Category: The Criterion Collection

A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­ri­on Col­lec­tion Spine #97: Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing.

It might be a bit reduc­tive to com­pare Spike Lee and Jane Cam­pi­on [An Angel at My Table] in terms of minor­i­ty film­mak­ing, but it is inter­est­ing to see how their films exert them­selves in that sort of space. I think they can be called “minor­i­ty films” because the direc­tors’ engage­ment and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion with their minor­i­ty sta­tus informs and directs what takes place on the screen.

I think Spike Lee is ulti­mate­ly more suc­cess­ful at this. Do The Right Thing is still effec­tive and con­tem­po­rary because noth­ing in the film is con­tained; the expe­ri­ence of watch­ing the film, and the action itself are just as messy as real life, while still pre­sent­ed in Lee’s unique sub­jec­tiv­i­ty. Because of this, any per­son who watch­es Do The Right Thing has a point of access that is not alien­at­ing.

Vio­lence as a way of achiev­ing racial jus­tice is both imprac­ti­cal and immoral. It is imprac­ti­cal because it is a descend­ing spi­ral end­ing in destruc­tion for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves every­body blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humil­i­ate the oppo­nent rather than win his under­stand­ing; it seeks to anni­hi­late rather than to con­vert. Vio­lence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a com­mu­ni­ty and makes broth­er­hood impos­si­ble. It leaves soci­ety in mono­logue rather than dia­logue. Vio­lence ends by defeat­ing itself. It cre­ates bit­ter­ness in the sur­vivors and bru­tal­i­ty in the destroy­ers.

-Dr. Mar­tin Luther King, Jr.

They key point in the pre­vi­ous quote, as it seems to me, is: “it seeks to humil­i­ate the oppo­nent rather than win his under­stand­ing.” By pro­vid­ing such a var­ied and non-judg­men­tal set­ting, Spike Lee enables King, Jr.‘s words a chance to take effect. Where­as, in my expe­ri­ence of Cam­pi­on’s films, points of access for under­stand­ing are much more dif­fi­cult to dis­cern due to her focus on a sin­gle pro­tag­o­nist’s sub­jec­tiv­i­ty. In the Cut is a per­fect exam­ple of this, but it is also present in Angel at My Table and to a less­er extent in The Piano.

Bam­boo­zled [if only I could find my Film The­o­ry paper on it] is anoth­er Spike Lee Joint where mul­ti­ple per­spec­tives mesh togeth­er into a real-world mess of authen­tic­i­ty and sub­jec­tiv­i­ty. It adds anoth­er facet to the milieu of Do The Right Thing. Every­one in Do The Right Thing is authen­tic, but in Bam­boo­zled the char­ac­ters have to con­front the con­se­quences of soul-sell­ing and being con­sid­ered a race trai­tor. I like Bam­boo­zled more than Do The Right Thing, even if it is a less per­fect and more trou­bling film.

I always seem to get to pro­duc­tion val­ues at the end. Do The Right Thing is a per­fect film in this regard. Col­ors and film stock make the spec­ta­tor feel the Bed-Stuy sum­mer heat, increas­ing­ly preva­lent dutch angles rein­force the pre­car­i­ous fire watch atmos­phere, and when the con­fronta­tion final­ly comes it is still sur­pris­ing how hot the con­fla­gra­tion gets. The after­math is just as sur­pris­ing. While Spike Lee is delib­er­ate­ly not spe­cif­ic with a Jer­ry Springer “Final Thought” the whole con­struc­tion of the film is such that it encour­ages any­one with two neu­rons to rub togeth­er to think about what it means to do the right thing.

• Cri­te­ri­on Essay by Roger Ebert
• Screen­play
• Spike Lee Inter­view
• Salon arti­cle on the effects of Pub­lic Ene­my’s Fight the Pow­er. [Uncut and Uncen­sored YouTube music video]
• YouTube clip