Analysis of Do the Right Thing: Themes and Cinematic Techniques

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DO THE RIGHT THING
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Introduction
Do the right thing is a great film that highlights racial problems that were in New York,
Brooklynn at the time the film was produced (1989). “The on-location depiction of the life that
the people experienced in the multiracial neighborhood effectively show the effects of negative
racism in the film.”1 The film also incorporates Marxist views in which the classes in the society;
merchants such as Italian Americans and Korean Americans and the African Americans whose
role is to pay for the goods and services. The impact of racism on police brutality is also depicted
in the movie. The moral decisions that the people make are highly influenced by race and the
film shows the impact of negative perception of other people, based on their race. The characters
in the movie are presented stereotypically to stress on the theme of racism more. The use of
cinematic attributes such as camera, lighting, music, and storytelling further help the director to
pass the thematic messages to the audience. This paper analyses the themes presented in the
movie and the use of cinematic techniques in passing the messages effectively. The film is
aligned with the doctrines of the French Wave of depicting societies as they are in order not to
lose the originality and to pass the message as intended.
Meaning and cultural significance
The movie use iconography to highlight the segmentation of the society in Brooklynn
along racial lines. “The American Italians in the movie such as Sal and Pino wear crosses and
tank top shirts. Radio Raheem wears a medallion and plays loud rap music on his stereo, all
which are stereotypical attributes of African Americans.”2 There is also a group of youth with
Puerto Rican descent who listen to salsa music all the time as they share beers. The youth also
speak Spanish despite the fact they are in a neighborhood that uses English as the main language

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The film is dominated by insults in which the characters bring out the sentiments that they hold
against each other. The beliefs in racial supremacy are also brought out in cases such as when
Buggin’ to stay black implying the animosity that he and some other African Americans have
against other races in the neighborhood. The struggle for power in the society is also aligned to
the racial groupings. Negative racism is, in fact, the cause of the power struggle in the
neighborhood. Activism in the film such as by Buggin’ is also racially biased and it leads to
animosity instead of help the people to live in harmony.
“The social interactions of the characters in the movie show their belief in Marxism.”3
Buggin’, for instance, harasses a white man for running over his shoes (Jordans) and asks him
what he is doing in Buggin’s neighborhood. The fact that the man is a legal property owner in
the neighborhood implies that the poor African Americans connect their economic inferiority to
their psychological problems. Buggin does not take it as an accident but views as an exploitation
by a wealthy man. The negative sentiments by some characters against Sal is also a projection of
the power struggle caused by racism. The divisions among the African Americans and the
Korean and the Italian merchants is can be attributed to the differences in their financial status.
The police are also hard on the poor African families, as compared to the other races in the
neighborhood. The arrest of Buggin after the fight in Sal’s pizzeria, totally ignoring the fact that
Sal and his sons too were involved in the fight brings out the brutality that the poor people in
Brooklynn went through in police hands.
The director, Lee, uses Korean and Italian business owners to show that the conflict
between African Americans and the white Americans is more than with members of other race
such as Koreans. “Sal experiences more problems with African Americans than the Korean
merchant who in the whole film only argues with Raheem Radio.”5 The interracial liking or