Politics are tricky little mofos. That’s why I am always confused with them. I try to choose a side but then always get swayed. I think the problem is that I see the good points of both sides. I’ll choose one side and then listen to the other sides points and be like “Oh, you’re right.” That’s what I love about movies that have a political purpose. They entertain me and at the same time help me choose a side or at least formulate an opinion on an issue.
Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee sparked a lot of political controversies in my mind, the main one being racial relations. Lee did an amazing job balancing all the different races together and was able to effectively show how each and every one of them displayed their hate to one another.
That was one of my favorite scenes and it was brilliantly executed. No race was safe from Lee’s slurs. This is one of the many ways that Lee brings up the issue of racial tensions in the movie. Race was and always will be a heated topic in our society. As hard as it is for me to say, I believe it is something that we may never be able to get rid of. Lee portrays this in a serious but comical way which in turn makes it easier for the viewer to digest.
Another scene where Lee yet again depicts the racial tension in the neighborhood is when the white guy steps on Buggin’ Outs shoes and he proceeds to go into his apartment. Buggin Out, his friends and some other neighbors proceed to gang up on him and ask him a bunch of questions as to why he’s in their neighborhood, on their block, on their side of the street. They even go as far as to tell him to go back to massachusetts (because obviously that’s where all white men live) and the white man proceeds to tell them that he was born in brooklyn which creates an outburst from all the neighbors =)
Mookie seems like the main character in this movie but I feel that Spike Lee wanted to make every character in the movie a main character. Although the story was centered around the pizzeria, there was a myriad of other stories going on around the neighborhood as well. This style of movie making is effective in a sense that all the little stories come together to form a bigger pictures. In this movie for example all the different ethnic groups and their relations with each other come together to show the immense racial tensions in that neighborhood. Ultimately it creates the bigger picture of what happens when those relationships are tested and a mob mentality forms.
I think it’s very interesting that Lee decided to act in this movie as well as write, produce, and direct it. Was it because he felt that as an artist he was the only one that could correctly portray his message out to the viewers? I think so. Isn’t that why documentary makers like Michael Moore put themselves and their own voices in their documentaries? As artists and preservers of cultures an artist is probably the best person to portray his work, especially when it has a strong political message they need to get out. And if you really think about it, Do the Right Thing is sort of like a documentary in a sense that he follows all the people around from the neighborhood and showcases the problem in that neighborhood which is their racial tensions.
Isn’t this picture just adorkable? =)
