As the horrific tragedy of September 11th settles into permanent corridors of our conscious life, our reactions as a society are manifold. There is shock, grief, anger and other emotions that we have not fully understood or found words to describe. As we search for explanations, our sages in government, the media and the academy try to help us articulate what we have experienced. We have been told that our innocence is gone, that the third world war has begun and that we are confronting a new and more lethal form of terrorism than the world has ever seen.
This is the world we live in, so when viewing the films The Spook Who Sat By The Door directed by Ivan Dixon and Do the Right Thing directed by Spike lee, I felt these feelings of September 11th in the back of my mind. This idea of fighting the system that is holding people back, the same system that holds one of the most powerful countries together, is a incredibly scary proposition. Both films have visions of this and both tend to not take a side. The side that I speak of is of course promoting violence or promoting violence for “the right thing” and the only real indicator of “the right thing” is the audiences’ interpretation of the source material. So does violence hold the key to the civil pursuit of equality or does it just bring us back a step when we could be taking two forward?
Director and actor Spike Lee presents his "truth" about race relations in his movie Do the Right Thing. The film exhibits the spectacle of black discrimination and racial altercations. Through serious, angry, and loud sounds, Lee stays true to the ethnicity of his characters, all of which reflect their own individualism. Lee uses insulting diction and intense scenes to show how severe racism can lead to violence. As a film, Do the Right Thing is a study in how cinematography can effectively add credence to plot and character development. The film's sensual details, such as the hot, sticky, suffocating heat of a summer day, are visually stunning. Since weather plays a significant role in the film from start to finish, it is the oppressive summer heat, which stokes racial conflicts to the surface, driving the film to its tragic and violent climax; the cinematographer's use of light and color increases its visual power. Early on in the films preproduction, Spike Lee knew that the emphasis of heat was important to the film's credibility (Hill 64).
Not only was color and setting a major component in the films success of conveying realism, but also the music that Lee used is defying and relevant to the topic of violence and terror. The song that immediately springs to mind is Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." With its driving, mind-numbing beat, and its powerful lyrics knocking down America's favorite cultural heroes, the song anticipated the firestorm that would greet the film upon its release. Public Enemy, a political rap group, had been sparking controversies with their defiant, pro-Black rap lyrics long before Spike Lee commissioned them to record a song specifically for the film (Scott 4).
Do the Right Thing poses a question that seems simple from the outset: what is the proper way for society to address racism in America? Yet such a question can only demand an answer that is anything but simple. Should it be done through dialogue and understanding? Confrontation, or positive direction of energy? Violence or self-defense?
The biases reflected through Do the Right Thing model those of today which has kept society in a constant feud for so long. The famous quotes that precede the final scene in the film are both contradicting and undecided. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke,
Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
This quote reflects Kings ideals that he used in his fight against black oppression, by arguing with the masses that violence can never be justified under any circumstances. This was then followed by the late Malcolm X’s quote,
I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence.
Two leaders with two completely different views of how to deal with society, both were taken by their causes and both lead the African American people to a better world. These quotes may have very well influenced the Spook Who Sat By The Door with their idealistic views and empowering message these also reflect greatly on the black militancy brought about by Dan Freeman, the titular protagonist.
The film is explosive in the fact that it embodies all the problems with white America and all the ideals of an educated race. This black man is the first ever to by accepted by the CIA, a feat deemed impossible, and then given job to sit at a desk by a door to improve a white politician's image as an "equal opportunity employer" and is nothing more than another colored man that got shut down by the system. The real mind boggling and powerful part is that Freeman then uses the CIA’s techniques against them when he teaches it to young adults that are considered by society to be problems, problems that would be better off if they never existed. These drug dealers and weapon peddlers are turned into faces of hope for the black community in Chicago, but the real controversy comes from the way that it is obtained, through violence.
On the heels of revolution this film seems to embody the struggles that violent nature seems to create, with many black and white scenarios. One for instance parallels Spike Lee’s film with a riot that occurs directly after a young black man is murdered by police officers. These scenes are shot to look horrifying and not empowering, with quick edits to provide little theory of what is happening to the people involved and little insight of what is going through their minds. The people in these shots appear to look like packs of wolves, violent animals with no regard to their actions. This is then placed next to another portion of the film that shows similar acts in uniform and organized fashion or in other words “intelligent”.
But, all this comes at a cost, at the end of The Spook Who Sat By The Door the main character ends up killing an old friend that tries to stop him from continuing his violent path. These two characters shared the same views and opinions but were eventually divided on how to handle such a crisis. One could say that the violence was the only way of turning a band of criminals, criminals that were created by the system of which they live in, into a united front that wants equality. Others though could point out that the violence hurts the best people and makes others hurt themselves, represented through the act of Freeman killing his friend in the name of justice. So where does it stop? If one cannot even make reason with his own race, his own brother?
Through the acts of violence in both of these movies, they both never make up their minds on the issue. In Lee’s film he uses the death of Radio Raheem to justify the riot and destruction of Sal’s pizzeria, but then shows that all the violence never stopped the inevitable from happening, a new day came and no change in the condition of which you live. Dixon does it through the black man slaying his own flesh and justifying it through revolution, then eluding that more factions were growing to do the same thing in other cities. This provides comparison to historic events go back just ten years or one hundred. These filmmakers take from their heritage; the killing of King to the civil war, both showing that one act can lead to the opposite. With Martin Luther King’s assassination a riot broke out that ravaged Washington D.C. convey the opposing beliefs of King, with anger and hurt. Then with the civil war it pit the north against the south, both of same color but with different views of freedom and rights.
It seems that with violence comes violence and that Americans will never know what we want. When September 11th struck we wanted revenge, we wanted to punish the ones responsible, so we struck back with war. But this has lead to thousands more deaths and an endless fight. It seems that even one of the most powerful nations cannot tell the difference between violence and fighting, just like Spike Lee and Ivan Dixon cannot decide what way black people should rise up against oppressors. This is a new neo-realistic world we live in, with the worst economic downturn ever and death at its highest rate in years, how can we the people decide who to follow. The call of greats ring true in our minds and even when living in a different world then the one just ten years ago, the words of true leaders stay true. So who will you follow? Dr. Martin Luther King jr. or Malcolm X?
Works Cited
Hill, Logan. "How I Made It: Spike Lee on 'Do the Right Thing'." New York 41(2008): 64-5.
Scott, Cynthia C.. "Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing : An Explosive Film That Continues to Spark Questions About Racism in America." Associated Content (2006): 1-9.
Thomas , Greg. "SPOOKS, SEX & SOCIO-DIAGNOSTICS: ROBERT F. WILLIAMS ON WHITE 'JUNGLE' SOCIETY'S SADISTIC INSANITY." PROUD FLESH: A New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness (2002)
Dixon, Ivan (Dir.) 1973. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Film). United Artists/Bokari Ltd.
Lee, Spike (Dir,) 1989. Do The Right Thing (Film). Universal
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