The Implications of Heat in Do The Right Thing

Spike Lee’s debate-sparking film Do The Right Thing uses the power of heat to convey ideas of intense racial relations. His uses of fire, color, and summer weather create a unique effect and adequately put the audience in the right mindset to ponder such a controversial notion as race relations. Spike Lee needed to show his audience that racial relations in New York at the time the film takes place are heated. He creates a unique environment where both the setting and the personalities of the characters play off of each other.

In a way, both the characters and the environment are ticking time-bombs. Though the film has high points and low points in terms of plot occurrences, the film has a general buildup of pressure and heat that culminate with the trash can throwing scene. Race in America has always been a hot issue. The conflicts between races in Do The Right Thing are effectively symbolized by the blistering heat of the characters surroundings. Scenes with fire, red lights and buildings, and sweat on skin, are able to convey the idea to the audience that the discussion of racism in America is not a comfortable or cool one. Spike Lee is able to show the intensity of race relations by using heat as a mode of communication to the audience. To be specific, while watching this film, I actually felt as if I were sweating and that I could not escape a physically uncomfortable environment that had formed around me. I felt trapped. It was then that I realized that the characters in the film felt the same way. They were trapped by the oppressive heat, by the physical constraints of their culture’s turf, and by the crippling degree of racial tension that permeated their lives.

Ari W.