A Spike Lee film is nearly always socially
aware, if not, it’s probably a Hollywood film (to bring in funding for more
personal semi-independent projects). His style is often a merging of cinematic
traditions, which is often a tool to insight a political awareness. In Do the Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee has
tackled issues surrounding African American’s in present day USA. In doing so,
what has been created is a political statement, albeit in film (entertaining
film at that) form. To break free from the stereotypical countenance of the
“Blaxploitation” film, Lee has strived to use the convergence of multiple film
forms, such as documentary aesthetics and music video styles, in order to birth
the new “Black Cinema”. The effect of this marrying of forms is a unique style
and a thoroughly entertaining and provocative cinematic experience.
What I found to be most prevalent in this film is
Lee’s documentary aesthetic. Spike Lee stated in an interview with the
Guardian, “my skills as a documentary filmmaker help my narrative filmmaking
skills”[1]. The
intentions behind the pseudo-realism created in Do the Right Thing, is to evoke a sense shock in relation to the
story of racial division, which I believe is exceptionally achieved.
Examples
of the differing documentary cinema styles are seen dispersed throughout; The
use of hand held cameras, the technique of ‘direct’ filming, and the play on
the cinema verité style are some of the more notable techniques used in Lee’s
film. The cinema verité style stems from observational filming, or to film as
an observer. This is prevalent in scenes such as the broken fire hydrant scene,
or the scenes that depict the casual banter within Sal’s pizzeria. We look onto
these scenes as a fly on the wall, and what is portrayed is a sense of realism.
This technique offers a naturalistic tone simply because we are not aided with
classical film edits such as cuts, zoom etc.
Another
style that is used to outstanding effect is Lee’s habit of ‘direct’ filming.
The characters address the camera (the audience) directly, involves them in the
action as if entering a conversation. “The use of direct
address operates not simply as a rupturing device but directly challenges the
viewer while offering multiple and conflicting viewpoints”[2]. This is because the “Viewer has
been implicated into this world and into the real issues that they represent”;
by means of direct address, we witness the opinion and thoughts of that character
directly, not as an audience member, but as a converser. This is seen is the
racial rant scene, as well at the direct address from Radio Raheem on “Love vs.
Hate”.
The overarching tone of Do the Right Thing is heavy with popular
music television culture of the late 1980’s. The MTV influence weighs heavily in the younger generation within
Bedford-Stuyvesant, with specific reference to their fashion, musical trends,
and attitude. An example of young music video culture within the film is found
in the anthem of Lee’s picture, “Fight the Power”, which was recorded specially
for the film by the New York based hip hop group, Public Enemy. The popularity
of this music genre from this African American group interestingly highlights
the forces of racial division, while simultaneously encapsulates an entire
youth culture through strategic use of popular musical forms.
What Lee has created in the use of
Music Video techniques and aesthetics is a generational power; a new, more
accepted, African American generation. “The film for some
ridicule apparently holds up Da Mayor as a drunk, and the music underscores
this through the playing of minstrelsy themes that call up the traditional ways
in which African Americans have been treated in the classical Hollywood period.”[3] What
Lee has created is a new generation of African Americans, which is both,
represents the people, and the film form. By using film forms such as the music
video medium, Lee has developed an association to new ‘Black Cinema”.
The opening credits, which showcases a solo
Rosie Perez dancing to the film’s anthem, Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”, are
rich with powerful images that set up the stylistic tone for the rest of the
film. The integrated styles and techniques from differing film periods and
traditions are separately exhibited in the four minute scene.
In
the first glace onto the Bed-Stuy set in the opening credits we see myriad of
cuts depicting silhouettes of Rosie as she showcases differing poses and
positions before we enter her energetic and aggressive dancing styles. This
form links directly to the film noir period, as it uses silhouette and dark and
ominous lighting. We are then thrown into a haze of bright red light as we see
Rosie dancing across the set. The use of primary colours in this regard, as
well as in the bold typeface of credits is drawn from French New Wave Cinema,
especially that of Jean-Luc Goddard.
Other forms utilized in the opening
scene is the undertones of jazz and soul music which is associated to the original
“Blaxploitation films”, as well of course the “Fight the Power” theme which
resonates with the music video style.
This interconnected use of differing
filming styles not only runs riot in the opening scene, but plays throughout
the film to great effect. Film Noir is encapsulated by the often-repeated use
of canted framing, silhouettes and lighting effects, and French New Wave is
honoured with Lee’s use of his colour scheme and lengthy takes.
(source: Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial
M For Murder” 1954)
The political tradition of film making is gestured in Lee’s notion
to black rights movements and it’s political figures (such as Malcolm X, and
Martin Luther King). This is seen in full effect in the scene outside Sal’s, as
Mookie and Jade speak in front of a graffiti stained wall depicting “Tawana
told the truth”. The mis-en scene directly refers to the upheaval of Tawana
Brawley in a case against six white men who had allegedly raped her. This
political story weighed heavily in the black community causing a division
between whites and blacks. This is of course Lee’s opinion on screen; his film
is a medium for activism for black rights.
Spike lee has, with Do the
Right Thing, developed a unique style of film, albeit using typical film
traditions and techniques from multiple facets of film history. With
outstanding success he is able to tell a gripping, shocking and interesting
story and leave the audience with a subjective point of view; the questions
that he asked throughout the film are left unanswered.
The aspects of the
classical paradigm that Lee has slotted into the film, such as the driving
narrative force of Senor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson), play to favour the
crowd’s ingrained acceptance of Hollywood style cinema. Yet, without blatantly
doing so, Lee has given himself room to experiment with alternative styles in
order to create a new “black cinema”. I believe that in manipulating the
classical narrative to house film convergence one is able to adapt the
Hollywood paradigm. What Lee has achieved here is the creation of a film that
not only tells an interesting story, but also develops an argument. To create a film about African American
communities, without specifically targeting African American’s was a testing
ambition, but through means of cinematic sophistication, was made possible. “Attempts
to critique black cinema on “white” terms place the cinematic text in a
critical criteria eliminating that which exists specifically to black culture
and focusing on simply the film as text, instead of as an instance of black
cultural expressivity.”[4] Although
Spike Lee endeavored to build a film around the rights and power of the black
man, the film should not be seen as an expression of cultural comparison and
racial awareness from the black community.
What is interesting about this film in
particular is the unique style Lee has been able to create through the use of
so many differing aesthetics from alternative genres. Although he draws upon
previous successors and their film techniques, the film doesn’t appear to
imitate a ‘white’ or classical Hollywood aesthetic. “Breaking again the silence
of ‘Black respectability’ and refusing to perpetrate stereotypes that maintain
the white status quo, Do the Right Thing
is a classic space of black urban representation.”[5]
Do the Right Thing represents a story
and a statement, not only of black rights, but also of black filmmaking. This
film is an exemplary piece of cinema that has tackled racism in a stylistic and
entertaining manner, but seeks also to ask the masses questions that Lee
chooses to leave unanswered. The convergence of film styles and aesthetics
create, for Lee, a new and unique form of Black Cinema that caters to all
peoples.
References:
Film:
Do the Right Thing (1989), Spike Lee.
Une Femme est Une Femme (1961), Jean-Luc Goddard.
Dial M For Murder (1954), Alfred Hitchcock.
Other:
Houston A. Baker Jr. Spike Lee and
The Commerce of Culture in Black American Cinema, Routledge, (New York:
Routledge, 1993), ch.10.
Hillier, Jim. "US
Independent Cinema since the 1980s." Contemporary
American Cinema, ed.s Linda Ruth WIlliams and Michael Hammond, McGraw-Hill,
pp.247-264.
Steve Barnes, "Independence
with Limits: the Influence of Alternative Cinema on American Independent
Feature Filmmaking", Persistence of Vision 6 (1988):
91-100.
[1] http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGuardian?feature=watch
[2] Jim Hillier, US Independent Cinema, 250.
[3] Jim Hillier, US Independent Cinema, 250.
[4] Baker, Spike Lee and the Commerce of Culture, 169.
[5] Baker, Spike Lee and the Commerce of Culture, 169.
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