The film was a critical and commercial success and received numerous honors and awards, including a nomination for an Academy Award, Spike Lee being nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Danny Aiello was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Sal. In 1999 the U.S. Library of Congress deemed the film to be "culturally significant" and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, one of just six films to have this honor in their first year of eligibility. Do the Right Thing utilizes countless Dutch angles throughout the film. Dutch angles are typically used to display tension, and in the film the angles are thoroughly used when building up to the film’s combative climax. The angles in the film also have other …show more content…
Beyond the tension, Dutch angles also communicate instability, unrest, and danger. Dutch angles are also utilized as a clear break from realism, the shot is unnaturally slanted to remind the audience that it’s not real life, they are watching a film. Other than Dutch angles, Lee uses other powerful techniques throughout the film. He emphasizes Raheem’s size through a fish-eye lens technique, Raheem approaching the camera, dominating the frame as Public Enemy dominates all of the audio. This is Lee tricking his audience, using cinematic techniques to provoke the anxieties surrounding black male bodies, and linking such fears to Raheem’s murder. He also uses slow pans, but the Dutch angles are the most pronounced. This makes one ponder why he wants to repeatedly remind the audience they are watching a movie and not reality? Spike Lee has a distinct, visually bold cinematic style. He is …show more content…
His shirt that he wore throughout the whole film recognized his town of Bedford-Stuyvesant, he was always playing a radical song that questioned authority “Fight the power”, and he always expresses his love for others he cared about, an example of this is when he tells Mookie that he respects him. Radio Raheem has difficulty agreeing with other people that don't feel the same way as him and he struggles finding the difference between the good aspects of life and the bad ones. Spike Lee also uses color motifs in the fil. The whole film is pretty red in color. This red could imply the tension, racial issues and obviously the very high heat. The three men sit against a bright red wall, shown multiple times and the men bash on other races. The scene of the fire is also very red,