Spike Lee’s depiction of the Bed-Stuy neighborhood is quite opposite of what it was in the past and what it is like now, and no, it was not a mistake. Lee portrayed the neighborhood in that specific way in order to get his political message across and to deviate from the stereotypes of African Americans that are all too common. In his neighborhood, he places poor but dignified African Americans that are, for the most part, happy go lucky characters (which is mentioned in the readings). Also mentioned in the readings was Lee’s decision to place very few Whites and immigrants in the movie (not unusual for this neighborhood), families, and social characters that meet up to converse. What I find to be the most interesting, however, is the things that he purposely omits such as drug use and street gangs. Essentially, he is representing a ghetto neighborhood that is well known for its public housing and high number of welfare recipients without including some of the primary reasons for such and the dangers found within such a neighborhood. Why did he choose to show the neighborhood this way instead of the way it really was? Well there are three main reasons for this. One reason being to discourage Whites from associating Blacks with violence and crime, another reason being to express how “we create the conditions of social unrest, when we fail to address pent up anger and frustration” and the third reason being to show that the Blacks were innocent and undeserving of the brutality that they received.
Lee strategically uses both auditory and visual effects in order to emphasize the issues that he presents to his audience. Lee’s musical choices speak a lot about what he is trying to tell us. For example, the very first song played in the movie that repeatedly mentioned “fighting the power” represents the African Americans fighting unfair treatment and oppression from the Whites, specifically the police. Which is later show when Radio Raheem is killed by an overly violent and unjust police officer. The readings that we read this week, those that discussed the musical components of the movie, explained how the film is “characterized by the use of multiple musical styles which connote black production, artistry, and history” and the importance of the rap, jazz, radio, and historic nostalgic themes. The same article also stated that the radio “binds neighborhood inhabitants together into a community of listener participants” The radio served as a sort of mediator between the two racial groups. Visuals, such as costume and lighting, play an important role in the movie as well. For example, in the beginning scene with the women dancing there is one that is wearing a boxer’s outfit. Wearing this outfit symbolizes the preparedness of the people to fight. As for the lighting, and this could just be my interpretation, seems to be rather low. By this I mean that most of the movie seems to be filmed with a great deal of shadows. To me this could be representative of the people that had to live in the shadows or in the darkness. Also the change from red to dark shows the change in emotion (anger). Although these are important factors, the simplest visual aspect to analyze would be the actual neighborhood in which he chose to film the movie. Bed-Stuy is a very run down and chaotic neighborhood that is in need of major maintenance, which is analogous to the position of the characters in the movie.
There is a lot of debating over the true motive behind Mookie throwing the trash can but the reason that I will stick to is: his inner and suppressed feelings of racism that resurfaced after Radio Raheem’s death. He wanted to get revenge for his death.The proof of such feelings can be seen when he yells the word “hate” before throwing the trashcan. The loss of such a great influence in his life triggered his anger and destructive actions. There are many critics that would argue that he did in fact end up saving Sal’s life. My response to that would be that the intention of saving his life was not at all the original thought in Mookie’s mind; therefore it wasn’t the reason behind him doing what he did.
