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?
Do The Right Thing
ReplyDeleteFORM
Lee shows conflict on the level of form through the juxtaposition between long shots and close-ups. For example, in one of the early scenes in the movie, we see a long shot of a woman dancing. Then, Lee jumps to extreme close-ups of her body and face.
Another formal dialectical conflict is his choice of color contrast. Lee mixes reds and blues together, juxtaposing hot and cold tones. This can be done from shot to shot, or within one shot.
CONTENT
Regarding content, Lee shows dialectical conflict through the juxtaposition of sex and aggression, as well as dancing and fighting.
Sex and aggression is an interesting juxtaposition. When the female character is pretending to box, she also has very erotic movements. It’s a lot of excitement and energy, but between an act of love and an act of hate.
Dancing and fighting are obviously two very different things, but both can be poetic. In Lee’s example, a girl is dancing, then working out, then shadowboxing. In a split screen, the same girl is on the left and the right, and appears to be fighting herself. These images, when put together, have an entirely new meaning; it’s not as simple as black people and white people fighting, it goes beyond that to include tensions between the same race, and also tensions with people who are at war with themselves.
What Lee seeks to achieve here is to encourage his viewers to confront their stereotypical expectations. He doesn’t come right out and show you sophisticated black workers, but instead he challenges the audience’s assumptions.
In Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee constructs a new way of thinking for the audience. He does this through the use of dialectical montage. In Marilyn Fabe’s essay, she states Lee’s goal “was to liberate his audience from fixed stereotypical images of the conflict between black and white Americans and to open their minds to a more subtle awareness of racism in American society and the danger that racism poses to us all.” He achieves this goal through dialectical conflict on the levels of form and content.
ReplyDeleteOne way in which Lee uses dialectical conflict on the level of form is how he structures the opening scene. According to Fabe ,“Shots of Rosie Perez dancing in long shot are abruptly cut together with extreme close-ups of her face or parts of her body. Smooth matches on Perez’s movements join together shots in which both her costume and the background against which she is dancing abruptly change.” The way in which Lee chose to edit this opening sequence is shocking. Perez at times seems to be fighting against herself. This brings the audience to a new level of contemplation. Another way in which conflict is created on the level of form is through the use of color filters. Lee uses red filters to give some shots an intense and angry feel. These filters contrast with the use of blue filters, and sometimes Lee combines the two creating a conflict of hot and cold tones in the same shot.
Some ways that the dialectical conflict is used on the level of content is the “clashes between characters and conflicts within individual characters”. Mookie is the more level-headed character and Buggin’ Out is the hot-headed one. This makes the fact that Mookie starts the riot that much more of a powerful statement. Sal is also a character with conflicting traits. He appears to be sympathetic and affectionate, but he is also racist and exploitative.
Morgan McPhearson
Kate Balsley
In Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", Spike Lee not only creates dialectical conflict on the level of form, but also on the level of content. He creates dialectical conflict of form in the film's opening scene, according to Fabe, by cutting shots together of Rosie Perez dancing in a long shot, and then cutting to a close up of her face and body parts. Another example of dialectical conflict using form is Spike Lee's choice of colors used in the film. Lee uses color filters such as red and blue to create a contrast between warm and cool colors. Also throughout the film, the red filters apply an unconscious assumption that the scene is angry and violent - while the blue filters are soothing and relaxing.
ReplyDeleteThe other way Spike Lee creates dialectical conflict is through content. Throughout the film, this is accomplished by scenes which include dancing vs. violence, for example. In one particular scene, a female character is dancing, then exercising and working out, and then shadow boxing. Another example, according to Fabe, is the clashing "between characters and conflict within individual characters". Sal for example is a very kind and loving character, yet he is racist. These character traits are good illustrations of dialectical conflict through content.
Finally, according to Fabe, Spike Lee wanted to change and liberate his viewers from stereotypical images between black and white Americans, and to open their minds up to what racism really does to a nation.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn Spike Lee's "Do the Right thing", Lee addresses stereotypes associated with varying ethnicity through the use of dialogue while acknowledging the unspoken tension in an ethnically diverse neighborhood through the use of form.
ReplyDeleteLee chooses to saturate the color of his film, the effect of which makes every image highly contrasted. He also uses highly alienating camera angles and movements. For example,the scene where Tina, Mookie's Latina Girlfriend, is moving rapidly in a manner that is meant to be construed as dancing and working out, but is cut together with equally rapid pace gives the entire sequence an abrasive sensibility.
Through dialect, Lee addresses the more apparently and less internal racial conflict. Although the ensemble consists of varying personalities, all take part in the ending riot in some way despite the fact that their anger did not exhibit itself in a flamboyant manner in previous scenes. The dialectical montage consists of varying and diverse members of the neighborhood verbalizing their frustrations and prejudice through soliloquy. The is the most blatant example of the underlying racial tension in the small, crowded neighborhood.
The purpose of the dialectical montage was to expose the unspoken hatred and frustrations between the diverse ethnicity in America. Through this, Lee intends to start a dialogue perhaps hoping to diffuse the frustrations withheld for fear of stirring up a controversy.
Liz Leighton
Kate Balsley
In Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing he seeks to achieve a subtle commentary on racism. He does this not through overt commentary, but through the way the characters interact with each other and the way the film is shot and edited. The form of the film contributes to it's themes. The "hot" lighting is indicative not only of the temperature, but of the rising racial tensions throughout. There is cooler lighting, however, when Mookie is alone with his girlfriend in calmer times. This represents the tension between people, but there is also representations of self struggle in the dancing/fighting scene with Tina. It symbolizes everyone's struggle with self hate and self love through shot juxtaposition. The line is sometimes blurred between the two, which is the major theme of the film.
ReplyDeleteThe content of the film further shows the cautious balance between love and hate. Radio Raheem wears two four-finger rings reading "Love" and "Hate". He further embodies this through his constant playing of "Fight the Power" while remaining stoic and never becoming violent. Many of the characters have their own struggles with this balance, including Sal who is proud of his Italian heritage but gets in trouble in the largely black neighborhood through the content of his wall of fame not containing any black people. He is definitely prejudiced, but it serves to show that there is a certain level of prejudice within all of us, but when the perspective is changed the differences become more evident.
Spike Lee's reason for using the dialectical conflict was to show the balance that we have between love and hate not only as a society, but within ourselves.
To bring the viewer to a new level of consciousness, Spike Lee creates dialectical conflicts on the level of form. In the opening sequence, “angry male voices urging violence in response to racism are counterpointed by the image of a petite female performing a dance.” This juxtaposition displays that racial tension resides within all types of people - no matter their size, widening the viewer’s perspective for what is about to develop. Lee also utilizes warm and cool colors to emphasize the “…clash of opposites…” within scenes. This technique draws your attention to varying opinions throughout the film.
ReplyDeleteThrough “clashes between characters and conflicts within individual characters,” Lee creates dialectical conflict on the level of content. Mookie remains consistently supportive of Sal, but when the tension finally erupts, Mookie snaps and displays his true feelings. This realization forces the audience to reevaluate the previous occurrences, causing them to pay more attention. Also, Sal is used to show the varying degrees of racism. “He is affectionate and exploitative, tolerant and racist, a nurturer and a (symbolic) murderer.” At first we see him as a nice guy, but then his frustrations get the best of him. These shifts in relationships and personalities emphasize the tension and turmoil.
According to Fabe, utilizing dialectical montage helps Lee to achieve a greater sense of awareness for his audience. Through constant clashes and conflicts, the viewer is confronted with alternative viewpoints, “…[liberating them] from fixed stereotypical images.”
Evan Jones
Kate Balsley
Director Spike Lee creates dialectical conflict in Do the Right Thing by manipulating the film’s form. In the opening sequence we see the character of Tina (played by Rosie Perez) dancing. Lee formed this sequence using contrasting images, sound, and movement. Contrasting long shots and close-ups of the woman dancing in an aggressive fighting style coupled with male voices create “optical jolts” (196). These obvious formal distinctions lead into the theme of difference in the film. Another contrast in form is the hot colors on the usually dim palate of inner-city streets. These bright reds, oranges and yellows signify the life and vitality of the neighborhood and the heightened emotions of its inhabitants.
ReplyDeleteLee also creates contrast in the content of the film, especially in the characters of Mookie and Sal. For most of the movie, Mookie serves as a peace-keeper in Sal’s pizzeria between the Italian owners and the black customers. He delegates for Sal and keeps the peace in order to keep the business running and his job safe. This initial characterization of Mookie is suddenly flipped when Mookie is the one to instigate the destruction of Sal’s pizzeria and subsequently the race riot. Mookie is the last character expected to initiate violence between the races and jolts the viewer into contemplating why he decided to switch sides. Sid’s character himself is a contradiction. While he shows obvious affection for Mookie and lets his laziness go unpunished, he is blatantly racist. Lee never portrays him as an explicit villain, giving him some redeeming qualities. As Marilyn Fabe puts it, Sal is both “affectionate and exploitative, tolerant and racist, nurturer and (symbolic) murderer.” (202) Through Sal, Lee shows us that even characters that oppress others are not always without some merit.
In the Film, "Do The Right Thing", Spike Lee utilizes the dialectical methods of Sergei Eisenstein, creating a “cinema that involves a constant juxtaposition or clash of opposites” (Fabe 79). Through expressive use of form, Lee aims to create awareness of racism in American society. The opening scene includes angry male voices urge violence in response to racism while a petite female performs a dance. Not only is the soundtrack clashing with the image, but also Lee cuts the sequence in a way similar to Eisenstein’s use of montage by creating optical shocks. Lee cuts between long shots of the woman dancing to extreme close-ups of her face and body. Another way in which Lee creates dialectical conflict on the level of form is through the use of color filters. Through use of a red filter on a black-and-white background in which the girl is dancing in front of, a sinister vibe exhibits the scene. In a subsequent shot, blue filters are used to give off a cooler feeling than the previous shot. By creating a conflict of colors within the same scene, Lee employs a technique similar to Eisenstein’s intraframe optical conflict. Already, Lee is setting up the audience with a film structured by a clash of opposites through form.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of content, Lee brings his viewers to a heightened understanding of the racial tensions that explode into violence. Throughout the film, there are clashes between characters and conflicts within individual characters. The central clash, Mookie and Sal, is depicted as both a justified act of violence as well as an act of betrayal. Also, by repeating words such as “Love” and “Hate” and “Fight the Power” throughout certain scenes, Lee addresses an apparent racial conflict and unspoken tension through character’s conflicts. With this, Lee encourages his viewers to confront their own stereotypes and prejudices.
Kate Balsley
Emily Downes
In "Do the Right Thing" Spike Lee uses form a few different ways in order to bring the audience to a better understanding of the characters in the film. Marilyn Fabe cites a few examples of this in her essay. One example being the camera angles used when Da Mayor and Mother Sister are conversing. Da Mayor is shown from Mother Sister's perspective through her apartment window. From this high angle Da Mayor looks deflated and desperate. This high angle is contrasted with shots of Mother Sister form the perspective of Da Mayor. The angle shows Mother Sister's standing in the neighborhood and how she is looked up to by Da Mayor. Another example of how form is used in "Do the Right Thing" is how Spike Lee photographs Radio Raheem. He is shot from extreme low angles in order to make Raheem appear like a giant bully. The shots are usually skewed which causes a viewer to be on edge, not knowing what this volatile character may do. The dutch angles contrast with the other shots of the film so the audience has to take notice.
ReplyDeleteSpike Lee also uses the content of this film as a way providing conflict. Fabe cites the opening sequence of the movie as a source for the conflict of content. In this sequence Rosie Perez, Mookie's girlfriend in the film, is dancing against different backdrops. In one shot Perez will be dancing, in the next she is fighting. The dance resembles our own feelings and how sudden, and drastic they can change. The relationship and conflict between loving and hating is a theme through out the movie. Another theme that is introduced in the opening credits is that of sex verses aggression. In the dance, Perez goes from sexy actions and looks, to mean and combative actions. The choice between these two expressions is visited later in the film when Mookie ices of his girlfriend in the intense heat instead of fighting with her.
What Spike Lee is doing by using dialectal montage in "Do the Right Thing" is keeping the viewers on there feet, while providing knowledge into the story. The viewer reacts this way subconsciously because the opposition implied by two adjoining shots is done subtly. Lee wants us to feel as though the tensions between the characters could erupt at any moment. Lee uses this technique to cause the viewer to look how racial and social tensions affect their own lives.
Kate Balsley
Mark O'Neill
In a film that revolves around opposite forces and how they interact with each other when forced to collide, Spike Lee creatively fills our minds with subtle hints of this concept. Form the very start of the picture Lee creates a level of dialectical conflict by manipulating the form in a favorable way. The first scene we see is of a girl dancing to the song “Fight The Power” by Public Enemy. Chuck D, who has a very strong and masculine voice, raps the lyrics. Alongside this song we see Rosie Perez, a soft, feministic character, dancing to the music. In this same scene Lee manages to provide even more dialectical conflict by highlighting the shots in either blue or red, sometimes both. These colors are also opposites and work hand in hand with the male/female contrast we are already being fed.
ReplyDeleteIn term of providing a dialectical conflict in the content of this movie, Lee does a very admirable job. We are once again confronted with this in the opening sequence. As the female character dances on screen, her movements alternate between sexuality and aggression. Further down in the film, Lee expands the conflict by having his peaceful character (Mookie) start the riot at the end. Both of these examples are opposite within themselves and help strengthen the underlying notion of racial conflict the entire movie is built upon.
By using these dialectical montages through this film, Spike Lee successfully paints a tangible portrait of the racial issues our country (and our planet) face on a day-to-day basis and, more importantly, how they are some of the most destructive forces on Earth. Though he does not force or even ask us to take action, he reveals how important that option is to our future’s future.
Garrett Hopkins
Kate Balsley
Form:
ReplyDeleteAn example of Lee creating dialectical conflict in his film "Do the right thing" can be found in the opening scene. Lee depicts a young, petite, black female dancing gracefully, but in contrast the soundtrack is playing Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", a very aggressive and loud rap song urging people to fight against racism. This may be a parallel to the young woman's daily battle against racism. Another example of dialectical conflict in Spikes Lee's film is his use of red and blue color filters. The color temperatures conflict. The red is warm and may conjure up feelings of violence or blood, and the blue is cool and peaceful. In some scenes Lee will mix the two hues to create tension.
Content:
There are dialectical conflicts in the content of the film as well as the production (form). One very real contrast is in the personality differences between the characters in the film. One example of this is the characters Nookie and Buggin Out. Nookie is the calmer of the two; instead of started conflicts he generally resolves them. Buggin Out on the other hand has a temper, complains about everything, and starts conflict. In one scene Nookie actually banishes Buggin Out from the pizza place because he starts a fight with Sal the owner. The biggest conflict in "Do The Right Thing" is of course the race conflict that exists between the blacks and whites. The whites believe they are somehow superior to blacks. As Buggin Out illustrated in the argument with Sal, the blacks just want to be excepted. They want "brothers on the wall".
Through dialectical montage Lee stirs emotion in his viewers to inspire change.
Chris Brehmer
ReplyDeleteIn Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”, we first see dialectical conflict in the opening scene. Lee uses similar methods here as Sergei Eisenstein to create a shocking twist. He does this by carefully choosing a sound track which clashes with what is seen on the screen. Lee couldn’t have done this any better, by using a confrontational song from an old school rap group. As “Fight the Power” is heard, we see the image of Rosie Perez performing a dance instead of the predictable image of a tense urban scene. However, the dance itself has its own clash from choreographed to look like a fight. In this scene, Lee uses a similar form from Eisenstein’s use of montage to create optical shocks. Mainly, because the choreography includes multiple shots of Perez punching her fists directly at the audience.
Another conflict that is created is with the use of colored filters. A red filter is used to create a sinister image that establishes a relationship with heat and blood. The use of warm red filters illuminates the background in one shot, and contrasts with cool blue filters in another shot. Sometimes, red and blue filters are mixed to create a conflict of colors with hot and cold tones.
One example of dialectical content that we see takes place throughout the film with the tension between Mookie and Sal. Until the last moments in the film, Mookie takes care of Sal’s Pizzeria, and protects it from any violence. Mookie works as a delivery driver, but also smooths over any conflict when moments of racial tension occur between Sal and his customers. A big shock occurs in the end when Mookie throw’s a garbage can through the pizzeria window. Mainly, because why would this calm character instigate a form of violence which ultimately leads to a riot?
Another example of dialectical content that we see between these characters, is how Lee portrays Sal as a racist. Not only does he pay Mookie low wages, but he never acknowledges him for the important role he plays with help keeping his African-American customers.
I think Lee uses forms of dialectical montage to create a better understanding and a better awareness to racism in American society and the danger it poses for everyone.
This set of blogs is a tremendous improvement over the last set. Great job!
ReplyDeleteIn spike lee's movie, Do the right Thing, we all see dialectical conflict in the film. The expressive form of use is when lee spots out racism in the neighborhood and as of just Americans. The opening scene when Tina, Mookie Girlfriend is dancing, and working out but it was created to be cut together. The other formal dialectical conflict is the color of his film and the good effects that attends to be a high quality contrast image. Later on in the film, lee showed the character Mookie start a mad riot toward the end. It has been different racial conflicts through the whole movie. The dialectical montages i used through the film, lee made a great success to have a good outlook of the racial issue in american and how mad the world can be on earth. Lee attends to show hope in being happy and sad within each of us as a person and American.
ReplyDeleteTony Bro