Do The Right Thing - Jenny Picot

In the Washington Post review, I found it very interesting that the article ended with the fact that “everyone in this movie could use a cold moral shower by the end of the day.” This is interesting to me because the heat obviously had an effect on everyone’s mood in the day, but essentially everyone’s morals are what lead to this conclusion. The heat is just what pushed everyone over the edge. Even the likeable characters in this movie do some things that are questionable and even hateful, and it makes us see how everyone is not perfect and has some kind of moral issue. The review Emerson wrote talks about how Love Daddy starts and ends the movie. In the beginning of the movie he is telling everyone to “Wake up!” and at the time we do not know that this is directed at the audience and the characters. I think it is a good way to start out the movie because at first it seems like he is just talking about getting up in the morning, but we later realize he is saying wake up to the prejudice you have and that is around you. In the Ebert review, he says that too many people are criticizing the film for arbitrary reasons. He says that the “film comes closer to reflecting current state of race relations in America than any other movie of our time.” Films made about prejudice and racism are often documentaries or they are jokes that foster prejudice in comedies, but this movie deals with the tension that was actually felt at the time. There really were people that were overtly racist trying to get away with some of the racist things they said.

There were some oblique angles in this movie, and a large use of low angles and high angles in this movie. There were often strange angles in shot/reverse shot form when people were shown talking to each other. The person’s face would be close to the camera at such a weird angle that it would almost appear as if a fisheye lens was on the camera. These angles help to build the tension as it heightens throughout the day. The low and high angles also helped to show who was of higher authority in the conversations. Sometimes Sal would be at a lower angle and sometimes someone would be talking to Sal and would be “above” him so they would have the lower angle.

The scene where the white guy runs over Buggin’ Out’s sneakers first shows the guy running over them. Next, Buggin’ Out realizes what just happened and looks at his sneakers. We see a scuff then it zooms out so we can see that it is sneaker. Then the next shot goes to his face at a low angle. This low angle helps to show how upset he is and in shock that this guy messed up his shoes and did not even look back. There is a decent amount of cutting in this scene and this helps to show the events, but it also puts a dramatic emphasis on it. The only short mise-en-scene is when Buggin’ Out is running to the man. The background is blurry and he runs to confront the man. We can tell he is not messing around.