In two paragraphs, choose a director we have studied over the past year and a half and discuss his influence on this film. In your third paragraph, I want to hear your reaction to this film, especially the editing. What do you feel Lee is trying to say? Do you think he was successful? How did the film make you feel?
sPIKE lee is very much influenced by the work of Akira kurosawa. He is almost obsessed with the fate of the individual and the effect that the actions of others have on the events of his films and the characters within them. Do the right thing is very similar to Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” in that everyone has a little bit of a different perspective. That is what makes lee’s films so interesting but so tragic. In “Do the right thing” just as in, for example, “Seven Samurai” we see an innocent group who is subject completely to his surrounding. Mookie is completely subject to the owners of Sal’s famous and although he tries his best to control his own destiny. This is the same way that the farmers in seven Samurai are subject to the bandits that scour the countryside.
ReplyDeleteLee’s film is full of vivid colors and quick editing and spectacular sound design that directly influence the way the viewer feels in relation to what is happening on screen. The immense tension and anger that is felt by sal in the scene where he smashes the radio can be felt through the closeups and very loud music and yelling. This is brought to a climax by discontinuity editing of the radio being smashed. Denoting the grave importance of the action by Sal. A similar technique is used when mookie throws the garbage can through sal’s window in his only attempt to affect the environment in which he lives. IN a sense, this is the one and only time he has real control over what happens in their little slice of new york and the editing shows it.