Manuel Gonzalez
I was the only child of my first 14 years, so I spent a lot of time alone. Whether it is in books, movies, or songs, I start to immerse myself in stories. I want to escape from reality has always attracted me. However, my mother pushed me to be a chef or lawyer, when I was good at it, a baseball player. When I saw Spike Lee at the age of 16, I already knew I wanted to be a writer. I read a lot of Stephen King novels and short stories, and even saw some adaptations of his work. Apart from reading, despite the very different formats, I watched a lot of movies to get a better idea of my understanding of craftsmanship.
In the first half of the hour of “doing the right thing”, I knew I had never seen anything like that. From Rosie Perez’s opening honor dance to Samuel L. Yes, I guess that’s going to be a big difference.
Admittedly, I can’t figure out what the film is going on. But that doesn’t matter. I was fascinated by the characters and how they were introduced. Smiley is an intellectually disabled person trying to preach Malcolm X. Radio Raheem to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The controversial coexistence between Mayor Da and his mother and sister. It’s hard not to invest. I learned a lot from this movie about features, character introductions, developments and arcs. Perhaps more than anyone else.
Race and racism are prominent themes that appear in almost every scene. In these scenes, these themes, as well as Bill Lee’s excellent score, are filled with humor. Most of the comedy comes from Greek chorus-like trio (Robin Harris, Frankie Faison and Paul Benjamin), who sit outside and argue about Mike Tay Mike Tyson, sometimes even too hot to have sex. Or it could be from Buggin’ (Giancarlo Esposito) and his inappropriate friends (including Martin Lawrence), who opened the fire hydrant and annoyed the only white man nearby.
This tone lasted most of the film–until it slowly gave way to a more serious film. I inevitably invested in characters and slow architectural tensions, and suddenly I faced the climax of the movie. There, when Rahim Radio was killed by cho, I just had to stop the video and turn off the TV. I can’t handle what I’m seeing. I feel betrayed. Lee pulled me nearby, making me like and afraid of the characters, and then was reluctant to take me to a dark alley, and he seemed to try to avoid an hour and a half. The intensity of the incident – anger, long-standing digging of attitudes, and of course violence – scared me at the age of 16.
I debated without going back to it. I mean, only half an hour left. But I decided to reopen everything, because things need not only know how it ends. This is about the news. This is about the spacecraft. It’s about art. For two hours, Lee made me laugh, think and make me realize that writing a movie can be a more powerful means for artists to express themselves and become a testimony and eternal voice of society, because unlike novels, it is A visual medium. Images, powerful images can burn into our brains along with the artist’s unique view of society. In this way, the movie will never end. It stayed with us and lasted for a long time. We will never forget the simple advice of the DA Mayor: “Always do the right thing.”
Manuel Gonzalez is a trade screenwriter and professional story analyst. He lives in the East Side of Los Angeles with his wife and son and works in CAA, Paradigm, UTA, Hartbeat and Sony Pictures. He is a lifelong dodger and he will fight more than the people he says badly to them. He can be contacted at manuel.i.glez@gmail.com.
