DO+THE+RIGHT+THING

Objectives:

 * Consider motion pictures as primary resources
 * Analyze movies in a historical context
 * Examine race relations in contemporary urban American society
 * Reflect on race relations from multiple perspectives
 * Practice DBQ responses



Primary Sources--Points to Remember

 * Conflicting interpretations
 * Skepticism is a key ingredient when analyzing them
 * Social, economical, political and cultural implications
 * Background of the source vs. your own background
 * Framing solid questions about primary sources: APPARTS
 * Historical imagination
 * Conclusions

Motion Pictures as Primary Sources

 * Record values, attitudes, concerns and issues
 * Derive knowledge about the era and frame conclusions
 * Social, economic, political and cultural context in which a film is produced and viewed
 * General public and critical response to film

Language of Film

 * 1) Shots: individual moments captured on film
 * 2) Scenes: Linking a series of shots in an orderly way
 * 3) Sequences: Scenes used to express themes by using shot length, lighting, color, field, angles, camera movement, focus, lens characteristics and projection speed
 * 4) Editing and Cutting
 * 5) Language
 * 6) Sound effects
 * 7) Music
 * 8) "Reading" a film: Plot, Character, Setting, Theme and Context, Conflict, Climax, Conclusion

Blacks in Film

 * Always controversial since the advent of cinema--see //The Birth of a Nation// (1915) and you will get the point
 * Blacks have often played subordinate roles in movies: slaves, servants, first deaths in horror films, etc.
 * Brown v. Board of Education (1954) actually inspired a movie called //Blackboard Jungle// (1955) in which Sidney Poitier debuted and became the first black actor to really play a leading role in movies moving forward
 * //The Defiant Ones// (1958), //In the Heat of the Night// (1967), and //Guess Who's Coming to Dinner// (1967) all starred Sidney Poitier, featured racial issues, and represented the traditional civil rights argument of gradual accommodation and assimilation instead of the Black Power motif
 * The 1970's saw the "accommodationist" films fade and Poitier was seen to appeal more to white than black audiences
 * "Blaxploitation" era of moviemaking begins in Black history: films centered around sexually aggressive, larger-than-life, strong sometimes violent black superheroes that tried to reinforce black pride and control over their own destinies much more so than black portrayals in mainstream Hollywood films

[|Spike Lee]

 * Born and bred in the Bedford-Stuyvesant "Bed-Stuy" neighborhood of Brooklyn
 * Went to NYU Film School with the goal of rebranding black film
 * Created Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks Company in Brooklyn vs. Hollywood to produce black movies
 * Films focus on Black people with complex motives and lifestyles
 * Changed the way Blacks were perceived and represented in film

[|Do The Right Thing]

 * Set in Beford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York
 * Inspired by the [|Howard Beach Incident] when three black men were attacked by Italian-Americans in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, New York
 * Also in context of the [|Central Park Jogger] rape case when several black teenagers attacked and raped a white jogger in Central Park
 * Presents many complex conflicts and value systems within the "Bed-Stuy" community
 * Examines race relations and police-community relations in urban America
 * Neighborhood setting = problems / solutions / relationships
 * Generational differences and the Civil Rights Movement

Historical Perspective

 * Why is this a historical document?
 * Moderate box office success = black and white appeal
 * [|Do The Right Thing Critical Acclaim] (see reviews)
 * Launched careers of several major black actors and film professionals
 * Forced audiences to confront this major issue in American society

"Ghetto Life" in America and //Do The Right Thing// Primary Sources

 * Socio-economic status: its impact and responses to it
 * Civil disorders
 * Police-community relations in ghettos
 * 1992: Rodney King harassment and riots in South Central Los Angeles causing over $1 billion in damages
 * Violence in urban American and self-destruction
 * [|Roger Ebert's Review]
 * Role of music in the film: "Let Freedom Ring" and "[|Fight the Power]"
 * MLK and Malcolm X quotes at the end of the movie:

"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence."--Malcolm X

Follow-Up Questions

 * 1) In what way does the film present an accurate depiction of the racial tensions present in urban America in 1989? Can you connect these problems with the social pathology evident in modern ghetto neighborhoods?
 * 2) Did Mookie "do the right thing?" What did "da Mayor mean when he advised Mookie to "always do the right thing?"
 * 3) What were the philosophical differences between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as developed in this film? How are the photographs and quotations used in this film important to an understanding of Spike Lee's intent? Why does Lee place them side by side at the end of the film? What viewpoint do you think Lee has adopted in this film?
 * 4) What is the relationship between Sal and Mookie's sister? Why does this relationship anger Mookie?
 * 5) What was the impact of the police unit's arrival on the scene to quell the violence at Sal's? What is the connection between this sequence and the realities of modern African-American life?
 * 6) Some critics insisted that //Do The Right Thing// was an open incitement to violence. What is your reaction to this argument?

Film Reflection Paper
In //Do The Right Thing//, Spike Lee challenges us to consider racial tension in contemporary American society. While watching this movie, I have asked you to think of it as a historical document. Do you believe that it should be viewed in this manner? Why? Why do you think this movie was so controversial when it was released, and do you think it would still be viewed that way today? What is the "Right Thing" based on your interpretation of the movie? Please formulate an original reflection paper on these questions where you address these questions, discuss the film, and incorporate the primary sources meaningfully into your analysis. I look forward to reading your last essay of the year.

James J. Lorence, //Screening America: United States History Through Film Since 1900//. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.
 * Adapted from:**