The Use of Mise-en-scene in "Do The Right Thing"
December 2020 Kelly Brennan
In the 1989 film, "Do The Right Thing," there is a manipulation of the mise-en-scene to create meaning within the film. Through watching the film, viewers can pick up on the meaningful aspects of the mise-en-scene in the film that help add to the storytelling.
The important thing to note about "Do The Right Thing" is that there are tensions building throughout the whole day which is represented through the mise-en-scene. The film starts with a girl boxing in front of a scene of brownstones that are tinted red, yellow, and orange to help set up the beginning of the story that takes place on the hottest day of the year. Within the first ten minutes, the word “scorching” is used to describe the type of heat that the characters are experiencing several times. The importance of these aspects of the mise-en-scene in the very beginning of the film is to help set up the viewer for a hot day filled with not only literal heat, but metaphorical heat that the viewer can interpret as tension.
The whole film has a recurring color to represent this tension that is rising in the neighborhood: red. There are red walls that characters sit in front of, Mookie is wearing red throughout the film, and most of the characters are donning either red or yellow apparel. This color of red that reoccurs throughout the film can be interpreted as heat… once again as literal or metaphorical.
Another aspect of the mise-en-scene to note in regards to the tension that is building is the significance of the water throughout the film. There are several examples of the importance of water in this film that are shown to the viewer such as Mookie showering two times in the film, as well as the fire hydrant that is broken open in the street in order for the residents on the block to cool down. The significance of water is used to show the tension between Sal and his boys to the rest of the neighborhood. Throughout the whole film, there is a smoldering fire that continues to build that is only put out at the end of the film by the firefighters with water.
The significance of the movie ending with literal flames on the hottest day of the year is something that viewers should note. Even though the literal temperature has gone down on this night, the boiling point of the racial tensions in the neighborhood has been reached. There is a shot of Sal’s “Wall of Fame” going up in flames during the riot that represents this boiling point that has been reached. The “Wall of Fame,” once filled with all white Italians, is now replaced at the end of the film with a picture of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. This replacement of photographs shows that the end has come to this rising heat that has been smoldering all day long.
Radio Raheem dons two brass knuckles in the film that say the word “Love” on one hand, and “Hate” on the other. These pieces of jewelry create meaning within the mise-en-scene because they represent not only Mookie’s relationship with Sal but also the relationships of all of the different races and ethnicities within the neighborhood. There is tension between all of the people in the neighborhood (such as the white people, black people, and Korean people), but at the end of the film, they all choose love over hate by coming together and standing up for Radio Raheem after he had been murdered by the police.
Some could argue that this act of rioting and destroying Sal’s business is an act of hate rather than love, but that can be left up to the interpretation of the viewer, which is why these brass knuckles create such a meaningful part of the mise-en-scene. It is a complicated dichotomy that is presented to the viewer because of these pieces of jewelry because, at the end of the film, Mookie throws a garbage can through the window of Sal’s business and screams “HATE!” However, it could also be interpreted as an act of love to Radio Raheem to continue to fight for the love that he was trying to spread (meaning having black people to be equally represented in the neighborhood).
Radio Raheem also carries around a giant stereo throughout the film and is never seen without it. It looks expensive and new, and is always playing a song that says “fight the power.” This choice of prop and song represents everything that Radio Raheem stands for; He explains that you can either choose love or hate, but “one hand is always fighting the other.” The radio and song represent this idea of one always fighting the other. He can try to spread love and preach equality with his song and big radio, but in the end, Sal chooses hate and smashes the radio in front of him.
Da Mayor’s costume choice is also an important aspect of the mise-en-scene. They dress him in a suit that is dirty and tattered, possibly representing that he is a bad or dirty man, but on more than one occasion he rejects this notion and proves to the viewer that he is a good man. For example, he saves Eddie’s life from being run over by a car. He also tries to keep the peace between the neighborhood at the end of the film when the smoldering tension has become a scorching fire. When the viewer first meets Da Mayor, he is viewed as a rotten old drunk, but later in the film, he shows that he is a good and worthy man. This costume choice creates meaning within the film because it shows the viewer that first impressions are not always accurate.
These important aspects of the mise-en-scene combined with the use of a subjective camera in the film and post-production editing help to create a film with meaning. The manipulation of these aspects of the mise-en-scene gives the film a deeper meaning that represents tension, the dichotomy between love and hate, and the first impressions of the characters.
Work Cited
Lee, Spike, director. Do The Right Thing. 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, 1989.