In today’s world, prejudice and discrimination are words that are becoming more and more common to hear again. However, it is unlikely that the world will ever again know prejudice or discrimination like it did in the mid-1900s. Through the films, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967) and “Do the Right Thing” (1989), the audience observes prejudice and discrimination in action. Almost every character in the two films exhibits some sort of racism through their thoughts or actions, white and black characters alike. The film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, follows an eventful evening in the Drayton household as their white daughter, Joanna, comes home early from her trip to Hawaii to inform her parents that she has met someone and plans to be …show more content…
Mookie works for an Italian man named Sal at his famous pizzeria with his two grown sons, Pino and Vito. The pizzeria is located in a neighborhood that is primarily black and Puerto Rican, with the only two local businesses being Sal’s pizzeria and a Korean market across the street. On the hottest day of the summer, tensions in the neighborhood rise and customers flow in and out of Sal’s shop. One customer in particular really sparked a fire in the tension, Buggin’ Out. When Buggin’ Out came in to get his pizza, he noticed that on Sal’s “Wall of Fame”, he only had photos of Italian actors, which Buggin’ Out considered to be unfair and demanded that Sal hang photos of black actors as well. When Sal expressed to him that in his shop, he would hang what he wanted, Buggin’ Out took off to start a boycott of Sal’s. At first, no one was in agreeance with Buggin’ Out, until Radio Raheem, who always carried around his boom box blaring rap music, went into Sal’s for a slice and was denied service until he turned off his music. At this point, both Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem are angry with Sal and are wanting to cause trouble. They enter into Sal’s at the time of closing, with Raheem’s boom box blaring. The two begin to yell and cause a scene, driving Sal to the point of destroying the boom box with a baseball bat. At this point Radio Raheem becomes enraged and tackles Sal to …show more content…
There are only a few exceptions to the fact that all characters in both movies have their prejudices. In “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” two very obviously prejudice characters are the fathers of the two lovers, Mr. Drayton and Mr. Prentice. They show their prejudices in their reservations about the marriage of their children. Tillie also shows quite a bit of prejudice through her attitude towards Dr. Prentice and his relationship with Joanna. She does not welcome him into the home and she also tells Joanna, “I don’t care to see a member of my own race getting above himself.” The mothers in the film also have some prejudices, but seem to get over that for the good of their children for the most of the film. In “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, there is not a ton of actual discrimination like there is in “Do the Right Thing.” Tillie discriminates Dr. Prentice because she treats him a great deal differently than she would any white man that Joanna brought home. Discrimination is more discussed than seen in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” as the characters often discuss the discrimination and prejudices that the couple and any future children they may have will face if they proceed with their current
Racial relations vary across culture and time, even after the decision that deemed anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, it took more time for everyone to come to the same agreement. Not to mention, the conditions that black people lived under due to the negative connotations that the term “black” held – evil, dirty, and impure. Towards the end of the 1960’s, the American industry utilized many different tactics to portray the lack of hope, income inequality, segregation, and change that was an attempt to make a difference during this time. The film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) was a direct effort to view the polarity of race in the 1960’s through the lens of
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
Police brutality. Along with Mookie stands against police brutality Mookie also did the right thing because of Sal’s racism towards Mookie and his customers. Furthermore, Mookie did the right thing because Sal’s racism towards his customers. He is racist towards everyone except Jane, Mookie’s sister who Sal is interested in. The only reason why Sal is in the ghetto because he makes a lot of money in that area. Sal only tolerates his customers because he knows if he does something wrong, then he could lose all of his customers. One situation where Sal is racist towards his customer is when Buggin Out asks Sal why he doesn’t have any brothers on the wall, then Sal tells him if he wants brothers on the wall then he can get his own place.Buggin Out asks, “ Yo Mookie, why are there no brothers on the wall?” Mookie says, “I don’t know, ask Sal.” Then Sal says, “You want brothers on the wall get your own place. Do what you want to do...but this is my pizzeria. American Italians on my wall only.” Buggin Out retaliates and says, “Well you own this and rarely do I ever see American Italians eating in here. All I see is black folks, and since we spend much money here, I do have some say.” Sal has had it at this point and asks Buggin Out
This week’s readings of the reviews of Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’ and Marilyn Fabe’s “Political Cinema: Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’, raised a number of questions regarding not only the moral issues the film addresses but also the intention of the artist. This dialectical opposition, which Pamela Reynolds suggests “challenges the audience to choose” (Reynolds, p.138) between the narrativized hostility shown between that of the hero and villain. More specifically Lee’s portrayal of violence vs passive opposition. This can be perceived through Lee’s technical employment of contradictory quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcom X at the conclusion of the film, which not only highlights this concern but also deluges further into themes of political opposition. Marylin Fabe discusses this where she states that Spike Lee’s film carries a “disturbing political message” (Fabe, p.191). Arguably, ‘Do the Right Thing’ acmes themes of racism (Black vs White); with underlining motifs of imperialism (colonisers’ vs colonised), psychoanalytic (power vs powerlessness) and even Marxist theory (ownership vs public space/consumption), with Clarence Page stating that Lee provides a “public service… (not trying) to provide all the answers, but raising the questions.” (Reid, P.144). In saying this we explore this concept of the role of the artist, with Georgopulos stating that the role of the artist is to create a consciousness within the audience by revealing a fraught set of truths about the human condition. Thusly, the reactions and responses to the films reveal Lee to be successful in conveying his intentions, which back in its zenith, explored this issue of racism in a way that had rarely been seen, and presented the ways in which t...
Gone are the days of legalized slavery, of Nazi Germany, of women being incapable of having a notable opinion. No longer is there a system of racial segregation adopted by an entire country, complete white supremacy or lynchings performed by the Ku Klux Klan. Yet, although we are no longer exposed to such past experiences and despite us living in a world where diversity is embraced more than ever, the existence of prejudice remains. Today we have universally come to accept multiculturalism, varied ethnic backgrounds and those populations who historically were forever stigmatized. But in spite of these developments prejudice has manifested itself in other, more subtle ways and no matter how modernized society become such unfavourable attitudes
What is the setting of this movie? What was the time in a American History for this movie? The year it took place in the civil rights where blacks wer’e still fighting to become equals and people did not believe in interracical couples and their values. A whole lot of turmoil when it came to whites dating blacks.
While writing the screenplay for Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, the writer William Rose knew that the theme and characters would test race boundaries in this country. He cleverly established Matt and Christina Drayton as two wealthy and cultured San Franciscans who considered themselves liberal and unbigoted people. When their naïve 23 yr. old daughter Joanna brings home her 37 yr. old Negro fiancé Dr. John Prentiss, the Drayton’s are astonished and aghast, not just by John being black, but because they’re forced to reexamine their personal beliefs regarding racism. Joanna’s character was portrayed as a gorgeous and vibrant bottle of sprite with a big heart, groomed by her parents to have a modern and unbias...
Stereotyping, racial slurs, and labeling and norms are seen and used on a daily basis and can be observed in virtually any aspect of life, from race to religion. These aspects are used repeatedly throughout the popular movie “Gran Torino.” Clint Eastwood plays the raunchy character Walt Kowalski, a Korean War Veteran, whose memories from the war continue to haunt him. His values, and beliefs lead him to pass judgment upon others that he encounters. He doesn’t seem to get along with anyone in his decaying Detroit neighborhood but an unlikely bond with his Hmong neighbors lead him to redemption, coming face-to-face with the same catastrophic bias’s consuming the community gang members that have consumed him.
To conclude, “The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won’t Die” by Matt Zoller Seitz, and “Race Relations Light Years from the Earth” by Mitu Sengupta, both identify and elaborate on the racism and stereotypical views throughout the stories by using nonfiction elements --authors purpose and main idea --to effectively support and explain how theme was distributed.
The 1967 motion picture “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” written by William Rose was a controversial film that touched on the subject of interracial marriage between two lovers, John Prentice a successful upper-class black man and Joanna Drayton an upper-class white woman in the 1960’s, the message depicted was that love conquers all as shown through the characters, John and Joanna, the setting in upper-class San Francisco, CA, and the theme of man v. society.
For many year humans have been trying to fight against discrimination in their communities, but it's an uphill battle that doesn’t seem like it’s been fully wiped out yet in our society. Discrimination and Prejudice has been a key issue that has affected many people around the world. In the movie that we saw in class, “My Cousin Vinny” (1992) it focused on these key issues of prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes and even eye witness testimonies. In the movie it focuses on these key issues while bringing a little humor to the viewers. In this paper I will be going into more detail of how this movie really brought to light these key issues.
The first social issue portrayed through the film is racial inequality. The audience witnesses the inequality in the film when justice is not properly served to the police officer who executed Oscar Grant. As shown through the film, the ind...
Our main character is Mooky, a black teenager, who works in Sal’s famous pizzeria. Mooky is the pizza parlor delivery boy and he is the only one of his friends to have a job. Sal and his two sons run the pizzeria. Sal is one of the very few white Italian business owners remaining in this predominately black neighborhood. Despite obvious tensions, Sal holds his ground in the neighborhood and remains proud of the fact that these people, meaning the kids of Bed-Stuy, have grown up on his pizza. Along the way we meet other characters such as Radio Raheem who is a neighborhood kid who walks the street with an oversize radio and decorates his fingers with the symbolic ‘love’ and ‘hate’ rings. Smile, a mentally disabled individual who runs around the streets selling the one existing photograph of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Then there is Mooky’s Puerto Rican girlfriend, who is raising their son and constantly nagging Mooky for being a deadbeat father. We also meet The Mayor, an alcoholic, elderly man who wanders the street looking for any type of chores to do in exchange for a small about of money. Lee’s choice of characters and actors seems noticeably ideal. Each character is full of life and more importantly each is an individual. Each character is created to retell a part of our society that we sometimes over look. This obviously makes Spike Lee a...
For centuries racism was the norm in America. Director Spike Lee can be considered as the modern day racism opponent. His films investigates the racial disagreements that surround populations, every day in America and in other multi-racial regions. Lee does not strive for political correctness, nor does he lecture. He establishes a group of characters, creates a situation, and then lets events unfold by themselves. His approach is unbiased, many people accuse his films of being harsh but they may not understand what Lee wants to convey. Lee is known as the kind of director who provokes enormous reactions such as “Do the right thing”
The 32nd President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, once said, “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” This has stood true for thousands of years. Though humans have not always been the most kind and accepting creatures. Humans have discriminated against those different than themselves and their perception of normal countless times. The antipathy people of color and women were regarded with before the huge Civil Rights Movement that began in 1955 is a problem still being avidly discussed currently. This research paper will discuss the changes that occurred between 1935 and 1985 that affected the jury selection in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, which takes place in the 1930’s and John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, which takes place in the 1980’s.