
the mid-1970s. However, this hadn’t really benefited the
Black and Hispanic communities in the city. The film was
released in the lead-up to the 1990 mayoral election
and there is an implicit sense that viewers should ‘do
the right thing’ and vote for the black (later successful) candidate David Dinkins.
Location
Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, NYC. Brownstone. Drew on SL experience. Grew up in Brooklyn.
Length of shoot
8 weeks. Short. Community feel. All one location - claustrophobic. Used local extras.
Criticised for
Ignoring Drug problem. Not reflected and Lee hired ‘Fruit of Islam security’. Created a ‘mythical’ environment?
Heat in MES?
Filmed height of summer. Pained buildings red and oranage.
Heat in cinematography?
Ernest Dickerson held butane lighter under the lens - heat waves
Commemorates victims of racial violence
Names at the end
Mise en scene
Reflects the heightened reality
presented in the film. Highly stylised use of costume often featuring African prints or patterns, and the attention to detail where the wrong or right sort of trainer is given a huge amount of significance.
Pictures in Sal’s Pizzeria, showing prominent Italian
Americans.
Buggin’ Out wants these replaced by
photographs that reflect the full spectrum
of famous African-Americans from Michael
Jordan to Malcolm X. This conflict based
on what these props represent, lack of black faces and stories in Media and film
Cinematography
The use of canted angles reflects the
increasingly fragmenting atmosphere in
the narrative, 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.
Breaking the forth wall
Characters caught in medium close-up, DEMAND GAZE - creates a sense of direct address - a message being
communicated to spectators.
Editing - conforms to convention
Standard Hollywood style of editing, utilising
continuity and parallel editing and developing the events
of the narrative over the short time-span of a day.
Editing - breaks convention
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 in New York fuelled by ethnic difference.
Ending
Quotations by Dr Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. This powerful ending sums up major themes and ideologies pursued throughout the film.
