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Do The Right Thing Analysis

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The film Do The Right Thing tells a story of the long-simmering racial tensions between Whites and African Americans in a Brooklyn neighborhood, which develops and culminates in tragedy in a hot summer day. Race is the main motivation for many of the actions of the film characters. The director uses several settings to create important environments in his film. For example, Sal’s Pizzeria, the food market directly across from pizzeria, the two Korean grocers, the three African Americans on a sidewalk etc. A big graffiti painted wall and a red wall in the background get the attention. The white man who stepped on Buggin ' Out 's sneaker wears a Larry Bird jersey (white basketball player at the time) while African American Buggin Out 's friend wears a Magic Johnson jersey (African American basketball player). Although there are many acts of hatred between characters in the film, the director balances them with ones of tolerance. Lee shows this notion of contradiction through camera movements, angles and distance. He uses various approaches in shooting, long ones (Sal and Pino conversation in the pizzeria) as well as short ones (Sal and Radio Raheem confrontation) and several close-ups, medium and long shots, canted camera angles, low angles, eye line shots, hand held camera and deep focus photography which highlight dramatic differences amongst the characters. Extreme long shots are often used in new scenes, long shots show movements and gestures, medium shots show
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