Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing remains aptly polarizing to this day. The film depicts the escalating racial tensions on the hottest day of the year in the predominantly black New York neighborhood Bed Stuy. While on the surface, the film concerns itself primarily in terms of binaries, whether it be black and white or love and hatred. However, it goes beyond simple divisions and presents a complicated portrait of social hostility, class barriers, and racism. Through a variety of cinematic techniques, including editing, mise-en-scene, and cinematography, the conflict within the film is conveyed to the spectator. Focusing on two consecutive scenes, wherein the character Radio Raheem gives a speech about love and hate, immediately followed
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On his way to deliver a pizza, the closest character to a lead, Mookie, encounters the character Radio Raheem. After exchanging greetings, Mookie expresses his admiration for Radio Raheem's gold rings. On his right hand is the word “love” and on his left hand is the word “hate”. Radio Raheem gives a speech about good and evil, how love and hatred are in a constant battle against each other, eventually proclaiming love to be the unlikely winner. “If I love you, I love you. But if I hate you...” says Radio Raheem. “There it is, love and hate.” replies Mookie. In the scene immediately following this, Radio Raheem enters Sal's Pizzeria, blaring Public Enemy's “Fight the Power” on his boombox. Sal yells at Radio Raheem to turn the music off, refusing him service unless he complies. After Radio Raheem turns the music off, Sal proceeds to lecture him about how in his restaurant, “there's no music. No rap, no music, no music, no music. …show more content…
The sequence starts with Mookie stepping on the little girl's chalk drawing of a house, effectively stepping on the traditional idea of the American dream, and the harsh reality that it's systematically unlikely for this girl to achieve it. This girl most likely lives and will continue to live in the depressing run-down tenement buildings that are the background of Radio Raheem's speech (115). Much like how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, Mookie, who wears his jersey for the first half of the film, was the first black employee at Sal's (119). Radio Raheem wears a Bed Stuy t-shirt, which could have been a deliberate choice to make him be, ultimately, just another representative of the neighborhood itself, and the tragedy that befalls him at the film's end a reminder that it could have easily befallen anyone else in the community, simply because of the color of their skin. Radio Raheem's shirt also has the words “do or die” written on it, presenting another binary. As the next scene begins, Radio Raheem is shown from outside through Sal's window, as he leaves the comfort of the street where he has control of his music, to Sal's, who wants to maintain control over his own business. If one was to look at the scene's cinematography, it would seem the power balance is tilted in favor of Radio Raheem, who is given tighter closeups and lower angles used emphasize his size. However, the way
On his way to deliver a pizza, the closest character to a lead, Mookie, encounters the character Radio Raheem. After exchanging greetings, Mookie expresses his admiration for Radio Raheem's gold rings. On his right hand is the word “love” and on his left hand is the word “hate”. Radio Raheem gives a speech about good and evil, how love and hatred are in a constant battle against each other, eventually proclaiming love to be the unlikely winner. “If I love you, I love you. But if I hate you...” says Radio Raheem. “There it is, love and hate.” replies Mookie. In the scene immediately following this, Radio Raheem enters Sal's Pizzeria, blaring Public Enemy's “Fight the Power” on his boombox. Sal yells at Radio Raheem to turn the music off, refusing him service unless he complies. After Radio Raheem turns the music off, Sal proceeds to lecture him about how in his restaurant, “there's no music. No rap, no music, no music, no music. …show more content…
The sequence starts with Mookie stepping on the little girl's chalk drawing of a house, effectively stepping on the traditional idea of the American dream, and the harsh reality that it's systematically unlikely for this girl to achieve it. This girl most likely lives and will continue to live in the depressing run-down tenement buildings that are the background of Radio Raheem's speech (115). Much like how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, Mookie, who wears his jersey for the first half of the film, was the first black employee at Sal's (119). Radio Raheem wears a Bed Stuy t-shirt, which could have been a deliberate choice to make him be, ultimately, just another representative of the neighborhood itself, and the tragedy that befalls him at the film's end a reminder that it could have easily befallen anyone else in the community, simply because of the color of their skin. Radio Raheem's shirt also has the words “do or die” written on it, presenting another binary. As the next scene begins, Radio Raheem is shown from outside through Sal's window, as he leaves the comfort of the street where he has control of his music, to Sal's, who wants to maintain control over his own business. If one was to look at the scene's cinematography, it would seem the power balance is tilted in favor of Radio Raheem, who is given tighter closeups and lower angles used emphasize his size. However, the way