Issue 75
News/Film Review of the Day: Did he Do The Right Thing?
I recently saw the movie Do the Right Thing and I must say it was certainly a brilliantly made film. If you have not yet seen the movie, I would either suggest you A: Go to the nearest video store and rent it, or B: Scroll down to the Band Names Section. Anyway: In the movie, A black radical named Buggin Out organises a boycott of a local pizza parlor (Sal's Pizzeria) because its wall of fame only includes Italian-American celebrities, despite the parlor's clientele being almost exclusively Black. The only person to join the radical in his boycott is a young man, Radio Raheem, who got banned from the parlor because he wouldn't turn down his music. Near the end the movie, Buggin Out and Raheem come out threatening to fight with him unless he puts some photos of black celebrities, while Raheem blasts "Fight The Power." After he has enough, Sal smashes the boombox and calls out the police. When the police come, they kill Raheem, thus pushing the character Mookie (played by director Spike Lee) over the edge, throwing a trashcan through the window of the Pizzeria, inciting a riot which destroys it beyond recognition. With this and the two quotes reproduced at the end in mind, the big question which has been in the mind of virtually every person who viewed the film is "Did Mookie do the Right Thing?" Spike Lee noted that he did do the right thing because he acted out of anger over the death of Raheem. First of all, it would seem to me that when Sal got angry, he was doing the right thing because he was basically trying to do his job, but after the police's situation got out of hand, it becomes clear that when chucking the trashcan, another question must be asked "What else could he do?" I believe that violence is only justified in the event of self-defense, as if the defensive party will have h(is/er) life in serious danger unless he does something, and in that case, with the death of a relatively innocent person, there was not much else that could be done. Phew. That was a tough one.
Band Name of the Day: Toxteth O'Grady, USA. From The Young Ones, he once stuck 604 marshmallows up one nostril and had the world's most sticky bogey.
Film Idea: Are You Ready For the Summer? A seventh grader runs from home and meets up with some unsavory characters, including an ex-teacher who became a Hilary Duff Stalker after a minor stroke which only left him with a different accent, the parents of his only female friend, who show him the hard way that his friend is really male, and (more sympathetically) a senile Blues player who inspires him to return home by giving a convoluted speech about trains, other old Bluesmen (real and fictional), and bludgeonings. Huck Finn meets Waking Life.
Quotes: (Both From the Movie mentioned earlier)
"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."
_________________Dr King.
"I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence."
_________Malcolm X
Link of the Day: The Worst album covers of all time.
I recently saw the movie Do the Right Thing and I must say it was certainly a brilliantly made film. If you have not yet seen the movie, I would either suggest you A: Go to the nearest video store and rent it, or B: Scroll down to the Band Names Section. Anyway: In the movie, A black radical named Buggin Out organises a boycott of a local pizza parlor (Sal's Pizzeria) because its wall of fame only includes Italian-American celebrities, despite the parlor's clientele being almost exclusively Black. The only person to join the radical in his boycott is a young man, Radio Raheem, who got banned from the parlor because he wouldn't turn down his music. Near the end the movie, Buggin Out and Raheem come out threatening to fight with him unless he puts some photos of black celebrities, while Raheem blasts "Fight The Power." After he has enough, Sal smashes the boombox and calls out the police. When the police come, they kill Raheem, thus pushing the character Mookie (played by director Spike Lee) over the edge, throwing a trashcan through the window of the Pizzeria, inciting a riot which destroys it beyond recognition. With this and the two quotes reproduced at the end in mind, the big question which has been in the mind of virtually every person who viewed the film is "Did Mookie do the Right Thing?" Spike Lee noted that he did do the right thing because he acted out of anger over the death of Raheem. First of all, it would seem to me that when Sal got angry, he was doing the right thing because he was basically trying to do his job, but after the police's situation got out of hand, it becomes clear that when chucking the trashcan, another question must be asked "What else could he do?" I believe that violence is only justified in the event of self-defense, as if the defensive party will have h(is/er) life in serious danger unless he does something, and in that case, with the death of a relatively innocent person, there was not much else that could be done. Phew. That was a tough one.
Band Name of the Day: Toxteth O'Grady, USA. From The Young Ones, he once stuck 604 marshmallows up one nostril and had the world's most sticky bogey.
Film Idea: Are You Ready For the Summer? A seventh grader runs from home and meets up with some unsavory characters, including an ex-teacher who became a Hilary Duff Stalker after a minor stroke which only left him with a different accent, the parents of his only female friend, who show him the hard way that his friend is really male, and (more sympathetically) a senile Blues player who inspires him to return home by giving a convoluted speech about trains, other old Bluesmen (real and fictional), and bludgeonings. Huck Finn meets Waking Life.
Quotes: (Both From the Movie mentioned earlier)
"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."
_________________Dr King.
"I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence."
_________Malcolm X
Link of the Day: The Worst album covers of all time.
Labels: Movies
posted by DerekAxe at 8:00 PM
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