Do The Right Thing: Representation, Ideology, and Author

Released in 1989, Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing is a film revered by critics and audiences alike that aims to comment on black experiences one summer day in the New York borough of Bedford-Stuyvesent. This article aims to evaluate the strengths and limitations of viewing this film through the different theoretical frameworks of black representation, ideology, and authorship. In addition to how these different approaches can change the way we see the film and what insights we can gather from the material. Viewing Do The Right Thing through these frameworks allows various insights not only to the singular film itself but can also help to understand and further evaluate the extended work of Spike Lee as an auteur. This practice can also help expand the understanding of black characters and black history in film canon not only in the 80’s but throughout film as a whole. The studies of the black experience that are analysed in this article can also help to shed light on the social and cultural contexts in which not only Do The Right Thing, but other films that tackle similar issues such as Boyz ‘N’ The Hood and Fruitvale Station, were produced. The use of these three different approaches to the film allows for a wide range of information to be discussed and considered. The framework of authorship allows not only an evaluation of Spike Lee’s previous works and how they tie into Do The Right Thing, but also the personal stylings he brings to his films, the effects they have on the narrative and messages within the material he works with, as well as how Lee’s own personal upbringing continues to have an effect on the films he makes. Black representation is also a useful framework through which we can evaluate the film as it provides us not only with the ability to look at the concepts of police brutality and survival within black neighbourhoods but also the dangers of stereotypes and how they can have an effect on communities and the people within them, both in terms of the fictional characters of Do The Right Thing, and their real world equivalents. There are of course limitations to the framework that are exposed through evaluating the film in this way; the ignorance of the female perspective not only in this film but in others that tackle the same issues can be seen when analysing the film in regards to black history and black masculinity,these approaches allow the truth of the female position in these films and these societies to be unearthed. Ideology as a framework also proves helpful to the evaluation of this film. By taking a deeper look at not only the conflicts between different cultures but also the shared beliefs within these respective peoples, we are able to gather a more informed view of America as a melting pot country defined by its diversity. The tensions and disputes that arise as a result of these conflicting ideologies also creates a divide in how people aim to resolve certain issues. The ideological framework is also helpful when evaluating the conflict in ideological protests and whether peaceful or violent action is the most valuable path to take.

The film highlights police brutality in the unnecessary murder of Radio Raheem.

John Singleton posits: “There are cultural nuances and unspoken, but deep-seated emotions that help define the black American experience” In the case of the climax of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, this black experience turns to the survival in their own streets, the unjust deaths of their friends and neighbours at the hands of those in power is a key representation point in the Black American experience. The murder of Radio Raheem is based on the 1983 murder of Michael Stewart, an African-American who died at the hands of transit police. This is one example in a sea of unjust black murders in America that Spike Lee wanted to comment on and bring light to. These murders stretched back far before the 1980’s and continued ever since, most notably in recent years with the George Floyd murder and protests in 2020, we see that Lee’s and Do The Right Thing’s message is regrettably timeless, his highlight of the experience of survival and fear of death is one that permeates black culture across the decades.

Whilst the murder of Radio Raheem shows the danger of racially analysing or profiling a person, Lee uses large stereotypes of multiple different races in order to create his film. The camera directions for which are seen in his annotated script pages and the final scene can be seen below;

The key scene in regards to stereotypes in the film, despite the implied tensions of stereotypes and racial confrontation being seeded throughout every scene, is the sequence in which any hesitations are stripped away and characters from each of the different ethnicities in the Bed-Stuy neighbourhood shout a barrage of racist, highly stereotyped insults and slurs straight to the camera. This allows us the chance to see exactly how the characters of the film view their neighbours. “Spike Lee indulges in stereotypes by using iconography to represent the different racial groups in the film” according to Etherington-Wright. We see these stereotypes in their plainest most dangerous forms - instantly we can see how awful and absurd they are as opposed to the slow burn of their continuous mounting impact throughout the rest of the film. By looking at the film through the framework of representation and stereotypes we are given the details of how race tensions can grow and fester, not only in the 1980’s when this film was created but throughout history for years before and years after.

David Sterritt states “the root causes of [the] friction—including poverty, unequal schooling, and police persecution—are inextricably tied to the long tradition of American racism”. These are issues that have permeated the lifestyles of black Americans due to the unfair advantages presented to the white communities due to the white control over poverty, unequal schooling, and police persecution. Although largely tied to the discussion of viewing the film through the ideological prism, the burden of representation that comes to be placed on figures central to black history refuses to be ignored. With Buggin Out and Smiley in particular campaigning for the placement of black activists and artists upon Sal’s wall. This also ties to the idea of Authorship in a modern context in such a way that it can be said Spike Lee himself has become one of these figures of black excellence that people would like to have displayed. In talking about the history of race relations and black lives throughout America, This being said, the representation of Black History is a key aspect of Do The Right Thing, many people at the time simply did not realise or did not jump to protest the racist acts of violence against black communities that had been present in America almost since it’s conception.

Despite many strengths of looking at Do The Right Thing through the framework of representation of black lives, culture, and history - the limitation lies in it’s apparent ignorance of some of the female representation. Female characters in the film are oftentimes reduced either to the objects of desire for the men or simply as mothers. Tina, Mookie’s girlfriend, is almost locked away from the rest of the narrative, and Mother Sister is also trapped in her window to be the object of Da Mayor’s courtship and affection. By prioritising looking at the film through the lens of black representation it is easy to miss the potential depth of material in regard to how women are presented in this film, that being said, the female gaze or viewpoint not being properly presented could be argued as a facet of black representation in and of itself. The representation of the ‘gang’ aspect of black life as shown in other films which explore the subject such as Boyz ‘N’ The Hood, and Fruitvale Station. The women in these types of neighbourhoods are often shown by various filmmakers to take a step back into caring and keeping an eye out for the men that get caught up in these violent, dangerous worlds. The recommendation would be to focus on these films not only with the framework of black representation but also remove its limitations by remaining conscious of analysis and viewpoints that take into account representation of the female perspective alongside it.

The community being so divided in its populace allows for a nuanced discussion of shared beliefs within different peoples in explicit ways. Every section of the Bed-Stuy neighbourhood has both explicit and implicit prejudices towards the other cultures. Cultural clashes and oppositions between different races and demographics of people. The lack of black people on the wall of Sal’s Pizzeria is due to his championing of Italian-American culture, showing his disconnect from the black experience of his patrons. Spike Lee employs a plurality of voices in establishing not only black but white, Asian, Latino, etc. all as sympathetic characters whilst using the conflict of their cultures and ideologies to expose their flaws and prejudices. Flory writes that “Lee thus probes white audiences' investment in … their “racial allegiances” … in which audiences become morally allied to characters through categories and presumptions about race”. White audiences are forced into introspection of themselves as well as any privileges or potential ignorances they may have because of these changes in sympathy. Lee places a veil over what ‘The Right Thing’ is in any situation, allowing the audience to ponder what they think it might be, and whether the characters that they might automatically align themselves with, for example a white man with Sal or Vito, have done ‘The Right Thing’ or not. These cultural clashes are seen in the radio battle between the Puerto Ricans and Radio Raheem. Raheem’s ghetto blaster dominates the sound of Latino music as the Puerto Rican’s try to make their presence marked on the street. Raheem’s dominance here signifies the dominance of black culture over the residents of Bed-Stuy yet later on when Sal smashes his radio, we see this as a sign of the coming gentrification and white dominance over black populace. The destruction of not only a black man’s property but the silencing of a machine broadcasting for black people to “fight the power” is the beginning of the climax of the film that leads not only to white people in positions of power destroying Radio Raheem’s property but ultimately taking his life.

One way to look at Do The Right Thing is by analysing it as a study of the ideological differences between how black people go about trying to secure their equality and tackle racial prejudices. The two sides of this conflict in protest, not only within the film but throughout the canon of American civil rights history as a whole, are manifested in the form of Martin Luther King and the side of peaceful protest, and Malcolm X and the more violent form of radical action. This conflict of ideas is presented multiple times throughout the film. Not only through the character of Smiley trying to sell pictures of these two iconoclasts of black history and ideology. Smiley’s adulation of the two political leaders is respectful of both sides of the conversation about what ‘The Right Thing’ to do is in when approaching the matter of black civil rights. The peace of MLK comes to a clash with the violence of Malcolm X at the climax of the film. Da Mayor employs the peaceful philosophy as Mookie manifests the violent ideologies of Malcolm X. Spike Lee uses this scene as another way to comment on who is doing ‘The Right Thing’; which ideological forms of protest and way of living is not only justified but also the best way of living for black people as a whole. The final moments of the film are quotes of the two leaders, comparing and contrasting how both approaches could have been employed throughout the film, symbolising the inner conflict in black communities as to which path to follow in order to reclaim their civil liberties.

Lee’s films often aim to bring the commonality of black injustices at the hands of white profiteers to light - the opening words of Do The Right Thing are “Wake Up”, they serve as a clear indicator of things to come as Lee pushes social commentary into every aspect of his films, serving to highlight social issues within the black community that some may not even be aware of. Baker writes of Lee’s filmography that "Lee unmasks those truths that Black people know to be self-evident, but seldom have the courage to speak of ... Lee's first films are low-budget, minor masterpieces of cultural undercover work." Looking at the extent of Lee’s work we can see that a large majority of his films aim to contextualise and revolutionise the conversation around black injustices and as spoken about in section 2, representation of the black experience. Works such as Chi-Raq, He Got Game, Malcolm X, and centrally Do The Right Thing are all directed, written, and produced by Spike Lee and do speak to “the truths that Black people know” in a way most other filmmakers struggle to.

Camera angles are used by Lee in such a unique way, to draw attention to the larger issues of the film. His dolly zooms isolate a subject and give them a platform independent from the rest of their societies through which they are able to freely express any emotion or idea they might have; a liberty not often afforded to minorities either in the context of Hollywood film or society as a whole, both at prior to, at the time of, and well after Lee created Do The Right Thing. Lee’s Dutch angles offset the balance of his world. The conflict and tension in a realistic situation emphasised by the camera and, in turn, the world being thrown off it’s natural or expected axis.

Extreme angled shots both low and high dominate certain characters whilst giving power to others. All these aspects are key signs of Lee’s authorship over the film, allowing viewers the ability to see the film through an extra framework of power dynamics, stereotype, and clashing ideology as discussed above. These ideas and expressions, may be something that a different director behind the camera, their authorship applied to the material, would not have been able to conjure or capture.

Spike Lee’s childhood and developmental years also help to inform this film. Being born a black man, raised in Brooklyn, it is clear that Lee has a more than adequate grasp on the inherent truths presented in the film much better than an alternative auteur such as Spielberg or Tarantino would be able to. In his book Spike Lee’s America; David Sterritt talks of Lee’s authorship claiming “Lee’s ongoing analysis of America’s complicated, mercurial character would always be informed by his experiences in that city [New York], the country’s most protean and multifarious urban zone.”. Looking at the film through the lens of Spike Lee bringing personal experiences of a melting-pot community soon to be gentrified by white property owners as represented by the man who scuffs Buggin’ Out’s shoe; Lee’s inherent sense of authorship comes across in the clarity and realism through which he portrays these struggles; his sense of identity that is cast onto his films as a result of being raised in Brooklyn.

Despite finding distribution rights in Hollywood studio, Universal Pictures, Spike Lee’s own production company ‘40 Acre and A Mule Filmworks’ allowed Lee complete creative control over the picture. “Artists positioned in the margins of the institutional spaces of cultural production are burdened with the impossible role of speaking as 'representatives' in the sense that they are expected to 'speak for' the black communities from which they come."(Mercer) This was a film ostracised from the Hollywood machinery; there was no Machiavellian villain who attempted to conquer Bed-Stuy, but instead a series of complex, sympathetic, multi faceted characters whose constant struggle - in regard to what The Right Thing is - allows for viewers to also deeply ask themselves what they think The Right Thing is. There is no tidy ending where a Hollywood film may have seen Mookie’s trash can hurl as the heroic keystone in the bridge to defeating the caricatured racist Sal. Lee’s freedom of authorship as a result of producing the film himself affords him the opportunity to continue into the morning. Sal is given a chance to become more sympathetic in the light of day whilst Mookie takes money that moralistically may not belong to him. Spike Lee’s involvement and singularity of direction is necessary to allow the film a sense of Right and wrong but not in such a binary manner rather in the shades of grey that arise from both having the experiences to allow the ability to create the material but the production capabilities to ensure the material stays true to itself, allowing the opportunity of analysis.

Contextualising and evaluating not only Do The Right Thing but a wide array of black representative cinema through the theoretical frameworks of black representation, ideology, and authorship, proves to be highly valuable in their evaluative use. There are very few limitations to these frameworks and those that are exposed, such as a lack of female representation, could arguably be the by-products of the type of film and documentation that Do The Right Thing finds itself in the company of. In order to fully grasp the value of the analytical and evaluative techniques, it seems to be crucial that a viewer has a working knowledge not only of the cultural and creative contexts of Spike Lee’s work (although this would also prove to be useful) but also of the history and canon of cinema representative of ‘the black experience’. Recommendations for further expanding the evaluative value of the frameworks lie not only in Spike Lee’s filmography with films such as Chi-Raq, School Daze, Crooklyn, Jungle Fever, etc. But also in a number of other black directors and their works. Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station provides insight into all three of the frameworks in it’s study of black character and injustice. F. Gary Gray’s Friday and John Singleton’s Boyz ‘N’ The Hood alongside a wealth of other works form a more cohesive illustration of black urban lifestyles and the experiences that often arise in these walks of life. This article shows not only the value of critically evaluating a film through theoretical frameworks in order to gain a deeper meaning and appreciation for their messages and how they relate to the contexts they were made in; however this article has also indicated the enhanced credibility and usefulness in evaluating a film with a combination of frameworks. The combination of ideology, representation, and authorship all served to enhance and inform the other framework’s points and evidence. It is not hard to conclude that looking at any film through a collection of different theories will lead to a deeper understanding of the material as a whole.