: Do the Right Thing . Spike Lee.

1989 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Spike Lee ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do The Right Thing

Confronted with Too Much

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd McGowan
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Malcolm X ◽  
Spike Lee ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
The Spectator ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do The Right Thing

This chapter analyzes the films of Spike Lee. Lee's films employ types of excess such as unconventional shots, extreme characters, and improbable scenes to intervene in critical issues that trouble the contemporary world—the question of the subject's singularity, the role that fantasy plays in structuring our reality, the political impact of passion, the power of paranoia in shaping social relations, the damage that the insistence on community inflicts, the problem of transcendence, and the struggles of the spectator. Above all, Lee is known for being a political filmmaker and the concept of excess holds the key to understanding the politics of his films. Excess has enabled Lee to create a varied corpus of films that treat a broad spectrum of fundamental social and political problems. These films include She's Gotta Have It (1986), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), and Malcolm X (1992).

Deconstructing White Ways of Seeing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Chabot Davis
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
African American ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
White Students ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
Spike Lee ◽  
Demographic Group ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do The Right Thing

This chapter turns to the medium of film and a different demographic group and reception context: the college classroom. It analyzes the responses of college students to two films about interracial conflict: Do the Right Thing (produced by the black director and screenwriter Spike Lee) and Crash (produced by the white director and screenwriter Paul Haggis). This chapter also examines how white students' responses to Do the Right Thing became increasingly empathetic when Lee's film was viewed in context-rich ethnic-studies courses, where students were exposed to numerous African American writers and filmmakers. Although this chapter addresses formidable roadblocks to cross-racial empathy, this comparative study of non-empathetic versus empathetic viewers suggests that white ways of seeing, particularly among young adults, are open to revision rather than fixed.

Do the Right Thing Spike Lee

1989 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
Thomas Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Spike Lee ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do The Right Thing

The Code of Discursive or Ideological Truth

Real to Reel ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 183-216
Author(s):  
Martin Sohn-Rethel
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
The Other ◽  
Power Imbalance ◽  
Ethnic Inequality ◽  
Spike Lee ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do The Right Thing

This chapter studies the realism code of discursive or ideological truth, which marks out films where questions of personal identity link to messages and values about power or lack of power in society. It is the battle of ideas in constructing individual and social reality that assumes a dominant role here. Realism under this code can assume whatever guise a film maker chooses in order to highlight the interplay and struggle of contesting ideas. A prime example of this can be found in Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989). Do the Right Thing is a film of ideas which refuses to tell its audience what to think. And this is in large part why it is such an effective vehicle of ideological realism. The other reason is that it does not pull its punches; its ideas penetrate right through to the economic, cultural, and political roots of ethnic inequality and disharmony: to the acute power imbalance triggered by ethnic identity. The chapter also looks at Michael Haneke's Hidden (2005) and The White Ribbon (2009).

Jon Kilik’s willfully independent producing ethos found its roots in the early 1980s American New Wave of lmmakers that included Jim Jarmusch and the Coen brothers. While Kilik worked on the more traditional New York sets of Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet, his indie spirit persisted. After gaining his rst full producer stripes on a low-budget feature (1988’s The Beat), Kilik began a long-term relationship with Spike Lee, starting with the director’s Do the Right Thing (1989), and his early 1990s lms Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, and Malcolm X, to his more recent lms, such as Inside Man (2006). Along the way, he’s produced a number of notable directorial debuts, including Robert De Niro’s A Bronx Tale (1993), Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat (1996), Gary Ross’ Pleasantville (1998), and Ed Harris’ Pollock (2000). Kilik has continued to collaborate with most of his directors, such as Schnabel, with whom he’s made four additional lms, including the Oscar-nominated The Diving Bell and the Buttery (2007). All were produced outside of the Hollywood system. He juggles smaller indies—Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005)—and larger, ultimately studio-distributed lms—Oliver Stone’s Alexander (2004) and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel (2006)—with aplomb. And even when he’s producing what, on the surface, looks like a studio project, such as The Hunger Games (2012), Kilik prefers to maintain his independent stance. Studio perks don’t lure him—he still proudly carries his own tattered Blackberry. Kilik has more indie productions in development, including another project with Schnabel and Sean Penn’s The Comedian, as well as The Hunger Games sequels.

2013 ◽  
pp. 95-96
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Malcolm X ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Spike Lee ◽  
Hunger Games ◽  
Martin Scorsese ◽  
The Hunger Games ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do The Right Thing
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