Mis en scene in 'Do the Right Thing'

In my last post I mentioned how the characters' brightly colored clothing caught my attention. I also mentioned how this was somewhat misleading because many of the characters were violent and corrupt. Let me expand on that. First of all, the bright colors gave a fun and happy feeling to the neighborhood, but in reality it is wrought with racism and hatred (which is most evident during the fight/riot scenes). Secondly, the clothing seemed like something little kids would wear. That, combined with the fact that no one besides Mookie seemed to actually have a job, caused me to think that the majority of the characters didn't really want to grow up. They just wandered around the neighboorhood all day, oftentimes looking to get into some sort of mischief (i.e. the fire hydrant, picking on the mayor, boycotting Sal's, etc.).

After viewing the fight/riot scenes again, something that really stuck out to me was the social blocking. During the fight in Sal's restaurant, you see almost every character piled on top of each other in one shot. I can't say for sure what the significance of this was, but it gave me the feeling that all of the tension and underlying racism just exploded. Everyone was unloading their frustrations, which had been building and building up until this point (especially Pino's). The blocking was also significant when Mookie and Jade were sitting next to one another on the street corner watching the riot take place. To me it signified that they realized there was nothing they could do. The riot was still taking place, and people were still running all around them, but they separated themselves and sat in disbelief.

The scene where the cops kill Radio Raheem is particularly disturbing the second time around. The use of the nightstick as the murder weapon definitely made a difference because it shows more of the intention of the policeman. I'm not saying that the cop knew and/or wanted Radio Raheem to die, but it seemed like more of a personal, hands-on attack than if he were to shoot him with a gun (not that using a gun would have been any more civil, but I would think it would be easier to accidentally kill someone that way). My point is that the nightstick as a prop definitely intensified the scene.

I won't even try to get into the racism aspect of the film because even though we had an hour long conversation on it in class, I'm still not sure where I stand or what to think. I do know that I believe Spike Lee's intention with this film was to raise questions rather than answer them, and he did so very effectively.