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?
Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing utilizes juxtaposition and dialectal montage in order to bring the viewer to a new level of consciousness. First, Lee’s film utilizes these tactics in its form. Many shots during the film are abruptly cut together extreme shots. For example, extreme close-up shots of Rosie Perez’s body dancing are cut with extreme long shots of her full body. Next, contrasting images are created with the use of filters. Different filters such as warm and cold colors (red and blue) create contrasting views. Furthermore, when the filters are used at the same time in the film, it symbolizes a more prominent conflict. Secondly, Do the Right Thing uses juxtaposition and dialectal montage in its content. Multiple contrasting views are illustrated in the film (i.e dancing and fighting and sex and aggression). In Rosie Perez’s dance,Her movements proved to be conflicting. Sometimes she looks as though she is fighting and other shots portray her as aerobically dancing. In one scene, she may be dancing in a mini dress while the next she is shadow boxing in fighting attire. Next, some character’s actions can be viewed as contradicting. For example, Sal caters to mainly African-American clientele; however, refuses to hang pictures of African-American heroes. Furthermore, the character Mookie proves to be the mediator between the white staff and black customers, but is ultimately the one who initiates the rebellion. Finally, according to Fabe, Lee hoped to achieve a greater emotional power by using a great amount of contrast. Similar to the works of Einstein, Spike Lee aimed to avoid the realism approach and experiment with “conflict between matter and its spatial nature” as a way of trying to force a certain reaction or emotion from the audience.
ReplyDeleteOlivia Gilbert 803
In Spike Lee's, Do the Right Thing, uses many contrasting shots to bring the viewer to a new level of consciousness. In the very opening sequence, a woman is dancing to “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy. The music alone contrasts the woman in that the song is a group of angry men shouting about violence against racism whereas she is beautiful girl dancing to this disruptive piece of music. This scene is representative of the young black youth of the time in that they were creative(the dancing) and destructive(the music). Even her dancing is a contrast between itself. She is dancing sexually and then fighting, along with long shots and then extreme close-ups. This scene alone evokes a very strong contrast to get the viewer thinking. Another way that Do the Right Thing shows contrast through form is in its use of spatial distortions using extreme camera angles. Many shots are taken in which the camera is at some sort extreme angle(Extreme high/low angles). These various shots affect the mood greatly and allow one character to look large and powerful and another character small and meak, which allows for great contrast.
ReplyDeleteLee also creates contrast in the content of his piece Do the Right Thing throughout the entire piece. One example is that Sal serves to a mostly African-American community and yet he only has pictures of Italian-American Celbrities. This shows contrast because of the people he looks up to and displays are not necessarily the people he serves and caters to. Another image of contrast in content is that most of the characters in the film don’t see Buggin’ Out’s demand as a serious issue it causes the fight to break out in the end of the film. This shows contrast in that no one expects anything to be made out of this silly demand and yet it breaks out into a battle in which a man is killed.
Lee and Einstein’s goal in using dialectical montage was to evoke strong emotions by using contrasting shots and content; not necessarily realism. They accomplished this which helped people think on a much deeper level.
Rob Niesen
ReplyDeleteBlog response #2:
One dialectical form that Lee utilizes in his film Do the Right Thing is with the use of montage. Specifically, Fabe relates Spike Lee’s montages similar to the way Eisenstein used montage in his films. Within the montage Lee would use images that would contrast with each other to create what Fabe calls shocks. One particular example Fabe gives is that of the character Rosie Perez shadowboxing. There is one profile of her shadowboxing to the right and then a jump cut goes to her shadow boxes the left. This creates a visual collision that lends to the idea that she is fighting herself. Another dialectical from the Lee uses in his film is through the mis en scene of the neighborhood he creates. Through the journals that Lee wrote, he often had a depiction of his characters to portray strong hard working African Americans. Through the scene he wanted it clean, freshly painted to reflect this value. By doing this he aimed to break the stereotype of African Americans and their community as being poverty stricken, rape and drug filled ghettos.
Through the characters Sal and Mookie Spike Lee creates a wonderful portrait of dialectical content. Through the portrayal of these two characters Lee can bring out the racial tension that eventually blows up. Fabe particularly points out the character Sal’s shortcomings as a mediator in his pizza place and can’t deal with the black costumers in an appropriate way. There is the scene where Mookie because particularly sympathetic towards Buggin’ Out’s demands of having pictures of African Americans on the wall. Sal dismisses the notion and this little snippet of dialogue creates a microcosm of the racist tension symbolically. When the tensions reach climax and the pizza place is destroyed, there is aggressive action the dialectical content sides with the Malcom X theme that is presented visually (the picture) and textually (the quote at the end of the film). The dialectical content also takes on the approach through the non aggressive Martin Luther King approach. Bordwell and Thomson state, “some of the characters desire simply to avoid or escape this tense atmosphere-pino leaving the neighborhood, da mayor by overcoming sister’s animosity.” (p.394). Therefore, in the end when we watch the film and think about the title and two figures presented: Martin Luther King and Malcom X we are left to think of the title more as a question: what is the right thing?
Stephanie Bane
ReplyDeleteAccording to Fabe, Spike Lee uses Eisenstein’s idea of dialectical montage by using juxtaposition of contrasting shots in order to bring the viewer to a new level of consciousness. One way Lee does this on the level of form is that the “soundtrack clashes with the image.” Rosie Perez is a female dancing to violent music by angry males. The dance itself contains clash of opposites. There are times Perez dances sexually, while other times she dances with more anger, occasionally punching her fists towards the camera or “audience.” Another way Lee creates conflict on the level of form is in the beginning sequence, when there are the abrupt changes in outfits and backgrounds. Lee also uses color filters during the dance sequence that are conflicting colors, mostly reds and blues. The red is a hot tone whereas the blue is a cold tone. There were a few times where Lee used both the filters at one time, really exaggerating the “clash of opposites.” One way Lee creates conflict on the level of content is the fact that throughout the whole movie we see Mookie as the peace keeper, the “protector of Sal’s Pizzeria,” however, at the end of the movie, we find out that Mookie is the one who starts the riot, a person we didn’t see as violent. This is showing us two different sides of Mookie. Another way Lee achieves this on the level of content is that Lee portrays Sal with a “mixture of conflicting traits.” There are times where Sal is affectionate or sympathetic towards Mookie. However, there are also times in the movie when he is exploitative. For example, he pays Mookie low wages, and also, does not acknowledge the important role Mookie plays as the peace keeper. These are two conflicting traits that make it juxtaposition on the level of content. Lastly through his dialectical montage, Lee hopes to achieve more of an emotional response. Using juxtaposition, Lee makes us, the audience dig deeper to find a more complex meaning of the movie.
Giovany Vazquez
ReplyDeleteBlog Response # 2
Do The Right Thing, a Spike Lee Joint, is an excellent example of the racial tension that in many neighborhoods around the United States, is still lived everyday. The neighborhood in Brooklyn where the film takes place, there are many types of races living together, African-Americans, Italians, and even Koreans. The tension is seen right away. In this neighborhood, people obviously have different beliefs and views on life and when the different views clash, tension arises. For example, hip-hop was a big movement during the 80’s and African Americans had some of the largest influence on it, when Radio Raheem is playing the boom box very loud it makes the statement that his music is here to stay along with the low-angle close-up of his face. In contrast, pizzeria owner Sal, asks Radio to turn his boom box off. Perhaps it is the volume of the music that it is disturbing other people, but from the context, it is making a statement about how that music is obnoxious and it is not acceptable. It escalates to the breaking of Raheem’s boom box and leads to his death by the all mighty and powerful; the police(job is to maintain order). That in itself has all of the content that Fabe discussed, which is dialectical conflict. In the form of the dialect it is the neighborhood that conveys the idea that even with many different kinds of people living in the same area, they can live in harmony, even if they don’t like each other. Instead hell breaks loose and it has to due with racial tension and intolerance among race groups. It is a reality, that intolerance for other cultures, creeds, etc. create some kind of tension among people Along with that, comes the content of the dialect. Raheem has his own music preference and people are annoyed by it. It seems like everything is all right the reality of the matter is that Raheem is not accepted by who he is. That is contradictory to the neighborhood idea of all living together in harmony, even if they don’ accept their differences. Finally, when the police have Raheem in a choke-hold, it contradicts to the idea, that the police is there to not be biased and protect both sides of the spectrum. Instead, injustice is shown and the people that are supposed to protect and serve choke Raheem to death, the black guy. Fabe believes that thorough juxtaposition, Lee tries to wake a part of consciousness for the viewer, in order for the content to be interpreted at a deeper level that goes beyond our personal views on film and even life.
According to Marilyn Fabe, Spike Lee's dialectal approach was similar to Eisenstein's in that they both confronted the viewer with a constant stream of conflicting images and viewpoints. In Lee's film, "Do the Right Thing" he wanted to film it in a way that his audience would forget about their prior knowledge and see the characters for what they were supposed to be portraying on screen. Lee creates clashes ideas when he mixes love and hate in the opening dance scene of the film. He has a beautiful women dancing to a Public Enemy song while dancing in a threatening way or a sexy way. The words of the song also conflict with her subtle and sometimes innocent dance moves. Lee uses different shots to give a "chaotic or scattered" feeling, by cutting from one extreme to the other. Fabe says that Lee uses different colors and tones to create a "conflict of colors"(CR 79) Lee also creates conflict within some of the characters. The audience is surprised when Mookie, the friend/employee of Sal, destroys Sal's pizzeria towards the end of the movie. This scene and action came out of somewhere from the rather calmed Mookie. When referring to this conflict Fabe says, " It is this clash between who we expect to start the riot and who actually starts it that forces us to think." (CR 82) Lee also makes the audience's perception of Sal change. Some would see him as a tolerant nice guy and some see him as a low paying jerk to Mookie. I believe that Fabe sees Lee's goal in using his dialectal montages as a deliberate way to make the victim of the white police resemble the black bogeyman white people fear they will meet on a dark street.
ReplyDeletePosted by: Kevin Speers
@ 7:09p.m. on 11/09/09
In the film "Do the Right Thing" director Spike Lee utilizes the concept of the dialectical montage in order to present underlying ideas in the film. To do this he uses the dialectical methods of Sergei Eisenstein, creating scenes that involve constant juxtaposition of opposites. The goal of this is the creation of a new synthesis or higher consciousness in the mind of the viewer. In Fabe's essay she analyzes how dialectical form is used in the opening scene of Rosie Perez dancing. One way this is seen is in the cinematography of the scene with the abrupt changes in shot distance. The shots of Rosie jump back and forth quickly from long shots of her dancing to extreme close-ups of her face or body. This is also evident in the mise-en-scene where her costume and her background abruptly change as well from shot to shot. Lee, uses this form in order to contrast both sexual and angry images in order to express an emotional love-hate environment.
ReplyDeleteNext, Fabe discusses how Lee uses dialectical content in his film. Fabe explains that Mookie's unofficial job in the neighborhood is the middle man between the blacks and Sal. This can be seen as an example of the main conflict in the film, which is racial tension. Another way that content displays the conflict of racial tension is the way that Sal refuses to hang pictures of famous african americans in his pizzeria and when confronted about it he even gets angry.
Lee's motive for this film and the one he seeks to display through the use of dialectical montages is a simple one. According to Fabe, Lee intended this film to act as a wake up call to America to realize that between blacks and whites their still lurks an underlying mutual hatred. and that if this doesn't change then violence between the two will never end.
In Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing he uses dialectical form and content as a way for the viewers to feel more involved. Marilyn Fabe writes about it in chapter three of her book. Her examples for form are “Rozie Perez performs a dance to the pounding rhythms of public enemy”(194) Lee uses opposites in the opening credits, the anti-feminist rapper and the feminine Rosie. You can also see contrast in the back rounds of the opening scene. Fabe also states “the abrupt juxtaposition creates shock, because she seems to be fighting against herself.”(195) Lee uses this in the opening scenes with the many changes in clothing and back round color. We see an attractive woman fighting with the back ground. The distance of the shots also changed to create stark opposition. Fabe also describes Lee’s use of dialectical content. “This is not to say that Lee depicts Mookie’s relation to his white employers as conflict-free”(200) He adds in conflict between the oldest son and Mookie. Lee adds in racism as a catalyst for the story. Fabe also states, “But while Lee depicts Sal’s affection for and sympathetic treatment of Mookie, he also portrays him as exploitive and racist.”(201) Lee uses all of these things to create a montage. The montage keeps the film within the time constraint while telling the entire story.
ReplyDeleteAnthony Hunt
ReplyDeleteBlog Response #2
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?
Spike Lee uses the language of film to show his views on "waking up" and taking a stand on racism. These can be expressed through his knowledge of color and shot type, and his own personal experiences being an african american. Color always has evoked emotion in feelings, you see red and it makes you edgy, angry, you see blue and either sadness or emptiness might be conceived. How lee shows this is through hot and cold colors, and giving us a trivial incident to use them, the hottest day of the year. These colors provide us with black and white situations, that mix inherently on film. In the opening scenes, we are introduced to the main color of the film, red. We can see the big red wall in the background that gets darker and lighter from time to time, there is also a girl wearing a red dress. Then it goes to a shot of a girl in a blue dress, her color stands out from the red wall. We also see the colors black and white when the red disappears for a while. These will be the main colors through out the film. In some cases, the color red is used in reference of love or hate. Even the shots (like the colors) are extremes with close ups and low and high angled shots. Lot's of people talk about the opening credit sequence with the Rosie dancing to NWA's "fight the power" not many talk though about the Dj "Senor Love Daddy" who through shots comes off as a voice of people, reason and sets the mood for the characters that are about to unfold, he sets the time in motion with the alarm clock with an angry but moving voice, that commands us to WAKE UP and realize racism, WAKE UP and begin a new. But Rosie's dance is very moving as well, with the montage of sex and power and love and hate coming from one woman's movements to a very powerful and generation defining song, gives you a sense of getting up and doing something too. Lee also uses a trivial yet ultimately fought over crisis, something that society still rings true with today, that is both immediate and historical. It's significant that what eventually brings the conflict to a head is the seemingly unimportant absence of black faces on Aiello's wall. The film also uses moving and interesting characters, of all races to bring out the message of the film. Using Mookie as a center point. He is the one that brings the bridge between black and white close. He works a dead end job, can barley support his son, yet doesn't care really, and yet is still laid back and looked upon as a figure in the community. It's only fitting that he is the one to cast the first stone. The figure to rise up, a normal man that lives within two worlds picking the side to end segregation and hate, through means at hand. He wasn't intended for this but still rises up.
According to Fabe this was lee's wake up call to america, not just another slanted view on racism but a true cry for change. It depicts so many wrongs on both sides that its hard to even tell what all of its about. Violence can't solve the war but it can start the battle. How can we decide what the right thing is, sit to long and let it consume us just rectifies hate and rage, but act out and the same can be said to ensue. This film just opens up the discussion for us all to think about on our own time.
Catie Eller
ReplyDeleteIn Spike Lee's, “Do The Right Thing”, Lee uses variety dialectical montage to create more optical shocks. According to Marilyn Fabe, "The goal [for Lee] 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" (p. 194). Fabe discussed two levels of the dialectical montage in relation to the film. These two levels are form and content.
In the level of form, Lee used color filters to create a visual mood in the film “Do The Right Thing”. Lee used red filters to create intensity with heat and blood. In contrast he used blue filters to show hot and cold tones. For example, the film took place on the hottest day in Bedford-Stuy. The red filter shows the heat throughout the film.
The second example of form that Lee used would be camera angles. Lee often used camera angles on various characters throughout the film to give them a ceratin characteristic that symbolizes how they are represented in the film. For example, Lee used low camera angles on Radio Raheem to show how important his character is to the content of the film. Lee also used close up, wide angle whenever Radio Rabeems character was in the frame to create a presence of menace and strength.
In the next level of dialectical montage, the conflict occurs between characters or in an individual. For example, the conflict between characters would be Mookie and Sal. Mookie acted as a peacekeeper for Sal's business while Sal is trying to keep his Italian-American identity above and different from African Americans. The conflict between Mookie and Sal is shown throughout the entire film.
Another form of conflict is within a character. “In Do The Right Thing”, Sal is filled with many conflicts. He is a person with a mix of conflicts. One-way Lee shows the conflict in Sal is through his sons, Pino and Vito. Pino is the violent and racist son while Vito is the sensitive, sympathetic son. Even though these are extremely opposite from each other the viewer is able to witness Sal acting as both the nice and the bad guy at different times of the film. Throughout the movie Sal is depicted as both a racist and as a sympathetic observer.
According to Marilynn Fabe, Spike Lee draws on Sergei Eisenstein's dialectical montage in his film, Do The Right Thing, as a means to create a “new synthesis (194)” for the viewer. Fabe argues that Lee relies on constant juxtapositions through use of mis-en-scene, optical shock, and story content elements in order to afflict the viewer with a continuous conflict.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of form, dialectical conflict is evidenced through Lee’s choice of filming in Bedford-Stuyesant while incorporating “distinctly nonrealistic … art design (196).” By shooting on location, Lee attempts to preserve the authenticity of “the black ghetto” but at the same time veer away from its traditional stereotypes: “the garbage…the drug dealers…the rapists…the guns…(197).” Instead, the streets are cleaned up and vivid colors are added to building exteriors. Although partially done to maintain the “urban-desert cityscape” of the film, Lee uses the mis-en-scene to clash with preconceived notions of life in the ghetto. By doing this, the viewer is left with an awareness of a racist expectation in American society.
Lee also uses various elements of optical shock to maintain conflict. In addition to using wide angle close-ups to disfigure Radio Raheem and highlight his power and menace, (the method of using a wide angle lens with close-ups being itself pretty conflicting), Lee overlaps shots in order to give the event a “heightened expressiveness (199).” By showing the garbage can crashing through the pizzeria window twice from two different angles Lee puts emphasis on an important event of the film even though the editing disturbs the viewers’ temporal understanding of what happened. The action does not happen twice, but this visual conflict leads the viewer to understand its importance.
In terms of content, Lee incorporates the notion of seeing an issue from two valid perspectives in order to maintain dialectical conflict. When Buggin’ Out comments on there being no African-Americans on the pizzeria’s Wall of Fame, Sal lets him know that since it is his pizzeria, and he is Italian-American, logically, there are pictures of Italian-Americans on the wall. However, Buggin’ Out refutes Sal’s point, stating that “since we [African Americans] spend so much money here, we do have some say (202).” Even though both sides are right, who gets the final say? By using this example on a micro scale, Lee exposes the entire race conflict as having the same “Catch-22” qualities, and opens the viewers’ minds to a greater awareness of the conflict.
Similarly, Lee makes it impossible for the viewer to sympathize with the “protagonist” or “good-guy” simply because there is none. Although Radio Raheem is portrayed as the “ghetto thug“, he ultimately becomes the victim at the end. Likewise, even though Sal is the innocent pizzeria owner, he is considered the villain for essentially initiating the violence at the pizzeria by smashing Radio Raheem’s boom box. Lee refuses to “divide his characters into the categories of good and evil (204)” which fuels the viewer’s conflict as they cannot choose a side to accurately represent any racial mores or preconceived notions they may have.
Brian Lis
One way in which Lee creates dialectical conflict on the level of form is by using extreme high and low skewed angles in the scene featuring Da Mayor from the point of view of Mother Sister. The camera looking down on him, making him to be small, a visual example of of Mother Sisters' disapproval of Da Mayor and his drunken ways. To contrast, Mother Sister is photographed from an extreme low angle to give her a sense of being a higher power that looks down upon him in disgust.
ReplyDeleteAnother example that supports Fabe's idea is in the beginning of the film when Rosie Perez dances to "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy. For starters, the song fight the power is sung by disgruntled African-American men. Rosie Perez is a beautiful young woman who is dancing to an angry rap song. These two seemingly opposites make for an interesting introduction into this fiery hot movie. Near the end of the dance she is photographed in the right of the frame as dancing/punching the air towards the left. Immediately following the last shot she is seen on the left of the frame dancing/punching the air towards the right. These differing shots set the groundwork for what would fills Lee's entire film, and that is the idea of two or more opposites conflicting or combining in order to provoke a thoughtful response.
There is a saturation of dialectical content in the film as there are many "clashes between characters and conflicts within individual characters."(Fabe, p.200).
One example of dialectical content is the presence of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X in the film. There are several times throughout the film where a picture of the two of them shaking hands is shown, and there is also a quote by both of them before the credits roll. Martin Luther King Jr. promoted non-violent ways of protest, and Malcom X approved violence in some instances, in the film this is made clear.
A second example of dialectical content is the scene in which the intimidating and powerful Radio Raheem, is killed. Lee portrayed Radio Raheem as tough "bully" of the community being taken down by the white policemen. Even the most powerful African-American man was deemed helpless in the hands of his oppressors, the white policemen. When the two powers collided, the whites took control and killed out of fear.
There is a plethora of contrasts and ideas in the film that support Fabe's idea of dialectal cinematography. There is so much thought provoking material spun throughout the film that it serves its purpose of trying to evoke new ways of thinking about current hot button issues, especially race issues, while remembering the old ways. The film never tells you what the right thing is, it only gives the viewer options or paths of thought that could bring about many different results. That was exactly the way Lee intended the film to be. He succeeded in creating a work of art that causes the viewer to climb to a higher level of consciousness.
Katherine Going
ReplyDeleteSergei Eisenstein developed the dialectical montage in the 1920’s; through the juxtaposition of contrasting shots this style of montage is seemingly able to bring the viewer to a “new level of consciousness” – to induce heightened awareness or comprehension of themes. Spike Lee used this type of montage in this film, Do the Right Thing; Lee uses both form and content to establish dialectical conflict in this thematically dense picture. One of the more basic was in which Lee establishes conflict through form is in his juxtaposition of structurally different shots; for example, the abrupt cuts between long shots and extreme close-ups during Rosie Perez’s dance routine have a jarring effect. The use of contrasting color filters, and jump cuts to different costumes and backgrounds during this sequence also propagated the theme of conflict in this film. Another way which Lee uses form to present a dialectical conflict is in the jump cut from the shot of Perez shadowboxing on screen right to that of her shadowboxing on screen left. This rapid juxtaposition creates a shock, as it defies the viewer’s visual expectations, and also foreshadows the theme of self-conflict in the film. Regarding content, Lee creates dialectic conflict by presenting the Bedford-Stuy ghetto as a clean and brightly colored neighborhood. This scenic representation challenged the viewer’s ideas of the stereotypical trash-filled ghetto by presenting them with it’s opposite. Content further discusses conflict within this film via the photograph of Martin Luther King and Malcom X together; the juxtaposition of two men who worked towards the same goal, but through very different means begs a deeper analysis on the part of the viewer. What does it mean to have these men of a common interest, but very different methods shaking hands? – broader themes are now opened to the viewer. According to Fabe, Lee is using this dialectical montage 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.” Certainly, Lee achieved this in Do the Right Thing through the use of contrasting juxtapositions, both in form and in content.