Do The Right Thing By Spike Lee

Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing is a film made in 1989 depicting racial conflict in Brooklyn New York during the 80's. The plot involves a group of African Americans, Italians and a Korean couple who live in the same block. There are multiple themes that tie in together in the film, one being the animosity and racism the characters feel towards each other throughout the film. The director makes the theme clear in the film by the conflicts that arise between the characters. An example of this is when Radio Raheem is buying a pair of batteries for his radio at the Korean’s store. He treats the owners with disrespect because of their race. Another thing to speculate is how Spike Lee used cinematography. The audience is able to witness how these

This scene introduces the theme of negative energy and anger. As the movie goes on, what characters wear and the lighting keep playing a major role in Lee’s use of mise-en-scene. For example Mookie, who is a delivery boy at the Italian’s pizzeria, is first introduced wearing a Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers jersey. Jackie Robinson was the first African American man to play in the Major Leagues (baseball-reference.com). This shows the audience the pride Mookie has for being an African American. Interestingly Mookie is compared to Jackie Robinson in the sense that they both end segregation. In the ending scene Mookie helps the Italians and their sons whenever they are being attacked by a mob. Despite the mob having members of his same race he still stood up for the Italians thus diminishing the segregation between him and his

A lot of the characters wear warm colours such as red and yellow. Buggin Out is wearing a yellow shirt and Radio Raheem wears a mix of red, yellow and orange. This not only represents the heat but is symbolic of the rage that the characters have inside because we know that these two characters show a lot of anger and violence throughout the film. Another example of this is the bright red wall that is seen behind the three men sitting at the corner. The colour of the wall represents the anger and frustration the men are feeling as they sit around and complain. The colour blue is also used in the film as the opposite to red. Da mayor is wearing a blue suit and this shows that he is not full of rage like most of the others but instead he is a calm