Wednesday, December 19, 2007

To Do Or Not To Do The Right Thing?

"Do the Right Thing" chronicles race relations between a black population and three intruding white business owners in Bed-Stuy New York, which I feel masterfully portrays how stupid racism is. The film starts off very relaxed, but as the heat burns on racism and hatred start popping up everywhere. One scene which I feel shows the stupidity of racism is when a character of each race starts shouting racist slang directly at the camera. It shows how all of these people are racist against each other, which basically them all the same, hence there should be no racism.
The Film Climax's with a violent riot, where people are killed and shops are burned. Mookie arguably the main character starts the riot by throwing a garbage can through the window of Sal's restaurant. It gets ransacked and burned. Mookie didn't do the right thing, there are better ways to get over the grief of loosing a loved one, that destruction. P.S. I loved the intro Rosie Perez is a bomb dancer.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

One word : Epic.

The Battle of Algiers, was actually a fairly interesting historical narrative pertaining to an insurgency in the East. "Film Studies" written by Michael Kaufman (New York Times) parallels this battle to the new battle raging on in the Middle East. Privately screened at the Pentagon in relation to the way to win the war in Iraq, this movie expertly showed a "people's war". Where the people's need for pride, stems deeper than even that of freedom. They fight so hard and play dirty just because they are tired of the abusive relationship they have with the French. Both articles bring up an interesting points, one being that it is impossible to fit this movie into neat partisan formulations. It relates to so many different topics and ideas that it serves as excellent viewing material for anyone of any nature.

I especially like the last line of Peter Rainer's little diddy, "all sides in this conflict have lost their souls, and that all men are carrion." It uses excellent diction, almost as vivid and riveting as the film itself.