Rosie Perez’s intro in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” some very interesting characteristics. The camerawork was one of the first significant things that I noticed. The montage in the very beginning serves to capture the attention of the audience. The majority of the time thereafter she appears on camera in a mid to full body shot against a rather dull background to accentuate her and her dancing. At least twice the camera panned all the way in to her face to highlight her very serious and almost angry expression. This expression matches the seriousness of the music “Fight the Power.”
I thought Rosie was an interesting choice for the dance because the song that plays for most of the scene is about being “black and proud” while Rosie is Latina. It’s possible he did this to speak to minority groups outside of blacks to tell them to fight their own issues as well. The streets of Brooklyn where the scene is set are mainly home to blacks and Puerto Ricans so it's also likely that he wanted to represent the community. He may have also chosen her simply because of the energy she brings to scene and her ability to command the audience’s attention. She goes though three different outfits, but has the same expression and demeanor in all of them. The boxing one is especially indicative of the angry undertones of the scene.
From only the first few minutes of the movie we can already tell that Rosie will be a character with a very strong personality who is probably also very stubborn and independent. It is made obvious race will be a theme explored, most likely from the perspective of this minority community. It seems evident that this community will face some conflict because of racial tensions and they will work against these forces to overcome them.
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