Do The Right Thing

   The film Do The Right Thing, created by Spike Lee was a very complex piece of work. The film contains characters you may see every day and maybe even be able to connect them to some of your friends such as Radio Raheem, your music lover, Buggin' Out, your drama bum, Vito, your bully, Smiley, your handicap and Mookie, your working class hero. Though these characters seem like your regular run of the mill type charters, Spike Less uses them in such a way to which these characters and their actions are used to create meaning or prove a central point. One of the biggest themes Lee stressed in this film is the idea of race and racism in America.

    As seen in the film, a large portion of community is African American with the exception of an Asian couple, a group of Hispanics and the proud owner of Sal's Famous Pizzeria and his two sons. For the most part, everyone gets along pretty well... until Buggin' Out comes in for a slice of pizza and makes an observation. He notices that on Sal's "Wall of Fame", everyone is Italian. He makes a scene about it, asking Sal to "put some brothers up on the wall" but Sal refuses and tells Mookie to take care of him "brother." His son Vito is 100% with his father in saying that Sal should have beat him with the bat behind the counter while his other son Pino doesn't agree with his father's actions or his brother's reaction which causes conflict between the two brothers. Though Buggin' Out could have presented himself in a better manner, his point was valid. There are many African American men and women that contributed to some of the biggest parts of American history... so why was it such a hassle to place their pictures on the wall? Sal makes a comment that " It's my wall and I"ll put what I want on it." Of that's the case, Sal obviously didn't want any African Americans on his wall and his son Vito agreed which points out that they are both racist and the community sees it as well, as we can see from Buggin' Out's boycott idea.

      Let's look at Radio Raheem. The man who barely spoke in the beginning, but didn't really have to, for his radio was his voice. Though he seemed big and tough and scary, Radio was a nice guy. As stated in Roger Ebert's article, "He wears steel knuckles that spell out "Love" and "Hate" ...although we know he is harmless." Raheem, hence his name, never went anywhere without his radio that blasted but one song, " Fight The Power" by Public Enemy. That entire song in of itself, if you look at some of the lyrics such as "Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me" and "Mother fuck him and John Wayne,Cause I'm Black and I'm proud" has messages of extreme racism that was being seen in the American population at the time it was written. Then we have the entire concept of Radio's radio.

    When Sal smashes Radio Raheem's radio, to me I found it symbolic. That radio was Raheem's voice. It breaking symbolized how Sal ( The white American man) took away the voice and freedom of Raheem ( the African American slave.) Another thing to look at is the police who killed Radio Raheem.  They were both white. So, Raheem died and Buggin' Out got sent to prison for standing up for themselves and not taking Sal's racism lightly. I find it sad because this entire situation could have been avoided if Sal just put a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. up on his Wall Of Fame and asked Raheem if he would please lower his music. Racism just went too far again.... but will it ever stop?       

Boyz N The Hood

    If you lived in a neighborhood where everyday, people died around you at the hands of the barrel of a gun, where to hear a gun shot while laying in bed at night was a normality, how would you react? Would you be frightened? If you were frightened, would you tell someone you were frightened at the risk of being called names or even looked down upon by others? The characters in the film Boyz N The Hood all put on a " tough guise " so they'd all be accepted by those around them.

     Let's take Doughboy. Even as a young boy we see him putting on a guise when he threatens to kill the guys who took his brother's football. You could tell he was scared by his facial expressions as the guys are kicking him on the ground, but instead of getting upset and crying, he gets up, dusts himself off and beings to walk away making a thousand threats against them under his breath. He continues this guise when he returns from prison as an adult. After the death of his brother Ricky, Doughboy didn't shed a single tear, but something about the way he picked up his brother's dead body showed me that he was indeed upset about what had happened. He didn't just throw his body in the car, he gently placed it in and once they returned home, Doughboy didn't ignore all the screaming and crying and leave, he volunteered to take Ricky's baby so he didn't have to see the tragedy. Through all this, Doughboy stayed calm with a straight face and no tears though it was somewhat apparent by his boy language such as clenched fists and biting at his lower lip told us that he wanted to but did not because he feared what his friends and family would thing if he started bawling like a baby infront of them.

     Though many of the characters showed us a " tough guise ", Trey was a whole different story. Trey was the only character out of the boys that we actually witnessed breaking down and crying in front of his girlfriend and friends. After crying in front of his girlfriend, Trey says " I never thought I'd cry in front of you in a million years." To this his girlfriend says " You can cry in front of me whenever you want." Later in the film, Trey breaks down in tears again after Ricky's shooting unlike the rest of his friends, yet after things were settled, his friends did not make fun of him or reject him or think any lower of him. They acted normally. Doughboy even came to comfort him. So what dies this say about men who put on a " tough guise "?

   I think this film shows us that a " tough guise " should never be needed. The one person of all the boys in this film that can truly be called a man is Trey for showing us how he felt about the events going on in his life. What good would our society or any form of society be if we all acted the same, dressed the same and spoke the same just to " fit in? " If we were not meant to show emotions, we would not have any. It's easy to fake a smile, but it takes a real man to show his frown an shed a tear. Trey shows us that showing your emotions, even when those around you do not, is okay. He shows us that not everyone will but you down for it. He breaks that cycle amongst his friends and comes out on top successful and still alive and that's what makes him a real man.