Visual Literacy

After reading the Foreword by Martin Scorsese in Stephen Apron’s Age of Image, Scorsese made some really powerful statements that made me look at Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing in a different way. Scorsese talks about how every element in a film is “counted” and more importantly how filmmakers are storytellers. Films are meant to be “read and attentively and lovingly returned to and studied.” This is exactly what Spike Lee presented to his audience. He tells us a story that deals with racial tension through music and colors. Then, at the very end, two quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X appear. Both historical civil rights leaders with two different points of view. I felt that Lee was asking us to think about which point of view way was right or wrong, just like how when reading books they put your mind to the test. Sometime people tend to just watch movies and once they are over they don’t think about them. Scorsese was absolutely right, movies are definitely meant to be studied to unfold deeper meanings and this is exactly what I did after watching Do the Right Thing. 

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