Aside from the leisure to watch movies, film studies is another step into the implicit movie analysis. In the award winning American comedy-drama film, Do The Right Thing (1989), Spike Lee portrays the racial and social issues over the plot duration of twenty-four hours during the hottest day of the summer in Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. The story centers around the ethnic tension between the Italian-American family that owns the local pizza place, “Sal’s Famous Pizzeria”, and a group of African Americans in the neighborhood. Throughout the film, Lee uses a variety of mise-en-scène that creates an overall look and mood of the film, including the decor of the neighborhood and pizzeria, lighting, camera angles, music, costumes, and other components.
One of the vital elements of the film that creates the tense mood is the setting. The film is set on the hottest day of the summer in a multicultural neighborhood—Bed-Stuy. The heat exacerbates the ethnic tension among the main characters: Sal, the Italian-American owner of the pizzeria; his sons Pino and Vito; his African-American delivery boy Mookie; Radio Raheem, the guy who blazes boom box with him everywhere; and Buggin’ Out, one who boyscotts Sal’s pizzeria for excluding Afrian-American stars, or ‘brothas’, from the all-Itatlian American “Wall of Fame”. The brightened colors further highlight the sense of the heatwave and emerging tension in the area.
Camera angles are another crucial components of the mise-en-scène. In the film, Spike Lee uses a variation of camera angles and shots to indicate different feelings of the character and setting. For example, the camera zooms in on Radio Raheem’s face to focus on his serious facial expression several time...
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...mately uses the mise-en-scène in the movie that “creates a feeling completely in tune with the movie’s narrative and themes” (Barsam and Monahan 173) in relation to racial and social issues in the film—Do The Right Thing.
Works Cited
Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
Conard, Mark T. The Philosophy of Spike Lee. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky, 2011. Print.
Lee, Spike, and Cynthia Fuchs. Spike Lee: Interviews. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 2002. Print.
Lee, Spike, and Terry McMillan. "Do The Right Thing: Film and Fury." Five for Five: The Films of Spike Lee. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1991. 77-115. Print.
Lee, Spike. "Do the Right Thing: A Spike Lee Joint." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
"Quotes." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
The first word that comes to mind when thinking about Do the Right Thing is HOT. Everything about this movie was hot, from the weather down to the themes and issues it brought up. It’s interesting too watch this movie while living with a heat wave in NYC. There’s plenty of room for debate as to whether or not anyone did the right thing in this script, in my opinion most of the characters did the wrong thing. What’s interesting to me is to think about what Spike Lee considered the right and wrong thing to do in this screenplay. It’s not just his words as an actor playing a role, he also wrote, directed, and produced the vehicle for those words and actions to come to life. So it’s hard to separate Spike from Mookie, and I don’t think Spike would even want us to. I also wonder about some changes from the screenplay and the film, and the effect the have on the overall message of the film.
When it comes to films most people think that the filmmakers just draft up the script, hires some actors, films and edits some scenes, then releases the next number one movie in America to the world (or select theaters near you). In actuality, there are a lot more details that go into film than that. Filmmakers are constantly making decisions in regards to a films narrative and cinematic style and making sure a film comes out as well as it can. One of those decisions fall under cinematic style and is called mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene has four elements: lighting, costume/makeup, sets/props, and figure expression and movement. The three that will be focused on when analyzing the film Modern Times are costume/makeup, sets/props, and figure expression
Neill, Alex. “Empathy and (Film) Fiction.” Philosophy of film and motion pictures : an anthology. Ed. Noel Carrol and Jinhee Choi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 247-259. Print.
The 1989 film Do the Right Thing explored the conflict of racial tension and unique camera elements. Directed and produced by Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing combined a series of low and high-angle shots while also incorporating close ups and slow motion. Through the use of panning, the audience was able to get a break from the action and reflect on the events of the film. Spike Lee’s collaboration of film components added humor and realistic emotions to the story. While the controversy of whether Mookie “did the right thing” will always be in favor of the viewer. Depending on how an audience member connects with the film will spark a variety of different emotions for that person. Do the Right Thing is a film that reflects both controversial ideals and unique film elements.
For this free choice final paper, I decided to analyze Oliver Stone and his two films Platoon and JFK. Oliver Stone, a three-time Academy Award winner and known as one of the best filmmakers in his generation, ignores Hollywood convention warning against making films with a message. Among some of his great films, he made the two films Platoon and JFK. In Platoon, he presents a gritty and emotional examination of American soldiers during the Vietnam War through the lens of Chris Taylor, a biographical representation of himself and so...
Spike Lee, through his undoubtedly inventive yet obtrusive camerawork, embodies emotional impact. From lateral panning and jumpy camera sequences to his use of perspective, Lee inspires intensity and apprehension. An odd synchronicity between the camerawork and subject matter fosters these emotional reactions and inspires inquisition; the viewer conceptualizes the camerawork to uncover a significance the narrative cannot deliver. The cop sequence retains suspense and effortlessly transfers Flipper’s anxiety; a “voyeuristic” perspective stimulates the former while rapid camera shifts and altering points of view maintain the latter. The scene in which Flipper asks for a promotion illustrates Lee’s emphasis on viewer impact and impression, sometimes at the cost
Klawans, Stuart. "Pulp Fiction." Nation 20 June 1994: 883. Questia School. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s West Side Story (USA, 1961), a classic American film, and Mira Nair’s The Namesake (USA, 2006), a more contemporary film, both tell the story of young adults seeking out the American Dream. In both West Side Story and The Namesake, we see young people taking chances at love, while living out their lives and the American Dream. We experience the challenges that come with interracial relationships and the cultural influences that sadly put an end to the relationships. Both movies capture the lives of two different ethnic groups, Puerto Ricans and Bengalis, shining a light on issues of diversity such as race, interracial relationships, and cultural assimilation. While telling the stories of American immigrants, West Side Story and The Namesake touch upon the most pressing issues affecting immigrant groups at two very different times in American history. From the highflying musical numbers of West Side Story to the heartfelt moments in The Namesake, each film has a unique way of canvasing the issues of diversity immigrants face on their quest for the American Dream.
This scene is used to emphasise the danger that Dave and The Sapphires are in very real and very lethal danger, the mixture of sinister camera angles to emphasise the visual danger that the characters are in to the inhospitable sounds portrayed by the scene to highlight the explosive danger that the characters are in. The lighting used features the darkness and the difficulty to see due to the night sky. The mise en scene highlights the military background that the characters are in. All in all, this scene is a highly emotional scene highlighting the mortal danger that confronts Dave and The
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...
Kenneth Burke compiled of this essay titled Literature as Equipment for Living where he brings up the point that literature could be interpreted through proverbs which are “designed for consolation or vengeance, for admonition, or exhortation, for foretelling.” (Burke, 301-302). Proverbs allow the audience to form judgments on situations and creates an understanding of the ways in which a movie can be expressed through proverbs. The Disaster Artist, directed by James Franco, was an example of Burke’s Equipment for Living idea because the film uses metaphors, synecdoche, metonymy, and irony to create proverbs.
Director and actor Spike Lee presents his "truth" about race relations in his movie Do the Right Thing. The film exhibits the spectacle of black discrimination and racial altercations. Through serious, angry, and loud sounds, Lee stays true to the ethnicity of his characters, all of which reflect their own individualism. Lee uses insulting diction and intense scenes to show how severe racism can lead to violence. The biases reflected through Do the Right Thing model those of today which has kept society in a constant feud for so long. In Oprah Winfrey's dynamic episode, "The Color of Fear", Mr. Mun Wah projects his strong opinion when he states, " . . . that racism is still going on today, that we've got to stop to hear the anguish and the pain that goes with that and then we'll survive." (3) People do not realize the severity of their own words. In the scenes of the movie that emphasize the shocking reality of failed interracial communication, racial stereotyping, trust or lack of trust, and acrimonious violence mirror the current concerns about race in America as reflected in "The Color Of Fear."
...this scene an enraged Alonzo yells at a group of locals in a neighborhood in which he was once well respected and had power over everyone there. To his surprise the crown of people betray him by refusing to comply with his orders. Every element of the mise-en-scene work in harmony and well meticulously placed. The dark lighting, Alonzo frantic movements, the fact that Alonzo was in the center of crowd, and even the scene being set in the middle of a worn down project complex all play their parts in the mise-en-scene and presenting the filmmakers vision.
Do the Right Thing. Dir. Spike Lee. Perf. Danny Aiello, John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Martin Lawrence, Bill Nunn, Richard Edson, Roger Guenveur Smith and Spike Lee. Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks.1989. Streaming (Netflix)
Mise-en-scéne is something that we see in movies all the time. It’s translated from French and means the staging the different aspects of a movie such as setting, lighting, subjects, or almost anything else. Any common movie, such as Inside Out, shows Mise-en-snéne in it. Three big parts of Mise-en-scéne that are shown in the movie Inside Out are cinematography, sound, and editing. Inside Out uses all of these by describing a plot in which there are feelings in our brains which connect to different memories that we can remember at any time. There were five main emotions that controlled the person on the outside whose name was Riley. The five emotions were named, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. They helped Riley as she moved away from