{"id":1050,"date":"2024-11-20T08:50:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T08:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/?p=1050"},"modified":"2024-11-20T19:19:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T19:19:03","slug":"why-is-there-so-much-ambiguity-in-do-the-right-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/2024\/11\/20\/why-is-there-so-much-ambiguity-in-do-the-right-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is there so much ambiguity in Do the Right Thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing <\/em>is one of the most thought-provoking films I have ever seen. By the end of the film, I was even more confused than after watching (I know it sounds crazy) Holy Motors<\/em>. While the themes of racism and belonging are evident throughout the film, there is so much to unpack in regard to the characters’ actions and motives that it is difficult to understand its overall “message”.<\/p>\n\n\n

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When I watch films, I usually have a clear opinion formed about the characters only a few minutes after being introduced to them. In Do The Right Thing<\/em>, my views regarding each character fluctuated throughout the entire film (especially with Mookie, Sal, Buggin’ Out, and Radio Raheem). I wasn’t exactly sure who was doing the “wrong” or “right” thing because they all had positive and negative character traits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Mookie was introduced, I believed that he would be the film’s stereotypical “protagonist” with his boss Sal as the “antagonist”. Unlike in other films, neither character completely represented one side of this spectrum. As a result, I kept finding myself conflicted on who to “root for”. While Sal wasn’t the best boss, he continued to employ Mookie despite his terrible working habits. Additionally, I saw some empathy in him when he scolded his son for being racist and allowed the African American teens to come in after closing hours.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I also found myself struggling to completely align with Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem’s actions throughout the film. While I understand Buggin’ Out’s call for more representation, I don’t believe that Sal’s exclusion of African Americans on the wall was solely due to racism. When looking at the portraits, all of the figures in them were prominent Italian-Americans (Sophia Loren, Frank Sinatra, etc.). Due to the specific inclusion of only his ethnicity, I believe that the wall was meant to represent his own “American dream” of opening his own pizza shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Raheem on the other hand, showed both positive and negative traits throughout the course of the film. While I initially found his boombox blasting a little obnoxious, I was moved by the scene in which he used his rings to compare love and hate. Despite my initial negative judgement about his character, my whole perspective changed after his death. In fact, my outlook regarding all the characters changed after Radio Raheem’s confrontation with Sal and subsequent death.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Radio Raheem’s death by police brutality took me back to the horrific scenes of George Floyd’s death in which he screamed “I can’t breathe!” That video haunted me then, and all the memories of his death and subsequent riots came flooding back to me after Radio Raheem was killed. Even if Radio Raheem was a little obnoxious, there was absolutely no reason for him to be killed. If he was a white man, the police would have just given him a warning or wouldn’t have shown up at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Radio Raheem was killed, the whole African American community came together to avenge his death. I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about Mookie throwing the trash can into Sal’s pizza shop, but I could understand his rage at the situation. Nevertheless, I still couldn’t figure out whether or not he did the “right thing” here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, I came to the conclusion that neither Mookie or Sal were the “protagonist” or “antagonist” in the film. While Sal seemed to be less racist than his sons (key word less<\/em>), he still ended up using the “N-word” slur and bashing Radio Raheem’s boombox. On the other hand, while Mookie showed some positive traits, he slacked off at work and didn’t visit Tina or his son often.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Overall, I believe that the decision to keep most of the characters ambiguous in regard to “right” and “wrong” was intentional on Spike Lee’s part. People aren’t always clear about their intentions and views, and can have both positive and negative traits. In real life, humans are so complex that it’s impossible to pigeonhole them as only “good” or “bad”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In regard to whether or not the characters did the “right thing” at the end of the film by destroying Sal’s shop, there isn’t really a concrete answer. If the African-American community would have followed MLK’s peaceful philosophy, for example, would they have been able to accurately express their anger towards racial injustice and police brutality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This question still rings true today, as seen with the George Floyd riots. Many people condemned the BLM movement for inciting violence. However, the African American community had been oppressed for so long that many argued that these riots were a necessary expression to create change.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This idea is further represented by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.’s contrasting quotes and picture together. I believe that the film ends with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. together to show that neither violence or non-violence is the definite “right thing”, especially in the face of racial injustice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With both Malcolm X and MLK at the end of the film, the film leaves it up in the air for the audience by revealing that either option can seem “right” depending on the situation. While neither will ever be perfect (they both have downsides), some situations call for different responses. There isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” approach to social justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing is one of the most thought-provoking films I have ever seen. By the end of the film, I was even more confused than after watching (I know it sounds crazy) Holy Motors. While the themes of racism and belonging are evident throughout the film, there is so much to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[216,202,209,217,192,214,218,213,215],"class_list":["post-1050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-viewer","category-week-13-11-19-11-21-ideology-and-critique","tag-ambiguity","tag-confusion","tag-do-the-right-thing","tag-george-floyd","tag-nyc","tag-racism","tag-social-justice","tag-spike-lee","tag-stereotypes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1236,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050\/revisions\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}