Analysis of opening scenes – Do the Right Thing - Kenneth

The beginning sequence shows Rosie Perez dancing to “Fight the Power.” Spike Lee’s use of color, as seen in the title, costuming and lighting, highlights some of the themes to be explored in the movie.

The film’s title at the beginning is written white bold letters and outlined with colorful border. The title appears like a mural, similar to those found on the sides of buildings in certain neighborhoods. This is relevant since the setting of much of the movie is in neighborhood that has seen better days. The colorful border is also typical of the 1980s when bright multi-colored pieces were the trend. I also think that it was a conscious decision to write “do the right thing” in white bold letters and surround these words with color to compliment them. Perhaps it’s a stretch but this color choice seems like an exact parallel of society especially in the late ‘80s when the film was released. This society is predominantly white with a many other different peoples from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. So the title design represents artistically the make-up and status of our society

Rosie Perez’s costumes were also typical in the ‘80s. She changes from a red dress, to blue tights and finally to a boxing outfit complete with boxing gloves. The red dress matched the red hue lighting theme Lee used. The color red often evokes ideas such as danger, love, and anger and I’m sure those emotions are rampart throughout the film. Rosie Perez also captures those feelings as seen during the close-up shots. She appears heated while dancing and she dances with such passion and zest that it hits at how strong a character she is. And of course the dancing is provocative at times which would get a reaction from a male audience. The boxing outfit of course correlates perfectly with the song “Fight the power.” About the blue tights, blue evokes similar emotions but also has a calming effect. This interesting because every cut where Perez is in the blue costume, she is clearly enraged. Maybe Spike Lee wanted the contrast between what the color blue evokes and what someone might be feeling.

In terms of lighting, Lee maintains are reddish hue throughout the scene which brings up feelings of anger, love, and danger. First, the setting, the neighborhood, is probably not safe. Also, judging from the musical lyrics, and Perez’s expressions, the people living in this neighborhood probably hold some anger against some injustices they feel they might have suffered. And finally, there is probably a lot of love in that neighborhood – there is a strong sense of community since everyone knows everyone else. At times, Lee switches to a different lighting technique that gives a film-noir kind of feel to the set yet something always remains red or flashes red be it the street or the girl’s dress. This technique I think is simply emphasizing the ideas that color red is supposed to portray.