Spike Lee & Do the Right Thing (1989)

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Spike Lee 

Directors like Spike Lee are encouraged to make films for a black audience. Many other actors, directors, and writers begin expanding the ground opened by blaxploitation films, while other black directors are searching for voices that include black experiences or culture, some assimilate the subject, like the most recent films: Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018), Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) and A Wrinkle in Time (Ava DuVernay, 2018), while others continue to examine Black cinema's traditional themes of racism, slavery and freedom (Amistad (directed by Steven Spielberg, 1997), Belle (Amma Asante, 2013), Dear White People (Justin Simien, 2014) Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2015), and Mudbound (Dee Rees, 2017) as just a few examples.

In any case, Spike Lee's films helped pave the way for black directors and writers in feature films. His films are often thoughtful, satiric, violent, and sexist. They represent the times in which they were made (for example life in the late 1980's in the film we will watch), but remain important reminders of how far and how far we still need to go on the issues of race and inclusive culture in the U.S. Here are a few sample films from Spike Lee.
Do the Right Thing (1989); Read the background information about the film. As you watch, notice how Spike Lee uses stereotypes (recognizable character tropes) in the film. How do these characters act as we suspect they would, and how do they break character type so as to challenge these presuppositions or viewer expectations? What might Spike Lee be trying to say about race/culture?

Portfolio PROMPT ideas:

  • Challenge a stereotype (explore how a character's outer image reflects on his/her inner image, or explore how certain behaviors lead us--or a character--to judge that character's personality or future behavior, etc.)
  • Write about an event that happens on one single day. Tell the story of at least 3 characters who experience that event on that single day.
  • Write a story/poem outside your identified culture (if you are Black, write from a White perspective, if you are Asian, write from a Black or Latino perspective, if you are female write from a male perspective, if you are straight write from a gay or lesbian perspective, etc.)
  • Make a short film about race or culture.
HOMEWORK: Finish that novel you're reading. Test/group discussion(s) on Friday or Tuesday next week.

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