Do The Right Thing, Film Analysis.

October 30, 2007 · Filed Under College Life 101, Entertainment, Movies 

Because I love movies and always like to know more about them; I’m taking Film Arts where I’ve learned a lot more of how films are done. And I’ve written my first film analysis on Do The Right Thing by Spike Lee. The analysis is based on the colors used in this movie and the meaning behind these colors. I got a 88/100 which I think it’s a pretty good score. One of the reasons I didn’t get a higher grade is because I didn’t make it long enough. Now I’m writing one on Raging Bull which I will publish whenever I’m done and get my score back. For now you can read my paper on Do The Right Thing.

Do the Right Thing

In the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing, colors set the tone and mood of what is happening during the movie. The colors allow us to associate with the weather and certain emotions that are being felt by some of the characters.
In the opening scenes, we are introduced to the main color of the film: red. We can see the big red wall in the background that gets darker and lighter from time to time; there is also a girl wearing a red dress. Then it goes to a shot of a girl in a blue dress, her color stands out from the red wall. We also see the colors black and white when the red disappears for a while. These will be the main colors through out the film.
Spike Lee uses different tones of red, yellow and orange to show us that the day is hot. In the opening scene where Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) is sleeping we can see that the whole room is tinted with a mix of yellow, red and orange. This symbolizes the heat and the sun light. After this scene we get introduced to the character Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith) who is standing in front of a big red building and he is being shown with an orange tint. This scene is followed with the introduction of Mookie (Spike Lee) in his sister, Jay’s (Joie Lee) room. This room is extremely red, meaning that it is very hot in there. We can see the use of red, orange and yellow through out the movie to keep reminding us of how warm it is. As the day goes on, the initial bright yellow color slowly transitions into dark yellowish orange; this indicates that the sun is setting and the heat is dissipating.
Some smoother tones are used to show more peaceful or soothing moments. We can see this when Tina (Rosie Perez) goes into a room with her son after she argued with her mother. The room has blue walls and Tina’s son is wearing blue, which helps us forget about the high temperatures outside and cools us down. We also see the use of the color purple which is a mix of blue and red to show Jay trying to cool down in front of a fan. In this scene Mookie enters the apartment and wants to shower to also cool down. But we also see the bright red window in the background showing that it is extremely hot outside and it’s purple inside because it’s cooler. At the beginning of the movie we can see that green seems like a neutral color. We can see this green in Sal’s (Dany Aiello) t-shirt color, the color of the counter and the color of the pizzeria. We later discover that this green could be seen as neutral. Sal is a neutral person who doesn’t discriminate against anyone and the pizzeria is the place where everyone gets together.
In some cases, the color red is used in reference of love or hate. Da Mayor gives red roses to Mother Sister (Ruby Dee); the red in the roses stands out from all the other red during the scene. Also when Sal and Jay are sitting in the pizzeria and the tint seems to be a bit red hinting some kind of love connection between the two. It’s not the usual red tint that shows the hot weather because we rarely see this tint used inside the pizzeria. Red is also seen as anger, when Sal’s two sons are standing next to him watching the pizzeria burn down, we can see the big red wall behind Sal’s son Vito (Richard Edson) which helps emphasize how angry he is about what happened.
The vibrant use of colors in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is meant to express the environmental conditions, as well as the character’s emotions. The main color during the whole movie is red. Spike Lee uses red, yellow and orange to show us and keep reminding us about the heat. Even though the bright sun is never shown, we can tell how hot it is because of the colors. He also uses some colors to bring us to calmer and cooler places where is not as hot. He treats these colors as if they were characters in the movie. Very few directors choose to use colors in such a strong way and be able to blend them in as part of the story.

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