I read an article that Rolling Stone published about the 25th anniversary of Do The Right Thing, and in it Spike Lee talks about how he wanted the audience to also feel the heat, both from the weather and the tension between the characters. He said “I wanted people to be sweating from watching this film, even though they might be seeing it in air conditioning … We painted that red wall. In many shots, our great cameraman Ernest Dickerson would put a butane lighter underneath the lens.” In almost every shot there is somebody sweating, fanning themselves, and complaining about how hot it is. The physical heat also relates to the heat between each racial group living in that part of the city, because as it gets hotter, the tension also starts to escalate.

Here is the interview by Rolling Stone if anyone is interested in reading it:

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/fight-the-power-spike-lee-on-do-the-right-thing-20140620#ixzz3QoVn7YnD

One question I couldn’t help but ask while watching the final scenes of Do the Right Thing was how could have the entire conflict that resulted in Sal’s pizzeria being burnt to the ground been avoided? It seems to me that the arrogance of both Sal, his boys, and his customers lead both parties to be blinded by their emotions and act in a brutal manner. By arrogance I mean both parties thinking that their actions are never in the wrong, they never take a minute to use a mellow tone and think twice about what might happen if a compromise was in the picture. Is that another message Spike Lee tries to convey to us? It seems to me as if he tries to portray the characters as not having having that ability to take a deep breath and step back, like Sal and Mooky do at the end of the movie after the fire.  If so, maybe that is a positive way to resolve these conflicts before they start.

One scene which we did not bring up yesterday was the opening scene.  In the opening scene there was a woman dancing to the song “Fight The Power” by Public Enemy.  One thing I noticed was though we couldn’t directly tell what color skin both of the woman had, it appeared as if in one of the scenes the woman’s skin tone was lighter than the other.  When her skin appeared lighter, she was wearing an elegant red dress dancing in front of a nice brownstone apartment, while the woman who appeared to have darker skin was dancing in front of a wall with graffiti on it, while wearing boxing clothes, possibly implying that she was fighting the power.  Also, the boxing gloves and attire could symbolize the fighting and disagreement between the two races.

The film Do the Right Thing [Lee, 1989] presents a day in the life of the inhabitants of a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York in 1989. The racially charged atmosphere of the town is evident from the start of the plot, with tensions rapidly increasing as disputes between different racial groups emerge. The African American, White, Asian and Hispanic individuals in the town carry out their daily lives while harboring resentment for the other races they live among. This resentment takes the form of racial stereotyping, aggravated criticism and complaints, and violent confrontation. One common theme in Do the Right Thing is the juxtaposition of love and hate that exists among individuals in the neighborhood.

Early on, there is evidence of racial tension between Blacks and Whites when local teenagers spray water onto an angry white man’s antique car. The white man’s anger and aggression appear to be exacerbated by the fact that the teens were black. In another instance, three older African American men are complaining about the emergence of Asian-run stores in “their” town. There is animosity over the fact that the Asians had only been in the neighborhood one year before opening a successful business of their own. The men appear to resent the fact that they are sitting on the street without jobs while another group is succeeding at making a living. We also see Mookie’s friend, Buggin’ Out, become angry that there are no pictures of African Americans hanging on the wall of Sal’s Pizza restaurant. Buggin’ Out attempts to boycott Sal’s Pizzeria, citing racism as his reasoning. Sal also runs into a conflict with Radio Rahim, when Rahim’s boisterous mannerisms and loud rap music disturb the atmosphere of Sal’s restaurant.

There are many more examples of racial tension, but these instances show that there is hostility and racism between all of the different racial groups in the neighborhood. There seems to be a desire to blame one’s own problems on  other races, using stereotypes to justify disapproval and hate. It also appears that these tensions are becoming more volatile – the atypically hot weather acting as a metaphor for the rapidly boiling aggression in the town.

Contrastingly, in light of all these acts of conflict, there is an undeniable presence of compassion, tolerance, and humanity in the neighborhood. One character, Da Mayor, is a friendly and generally well-meaning old man, who struggles with alcoholism. He makes multiple attempts to gain the approval of Mother Sister by complimenting her, acting courteous and polite, and even buying her roses. However, Mother Sister dislikes Da Mayor, as he reminds her of her ex-husband. She is unable to compartmentalize her prejudices to view Da Mayor impartially as an individual. Perhaps this is symbolic of the racial tensions that exist between the other residents of the neighborhood and the peoples’ tendency to judge and blame. Despite Mother Sister’s consistently mean attitude toward Da Mayor, he remains polite and continues to seek her approval, declaring that she will love him one day, even if they are both dead. Da Mayor also rescues a young boy from being hit by a car when he bravely dives to knock the boy out of the way, risking his own life in the process. Though the mother of the boy is appreciative that her son is safe, Da Mayor’s heroic act seems to go mostly unnoticed. This may frame the idea that even though there are many instances of compassion in the neighborhood, acts of love are eclipsed by the overwhelming presence of hate and judgment. Another instance of this battle between love and hate can be seen in Mookie’s relationship with Tina. Mookie’s love for Tina is undeniable; there are several deeply passionate scenes between the two that prove this. However, Tina is consistently critical of Mookie, claiming that he doesn’t love her or their son and that he often doesn’t show up to see her for over a week. Once again, there is a clear disparity and duality between acts of love and acts of hate, with the lines often becoming blurred.

This theme of the battle between love and hate reoccurs throughout Do the Right Thing and through the film’s climax and resolution. One paramount scene between Radio Rahim and Mookie encapsulates these ideas. Radio Rahim shows Mookie his two new rings which read “love” and “hate”. Rahim explains how there is a conflict between love and hate and “good and evil…one hand is always fighting the other.” He concludes by telling Mookie that he loves him, a touching gesture for a man with such a rough persona.

At the end of the film, Radio Rahim is tragically choked to death by police officers who are attempting to end a riot outside Sal’s Pizza. Radio Rahim’s death is an instance where hate triumphs over love. One could interpret Rahim’s death as hate winning this everlasting conflict with love. However, as the film concludes, we see life in the neighborhood returning to normal as teens play basketball in the street near the scene of the riot. Earlier in the film, Rahim acted out a fight between the two forces of love and hate, explaining how even when it seems like hate is winning the battle, love can come around and knock out hate. Perhaps Rahim’s death is just a temporary setback in this everlasting conflict.

Here’s a neat little blog about Jackson’s character, Señor Love Daddy. The point about the various hats that Love Daddy wears is something I simply didn’t notice on my first watch – really interesting to see how they represent all the personas that Love Daddy takes on throughout the film.

Hey everyone, I know that this is a departure from Children of Men, but, especially in light of the Superbowl, I thought that it would be interesting to talk about commercials and their roles in storytelling.

My dad and I were talking about the Superbowl commercials last night (he wasn’t that huge a fan of this year’s selection), and he asked me whether I think that movies or commercials are more effective at telling a story.

There’s obviously a lot of variables that go into that answer, and honestly, I don’t know if there even is one. I love to watch movies because there is something astounding in the amount of work that it takes to make a feature length film, but not all movies are huge successes or feel satisfying after we watch them. The same goes  with commercials. Sometimes, a good commercial can tell a story more hilarious or heartfelt  in 30 seconds than a film tells in 90 minutes, but other times, commercials can have so much build up, then fall flat (some can be just plain bizarre).

What do you think? Can 30 second commercials be as, or more, effective in telling narratives or delivering messages than feature length films? Does the amount of work it takes to make a commercial vs. a film factor into it? Are they even comparable or are they in a league of their own?

Here’s the link to the Superbowl XLIX commercials from this year, in case some of you didn’t get the chance to see them or wanted to check them out again:

http://www.superbowlcommercial2015.com

Throughout the entire film there really is a lack of emotion being shown by Theo from the death of his loved ones to the very end. I believe Clive Owen portrays his character in this way to really emphasize the fact that there is really a lack of hope in the world. Even when Theo is given the responsibility of transporting Key across the most dangerous terrains he consistently shows his lack of emotion. Perhaps this could be seen as character development or just poor character portrayal, that decision is soley up to the viewer. Or it could be that the director wanted it this way and wanted him to resemble the lost cause of the world.

This might be a little far-fetched, but maybe the infertility could be somewhat, if at all, similar to the 10 plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians due to the Pharoah’s mistreatment of the Israelites. Maybe there is a higher power telling the people of the world that if we cannot treat each other in a certain manner, whether that be with respect, decency, kindness, or something else altogether, then we do not deserve to have more children. The plagues inflicted on the Israelites were the Pharaoh’s punishment. I might be forcing connections here, but I viewed several similarities between the 10 plagues and some of the events in Children of Men. The 10 biblical plagues are: water turning into blood, hordes of frogs, a lice epidemic, wild animals destroying livestock and crops, diseased livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and finally the death of the firstborn. Clearly, not all of these happened in Children of Men, but I do however see some similarities. Although there was no blood in the water, in the few shots of the water we did see, for example when the pipes were letting out the liquid or fluid on the side of the road, the “water” was clearly not potable. It might have actually been contaminated with blood (from the piles of dead cows in the nearby area). Which brings me to my next comparison. Diseased livestock was the fifth plague. Periodically throughout the film, I noticed various piles of burning livestock animals. This could be symbolic of the diseased livestock mentioned in the plague. The plague exterminated the Egyptian livestock. It seemed like the majority, if not all of the livestock, of the U.K. had been exterminated as well. The ninth plague was three days of total darkness. Clearly, there was night and day throughout the movie, but the overarching theme of the movie, or the main color scheme seemed to be dark or gloomy. I related this to the plague of darkness. I would also go so far as to equate depression with darkness. There were definitely feelings of depression, melancholy, and hopelessness. There is even a drug in the film that helps people commit suicide due to the dire situation that is their world. It seemed as if darkness and gloominess are both literal and metaphorical themes throughout the movie. And finally, the tenth plague was the death of the firstborn. This does not happen in Children of Men. In the beginning of the movie, Diego Ricardo, the world’s youngest person, died. His death was very significant because he was the last born of the entire world. So it is a bit backwards, but I think the sentiment is still there. Also, in Children of Men, there is no opportunity for a firstborn to actually be born. “All-borns” are killed before even having the opportunity to exist.

One of the most impressive aspects about this movie, in my opinion, was how adamantly insistent Cuaron was about maintaining realism throughout the film. The most obvious example of this was his decision to use multiple long shots, or long takes, throughout the film. Minimizing the amount of editing to be done made me feel as if I were watching everything firsthand, standing right behind Theo. The other long shot that stood out to me was towards the end of the film when Theo was searching for Key in the deserted building. The long shot with the camera following him down the hallway once again puts the viewer right in the action with the characters. This long shot made me feel as if I myself was looking for Kee.

I also noticed another example of his dedication to realism when we were watching the interview with him during class. When he was discussing filming the car scene in particular, he mentioned that the use of green screens had been suggested. HIs response really stood out to me. Cuaron said that he did not want to use green screens because he wanted the natural light and natural shadows of the trees to be portrayed in his film.

Another biblical reference that didn’t hit me until later was Theos name. Theo means God in Greek. This portrays Theo’s “God-like” figure and truly shows that the writer wanted the audience to portray Theo as a God.