Analysis of the Spike Lees Movie Do the Right Thing Essay

Analysis of the Spike Lees Movie Do the Right Thing For my shot analysis I chose a shot from the Spike Lee Movie Do the Right Thing. This is the second shot following the climactic riot scene. It features Da’ Mayor and Mother Sister reacting to the hellacious events of the previous night. The block was just devastated by a melee that broke out because the police killed Radio Raheem after he and Sal got in an altercation that was triggered by the volume of Radio Raheem’s boom box. Though at a very superficial level the fight was about the loud stereo, the real significance of the fight had more to do with the culmination of anger and tension between the characters of the film caused by prejudice and ignorance. This paper will analyze†¦show more content†¦The camera follows the elders of the block, Da’ Mayor and Mother Sister, as they talk in her bedroom. For a rare moment in the film Da’ Mayor’s and Mother Sister’s eyes are at exactly the same level, showing that as different as the tw o may have seemed, they are very much the same. Then the camera slowly pulls out as the two stand and sluggishly walk down a hallway toward a window. Now, where a director would typically have to cut and setup a new shot, Lee pulls the camera straight out of the window as Mother Sister and Da’ Mayor survey the block. The audience would expect to see next exactly what Da’ Mayor and Mother Sister are looking at, but instead Lee quickly pans over in the opposite direction to reveal Mookie standing in the street bellow. By doing this Lee makes a connection that both the elders and Mookie are, in the words of Mother Sister, â€Å"still standing.† The shot is not particularly tight but still has a cramped feel due to the clutter of things in the background, the heavy shadowing, and the red tint on the lighting. The red lighting gives sense of volatility to the shot, which is contrasted by the slow camera and character movements. These slow movements are analogous to t he block as, regardless of how slowly, it too will go on and life will continue. This shot is in the tradition of mise en scene advocates like Bazin in that,Show MoreRelatedMovie Analysis : Do The Right1304 Words   |  6 Pagesof the most unique forms of media because it has the ability to make a fictional story socially powerful. The simplest of elements in a film are able to change how the audience interprets a scene and give it a deeper meaning. In Spike Lee’s 1989 film, Do the Right Thing, many small elements come together to impact individual scenes as a whole. This controversial film illustrates a single day of rising events in a black neighborhood. 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