"Do The Right Thing" Intro - Dalsing

The Movie, “Do the Right Thing,” has a remarkable introduction. Rosie Perez dances in three different scenes. In front of a dark orange stoop, Perez dances in a bright red dress. In contrast to a shadowy pink alleyway, she dazzles in a blue leotard with a black leather jacket. Finally, Perez seems to punch at the camera wearing her silver boxing jacket, black sports bra, and red boxing gloves in front of a grey background. The dancing, colors of the backdrops, and the contrasting of each of Perez’s outfits together are used to present the idea of female power.
The jerky dancing of Rosie Perez is used to express the idea of female power in the movie. Perez dances in this film by punching the air in front of her and doing a lot of jarring motions. Also, as she dances, as the audience can tell because of multiple close-ups on Perez’s face, that Perez has a fierce expression. In this scene, Perez seems to be ready show the audience her strength and willingness to fight. By doing this, and by the dancer being a woman, this scene is expressing the power of a woman.
The different warm colors of the backgrounds are used to express power in the introduction of “Do the Right Thing.” In this film, there are multiple backgrounds, the first, a dark orange, the second, a shadowy pink, and the third gray. Two of these colors are considered to be warm colors (red, orange, yellow, etc.) and the other, gray, a dark color. Warm colors, when placed next to cool colors (blue, green, purple, etc.) almost fool the eye by popping out of the picture. The colors orange and pink are supposed to pop out of the picture, or emphasize the importance of this scene. Because orange and pink are such powerful colors, the backgrounds are used to express or emphasize the power of the object of the scene, Rosie Perez.
The outfits that Rosie Perez wears contrasts with backgrounds, showing the powerful aspects of Perez. In the first scene, Perez is wearing a red dress complimented by a dark orange background. These two colors being warm colors powerfully punch out at the audience. The next, a pink background contrasting with her blue leotard and black leather jacket is also an expression of power. Since the first scene’s colors complimented each other, it was a shock to the audience for the second and third, with a silver and red boxing outfit against a gray background, scene to have such strongly contrasting colors. With this contrast in color, the audience is able to feel that the colors are very powerful, and so is Perez for contrasting against these background colors.
The jarring dancing, the powerful colors, and the contrasting hues of Perez’s outfits and the background all present the power of a woman. The jerky atmosphere of the introduction of “Do the Right Thing” created by the color differences, combined with jarring aspect of Perez’s dancing makes the audience feel that the object of this introduction, Rosie Perez is a very powerful person. With this in mind, it is very easy for the audience to recognize that the director wanted to put in a scene that accurately expresses women as a strong entity in the film.