Recently, because of racial issues, the United States is experiencing social unrest, and racial discrimination has been mentioned again.
When it comes to movies that reflect on race in the United States, the first thing that comes to mind is definitely "Green Book", which won the Oscar for best picture last year.
The film tells the story of Don Shirley, a black pianist who hires tony, a white, as a driver and bodyguard, to tour south with him.
Along the way, the two didn't get along well, but the injustices suffered by black pianists in the South made white drivers resent racial discrimination.
The black pianist then redeems himself with the help of a white driver, and the two complete the fusion of black and white. Although this journey of humanity across racial barriers and across class differences is really wonderful.
But what really touched people was the pianist's self-growth, repeated tolerance is not the way to go, only courage can change all this, so "Green Book" is not exactly a film that reflects racial issues.
Today, let's talk about a black movie master, Spike Lee. He was a college professor, an NBA basketball fan, a music enthusiast, a film director, screenwriter, and a longtime black opinion leader who spoke out for black rights.
In the European and American worlds, when mentioning black people, it is necessary to mention Spike Lee, a symbol that black culture can never skip.
Race has always been one of the most concerned topics for European and American film creators, and as a black man, Spike Lee is determined to make films that truly represent the will of blacks.
Unlike other racial films, which deliberately create sympathy for the so-called vulnerable peoples, Spike Lee's work focuses primarily on the relationship between races and the awakening of blacks themselves, and he does not define the good and bad of blacks and whites in movies.
Instead, it is to look at reality with a completely neutral posture, to reflect race, violence, and power struggle from the characters themselves, so that the audience can judge black and white, right and wrong, and it can be seen that the director has a deep understanding of the social difficulties of black people.
Recent racial conflicts and violence in the United States coincide with some of the plots in Spike Lee's comedy film Do What You Should Make 31 years ago.
I have to sigh that although so much time has passed and human civilization seems to have developed well, the blood and tears of racial problems will continue to occur, as if nothing has changed in the past thirty years.
When injustice is rampant, people still communicate and vent in the only way to smash and burn such acts of violence. The racial problem can never be eradicated, and everything will only start in a circle.
"Do What You Should" is Spike Lee's third feature-length film and the best-known work in his long directorial career.
Set on the hottest day of the year in New York, Mr. Mutch, played by Spike Lee, delivers pizza to a pizzeria that neighborhoods frequent and where most of the film's characters appear.
Sal, the owner of the pizzeria, is an Italian-American, and his two sons, Pino and Vito, work for him. Samuel Jackson plays a mouth cannon radio DJ; a fool named Smiley constantly peddles photographs of Martin Luther King jr. and Malcolm Ax on the street; other characters include: the loyal and kind tramp "The Big Mayor";
Wearing "love" and "hate" rings on his left and right hands, Rahim, who plays the film's theme song "Fight the Power" loudly with a giant tape recorder; "road runners" wearing Jordan shoes with excessive racial emotions, a group of black people who do nothing on the street; Korean two sons who run a grocery store; and police officers driving patrol cars.
The road runner is a racist person, let's look at this shot, the picture of the white man accidentally bumped into him from the left side, but what he looked down to see was that his right foot was trampled dirty, and the result was that the "road runner" did not think about it and mistakenly vented his anger to the white man.
Raheem, who carries a large tape recorder, also hides small details, when he compares the volume with others, Raheem uses his left hand wearing a "hate" ring to turn up the volume, when he meets Muchi, he lowers the volume with his right hand wearing a "love" ring, and when he enters the pizza restaurant, he turns up the volume with his left hand with a "hate" ring, showing his love and hate attitude towards others at any time, and Rahim can be said to be the most offending character in the whole film. His angry language and radical movements intensified as the film progressed, eventually leading to violence.
The film is intensely colored, spike Lee uses almost all the warm colors of red, orange, and yellow that symbolize the sun, the flame, and the earth, and each character is sweating and wet clothes are attached to them.
Radio and newspapers broadcast warnings of high temperatures, which not only represent high temperature and heat waves, but also symbolize angry character relations, tense ethnic relations, and pave the way for the final violence.
Spike Lee uses a lot of techniques to break the fourth wall in the film, that is, to let the character look directly at the camera screen, directly dialogue to the audience, and tell the plot, which is a common shooting technique that can quickly express the psychology of the characters
The oblique photographic angle often used in the dialogue shows the inherent impetuosity of the characters. In the climactic scene of the film, Spike Lee suddenly cuts into a series of shots that break four walls, he makes each character angrily say racist lines to the camera, and the camera pushes at high speed in front of each standing character, this strong tension can quickly bring the audience into the film.
The film recreates a racially discriminatory bloody event, and Spike Lee's views are sharp and explosive. I believe that after watching the movie, you will have a deep understanding of the racial problems in the United States. For a long time, the impact of racial discrimination on society has been more than one day or two, and for European and American countries, the efforts to solve the racial problem will continue, and it is only hoped that one day there will be no more racial discrimination in the world.
Spike Lee's new R-rated counter-combat game "Blood Five" will be launched on Netflix on June 12, telling the story of four black veterans who return to vietnam and take away the gold bars they personally buried that year. Focus on racial issues and the war itself, look forward to it!