In "Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing," Marilyn Fabe argues that Spike Lee adopts film theorist and director Sergei Eisenstein's dialectical montage - the juxtaposition of contrasting shots in order to bring the viewer to a new level of consciousness. Referring to Fabe's essay, describe two ways Lee creates dialectical conflict on the level of form, and two examples on the level of content. According to Fabe, what does Lee seek to achieve through his use of dialectical montage?
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In ‘Do the Right Thing’, Lee creates many dialectical conflicts in both form and content. One way he creates this conflict in form is in the opening number of the movie, in which he mixes “[. . .] long shots with close-ups, movement matches smoothly connecting discontinuous spaces, jump cuts, and color contrasts that create optical jolts [. . .]” (Fabe 196). He uses camera positioning, continuity editing, and aspects of mise-en-scène to create conflicts that both give the viewer a new way of seeing the issue and foreshadows the tension that’s brewing. According to Fabe, another dialectical conflict in form is created through extreme camera angles when showing Radio Raheem. These emphasize his role later on in the film.
He also creates dialectical conflict in the content of the film. One example is Mookie’s relationship with Sal. Mookie was in many ways loyal to Sal, but this was juxtaposed by his actions in starting the race riot. Another example is Sal himself. He is both tolerant of others and a racist at the same time. According to Fabe, Lee’s use of dialectical conflict was to confront racial stereotypes while showing people that racism still exists in this country today and highlighting its destructive nature.
In Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, dialectical methods, created by Sergei Eisenstein in the 1920s, are used to display conflicts in the characters and actions presented in form and content. Examples of conflicting dialectical form are established in the opening credits, which starts with a female dancing gracefully to violence-focused rap music. The dance is accompanied with actions which display her simulating a fight with herself as well as sensual movements in the dance. Another example was Lee’s decision to shoot Do the Right Thing on location in Bedford-Stuyvesant but have the scenery completely restored and repainted. This is a film about the gritty ghetto, yet Lee has recreated it as a bright, colorful world, focusing attention not on how a place may actually be, but of those who live there.
Lee’s use of conflict in dialectical content is shown throughout the film between the characters Mookie and Sal. Sal is shown as having a level of respect for Mookie, but at the same time is displayed as a racist. Another conflict is Buggin Out’s request for Sal to put pictures of African Americans on the pizzeria’s hall of fame. Each character has their own reasons for the responses they choose, and each are reasonable, so there is not exactly a right or wrong in the situation. According to Fabe, Lee is trying to provide reason that there are not always just two different options to choose from, but that both can be thought of and considered as reasonable possibilities, creating an option that combines the focused aspects of each.
Andrew Megow
Dialectical conflict is a way of getting two different opinions across to audience in a film. Whether symbolically or right-out delivering, the use of dialectical conflict will hopefully express these opinions in their proper arguments. Spike Lee is able to show this in both form and content in his movie "Do The Right Thing". Starting with form "Do The Right Thing" takes place in the ghetto of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Instead of the stereotypical ghetto which is covered with garbage, drugs, and prostitutes, Lee cleans his ghetto up making it brightly colored and clean. This form is conflicted because Lee intended his viewer "To confront their stereotypical expectations" (Fabe 197) Another form is his opening montage scene which features a girl dancing to Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" The conflict is presented in a few ways such as the fact that such an angry powerful song is played over a scene featuring a petite little girl dancing. Another is her dancing is either shown in the form of her fighting with the camera or dancing seductively.
In terms of content The characters themselves are conflicts at hand. A pizza shop owner named Sal (a white man) has a lot of respect for a worker named Mookie (a black man). The conflict is that even though Sal has respect for Mookie, he is blatantly a racist. Another example concerning the relationship between these two characters is the very fact that although Mookie is loyal to Sal in the movie for the most part, it is he who starts the race riots around Sal's pizza place. The main idea to use Dialectical Montage in Lee's movie was to take his audience away from the stereotypical conflicts between blacks and whites in America and to make sure it was known that racism is still present in today's society and that we need to be careful with the danger involved within regardless of the color of your skin.
An idea of clash is imbued in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing through the appliance of dialectical montage, from the surfaced presence of its content to its implied motif. According to Marilyn Fabe, Lee presents the dialectical conflict on the level of FOAM through the use of cinematography. She provides an example of the opening scene: a cross-cutting from a scene of the petite female Rosie Perez who plays the girlfriend of the protagonist Mookie in this film, performing an aerobic workout dance, and a scene of Perez quietly sleeping next to Mookie. The cinematography in this group of two scenes, including the shot-distances, the character’s movements, the connection between discontinuous spaces and the color contrasts, are systematically opposite. Fabe points out that as the initial sequence in the film, the contrast hints a clash of opposites that will move is audiences beyond ossified ways of thinking about racial relations in America. Besides, Lee presences the conflict also through the setting—the authentic neighborhood of Brooklyn compared to the nonrealistic elements staged in the environment such as freshly painted mural and cleaned up street. In Lee’s theory, the conflict is interpreted as a challenge of the black ghetto stereotype, and encourages audience to confront their stereotypical expectation.
On the level of CONTENT, the inner dilemma of Mookie and the ambiguous trait of Sal reflect Lee’s appliance of dialectical conflict. In the narrative, Mookie plays as a mediator between his black buddies and Sal. However, the final riot is done by him who is out of the audience expectation and thus force audience to think deeper about the clash. The character of Sal is manifests a mix of positive and negative characteristics and specially the attitudes towards his black neighbor—the main portrayers in the film, as Fabe concludes his bipolar contrast that is “affectionate and exploitative, tolerant and racist, a nurturer and a symbolic murder.”
All in all, Fabe points that what lee seeks to achieve through using the dialectical device, is to relinquish his ability to offer statement towards the issue, but to leave the question to his audience and let them think about the answer.
According to Fabe, what does Lee seek to achieve through his use of dialectical montage?
Spike lee creates a dialectical clash of opposites in his film 'Do the Right Thing'. In the opening scene Lee provides this juxtaposition of thesis and antithesis in a few ways. Fist, and most obviously, "the sound track clashes with the image". The scene is one of a young, tiny female dancing with hardcore rap track "Fight the Power" in the back ground. Fabe argues that the dance itself also functions to create the dialectical form that Lee is presenting, in that the girl dancing is sometimes portrayed as angry, sometimes sexy, sometimes emotional.
The films content is also heavily reliant on the concept of the dialectical. Mookie, a worker at Sal's pizzeria, is seen as loyal and a keeper of the peace, which is juxtaposed with his starting of the riot at the end of the film. Sal is affectionate towards Mookie, yet is also portrayed as "exploitative and latently racist", another example of the way in which Lee uses content to create dialectic conflict.
Lee is, according to Fabe, attempting to confront racism presenting the extremes of each side. I enjoyed that Fabe maintains that Lee may be "daring members of the audience to feel secretly relieved that Radio Raheem is killed", and that Spike Lee's purpose in his use of dialectical montage is to create an atmosphere in which the bully is the victim.
Andrew Tolstedt
TA: Brent Coughenour
Spike Lee uses dialectical form early in the film Do the Right Thing which Marilyn Fabe relates to Sergei Eisenstein in her essay. Fabe talks about this being apparent in the opening of the film. Mookie’s girlfriend is dancing to the opening credits, to the clash of the soundtrack being played. While two men yell about fighting the power, the audience sees a small female dancing to the song. The second part of the credits is the choreography of the dancer while she should be dancing as a work out for fun, Spike Lee makes the dance moves seem as if she is fighting with the audience. The use of clashing is shown to provide the audience with optical shocks, a technique also used by Eisenstein. The second use of dialectical content shows a conflict between characters. This clash can be shown in the ways. Inner conflict is shown when Mookie is feeling hurt and immoral right before he starts the riot. He knows that the owners let him get away with a lot at the pizzeria so he struggles to be the one to throw the trashcan through the window. Conflict between characters also was used to show dialectical content. Fabe describes an example of Mookie being the one to start the riot rather than another character. Mookie seemed to be the one on the side of the white owners but switches at the end. Overall, Fabe describes the goal behind the use of this montage is to open American’s eyes about racism in today’s society.
Matt Prekop
One example of dialectal conflict on the level of form pointed out by Fabe, is the color filters Lee uses in the opening of the film. Lee uses “warm red filters to illuminate the background…” (195) in one shot contrasting that shot with a “cool blue” filter , which creates a “conflict of colors within the same shot.”(196) Another example of form is the setting of the film; Lee chooses an actual location instead of a Hollywood studio to shoot the film; adding a sense of reality to the film. Another thing about the setting although it’s depicting life in the hood, it doesn’t satisfy the stereotypical drug dealing, extra violent expectation a viewer might have for this particular film. Instead the set was “freshly painted”, and included bursts of warm colors and hot colors which emphasized the idea of summer time and metaphorically suggested liveliness.
One example of dialectal conflicting content is the relationship of Sal and Mookie, Sal is the owner of the pizzeria, Mookie and Sal’s two sons work in the pizzeria together; however Mookie begins the destruction of the riot and destroys Sal’s restaurant. And although Fabe suggests that Sal “gets” Mookie, and is affectionate and tolerates Mookie’s poor work ethics; Mookie is underpaid, and unappreciated by Sal who doesn’t recognizes that he works as the “mediator” between his business and his clientele. Sal also refuses Buggin Out’s request to hang up pictures of African Americans on his Wall of Fame which could imply that Sal doesn’t want to taint the décor of his pizzeria. Fabe suggests that Lee creates shocks through his contrasting objects and characters trying to “liberate” the audience of the common stereotypes and depict the path that racism could push us all to.
'Do the Right Thing', whether you question it's message or not, is an expertly crafted film, especially in it's use of dialectical conflict on the levels of form and content.
One example of form is when Rosie Perez's character (Tina) dances in the opening credits to the Public Enemy song 'Fight the Power'. The song preaches using violence in self-defense, and all the while a very petite woman is dancing to the song. Her movements are at points sensual, and at some points, she's literally punching at the camera (sometimes with boxing gloves). Lee tries to establish that love and hate are both volatile and very prevalent in his characters.
Another example just in that opening sequence is the color filters that are used in the dance number. Sometimes a red filter is put on the camera, giving everything a hot tone, while at points a blue filter is spread across to make everything ice cold.
An example of dialectical content in the film is at the end, when Mookie throws the garbage can through the window. Mookie was the peacekeeper of the film, so when he started the riot, it made a much more profound statement than if Buggin' Out had done so.
Also, when Buggin' Out requests for Sal to hang up pictures of black celebrities in the prominently white hall of fame wall, Sal becomes enraged. But the way that the argument is presented isn't necessarily a right or wrong scenario, it's simply two opposing sides, there's never really a right or wrong answer.
Lee uses these techniques to create shock, to create a lasting impression on the viewer. Suffice to say, he did a compelling and brilliant job.
Spike Lee uses dialectical conflict throughout the entire film of Do The Right Thing. Lee creates Dialectical conflict on the level of form, but also on the level of content. One example of Lee’s use of dialectical conflict on the level of form is the intro to the movie with Rosie Perez dancing. The music that is playing is angry rap, while the images are completely contrasting, depicting a woman dancing alone. Spike Lee uses this contrast in order to show the different sides in Rosie’s character, one side being artistic and the other angry and powerful. Another use of dialectical conflict on the level of form occurs with the positive portrayal of the black ghetto. In the movie, Lee makes the neighborhood look clean and inviting in order to prove a point. “By creating a mise-en-scene that patently clashes with preconceived ideas, he encourages viewers to confront their stereotypical expectations,” (Fabe 197). Lee creates a positive image of the black ghetto to make people rethink their ideas of what the ghetto fundamentally is.
Spike Lee also uses dialectical conflict on the level of content in his movie. One example of this is the clash between Mookie and Sal. There is a certain tension between the two characters, but up until the end of the movie, they seem to understand each other. Although the two characters are entirely different, they are able to live in peace with one another and Lee wanted to show that. Another dialectical conflict on the level of content within Do The Right Thing is the death of Radio Raheem. The audience feels sympathetic for this character and wants his death to be avenged, but this clashes with the bully-like characterstics of Raheem. Raheem is an unlikable character in the movie, but also takes on a vulnerable persona. According to Fabe, Lee seeks to distinguish the underlying stereotypes between blacks and whites and to bring awareness of the dangers of racism in America through the use of dialectical montage.
In "Do the right thing"; Spike Lee used dialectical conflicts in several ways. Lee used dialectical conflict in form in the scene when he was playing the rap music sung by anger men and the image that you see is of a petit girl performing a dance. This was meant to be a precursor to the love and hate that was featured on Radio Raheem's brass knuckles later on in the film. One other way that Lee uses dialectical conflict in form is through the background. Spike Lee had wanted to film on location but the Brooklyn that was presented was clean looking. Not at all how Brooklyn really is. I think that he did this was because his main goal was to show something other than the stereotypical and by presenting a clean Brooklyn, it is definitely straying away from the stereotype.
Another good way to see the dialectical conflict is in the content. Sal is a good example of this because he appears to be racist as well as tolerant. Another example of content is Mookie. Mookie is shown as a loyal employ of Sal's but in the end Mookie starts a riot at Sal's.
In Fabe's essay, she mentioned that Spike Lee had wanted to reveal to his audience more than just the stereotypical conflict between blacks and whites.
First of right away in the opening shot of the whole film there is this giant contrast in the movement of the dancer and the music being played. The dancer is moving so fluent. She moves so elegant and graceful but the music is old hip-hop that is loud and one that is used throughout the movie known as “Fight the Power”. One of the characters in the movie, Radio Raheem, plays the song every time he comes into the movie and sort of becomes his theme song and he is known to be a “hard ass” and it sort of sets the tone of the whole movie.
Another scene when Mookie starts the riot. Even though he has always been seen as humble and against starting fights and even stopped fights. But this time he starts the fight against Sal’s pizza shop.
Another example is when Buggin Out asks Sal to hang up some pictures of some black people. The whole movie he is always complaining about it since Sal’s main customer are black people it seems weird that he doesn’t yet it is his store.
In Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", we see Lee use dialectical form to get the viewer to think about the world they live in. In dialectical form we see the use of juxtaposition, which is "opposite modalities clashing against one another." This can be seen in the opining of the more. Fabe states that the movie has been advertised as a dramatic tension movie. In the opening we see a dance number. This in itself has its contradictions, by having a woman dancing to the angry rap song, "Fight the Power". Another example of juxtaposition is in the dancing itself. The dance is both "aerobic workout session and a fight". Also at times she looks angry, and other times sexy.
Lee also creates dialectical content through his portrayal of Mookie and Sal's relationship. In the movie Sal is presented as tolerant of Mookie's behavior and at the same time he doesn’t appreciate all that Mookie does as a keeper of the peace. This is why at the end of the film when Mookie starts the riot, the audience feel like Mookie's action was both justifiable, and betrayal. Sal is also shown as both an affectionate towards his black clients but also a latent racist, by not putting up any black celebrities' pictures, and by making such a big deal out of the request.
Lee use of dialectical montage in this movie plays an important role. According to Fabe, Lee didn't want what D. W. Griffith wanted in A Birth of a Nation (which was for people to think that the KKK's actions were justified) but to make people think. This is why he has the bully of the movie killed instead of the sympathetic character. If a sympathetic character died then we would have felt sad, but since the bully died, we have mixed emotions because he wasn't a good person, but still didn't deserve the fate he got. By using this, Lee allows people to form there own opinion about the situations he presents, instead of making the audience feel a certain way.
The Dialect conflict in "Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing" brings attention to societies ongoing closet racism. The film takes place in Brooklyn, New York on the hottest day. The heat represents an ongoing tension in a multi- ethnic community. During one scene in the movie there is a montage- esque monologue in which there are representatives of a handful of ethnicities who spew racial slurs about other ethnicities. The scene is almost overwhelming in its truth. These closet racists are every where in every community and throughout every ethnicity. The whole movie in its entirety is a clear conflict. The premise that police brutality equals white supremacy is in some cases true but even in this movie one of the cops was black. The black community was outraged as they should be, however this idea of fighting fire with fire in the form of riot and taking it out on someone (Sal) who may have influenced the death of the character Radio Raheem but certainly wasn't the taker of his life. Sal the white italian took the blunt of the outrage.Marilyn Fabe discusses how Lee is providing reason that there are not always just two different options to choose from, but that both can both could in work. Like if people were perfect socialism and a true democracy would each work. However the world isn't perfect so we compromise.
In Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing, he shows dialectical conflicts with form and content. Right from the opening, all the way too the end. Just with the color of the film, and how hot it looks and makes the viewer feel. In this inner city neighborhood on the hottest day of the year. Also in the opening credits it shows a woman dancing but it looks like boxing, with a blue colored background juxtaposed to hot colors, and a Public Enemy song. With long shots and quick close ups. Throughout the film, as tension builds between races, and people Lee uses many dutch angle shots. Each character has depth to their prejudice and racism. No one is flat out racist really, they all tolerate each other until the climactic burning of Sal's before that everyone loved Sal's place, and Sal liked Mooky and respected him as a worker.
In Spike Lee's film, "Do the Right Thing" he shows dialetical conflict on two levels: form and on the level of content. The first example of dialetical confliction on form is shown in the opening credits, by using camera positioning, continuity editing and other aspects, to show a different way of viewing it. Also, the scene is bright and cheery, which completely opposes the feeling of the film.
On the subject of the conflict in content, it is shown between two of the characters, Mookie and Sal. Although Mookie is very loyal to Sal, however, this is opposed by his starting a race riot. And on the subject of Sal, he is ambivalent to both racism and tolerance, which is a definite conflict when referring to content
Lee, in his film, seeks to confront racial stereotypes with his dialectical conflict, and shows that racism isn't gone, and also showing its impact on our society.
In Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", the use of sound bridges with the introduction of the local radio station. The songs on the radio act as an agent of foreshadowing rather than just diagetic sound. These sound bridges keep the viewer from breaking out of the reality the film has created. Spike Lee also implements montage in order to create further continuity between cuts. Matches on action or graphic matches can be found as examples of this throughout the film. Dialogue is also utilized in order to create scenes of conflict which eventually lead to a riot. Mookie is at the center of this cause effect chain. He changes over the film from a peaceable moderator, to an agent of justice. I believe Lee was using these montage methods in order to stylize his film, as well as change the audiences reaction to the piece.
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