Sarah Jett Rayburn, Ph.D. Candidate "Everyone wants to know the whole truth but no one possesses it."

1. A.) In their films, both Spike Lee and Ben Affleck both uses different techniques to support their claims. In Do the Right Thing, Lee relies on tons of imagery and sound. Opening scene of his film, a girl is dancing aggressively to the music. The audience will notice that her outfit changes throughout the scene. As the music gets more intense—“fight the power”---she is using boxing gloves. When one is using boxing gloves, one is willing to fight someone or something. Lee uses pathos here that appeals to power, which supports his claim that it is right to fight for power. In addition, this builds Lee’s ethos because people who can relate to the “fight the power” movement will trust Lee. The diction Lee uses in the word “fight” is strong because it is repeated over and over again, and therefore embedded in the audience’s head. His message is “fight the power” and building his ethos early on in the movie, he grasps his audience into believing him. Similar to Lee, Ben Affleck builds up his character, Patrick Kenzie , early on in the movie by creating a narrative voice by Kenzie himself. Being able to hear Kenzie’s thoughts, the audience is more aware of what he feels as he adventures through the neighborhood. This technique that Affleck uses builds his and Kenzie’s ethos right away. It introduces to the audience early in the film of what this neighborhood is like. Realizing that it’s a beat down neighborhood, the audience can understand how Amanda can possibly get kidnapped.

2. B.) In Gone Baby Gone, images are more important than the soundtrack itself. If the audience were to listen to the soundtrack only and not see images, the impact of Ben Afflect use of pathos would lessen. For example, when we find out that Amanda is kidnapped, the images of her aunt bawling appeals to the audience. Everyone has cried for different reasons and the audience can relate to this. If there were no images, we wouldn’t be able to capture that same impact. In addition, when the scene is focused on the picture frame of the kidnapped, innocent Amanda, this definitely appeals to pathos. When the audience see this cute young girl, they wonder, how can anyone kidnap such an innocent angel? She is only 3 and is so vulnerable. With this, the audience is then more engaged in the film, with hope in finding Amanda.

3. In the film Do the Right Thing, the film’s claim is embedded in its title; however, Lee also proposes that Doing the Right Thing is hard whenever you are influenced by your own surroundings . In the movie, Lee portrays Sal as a hard working man who owns a pizzeria in a black neighborhood. Without a single racism hair on his body, he is faced with so many different dilemmas where he is forced to act the way he does. Early on in the movie, Buggin’ out makes a scene in Sal’s pizzeria about how there are not any black people on Sal’s wall of fame. In Sal’s defense, it is his pizzeria and he can do whatever he wants to it. Sal, never wanting trouble, kicks Buggin’ Out out of this pizzeria. In this scene, Lee is revealing to the audience that Sal is trying to do the right thing by kicking Buggin’ Out out of his pizzeria because if he were to stay, more drama will grow. However, drama still emerges as Buggin’ Out goes around, trying to convince everyone to boycott Sal’s pizzeria. Most of the characters rejected Buggin’ Out’s request. By doing this Lee shows that some of these character can chose to do the right thing and avoid the conflict. However, his prey is caught when Buggin’ Out is able to lure Radio Raheem into the drama. Here, Lee suggests to the audience that drama is contagious and Buggin’ Out did not do the right thing by causing more drama. Towards the end, Sal is faced with a big conflict. Contradictory to his usual drama-free self, he explodes violently and starts beating Radio Raheem’s radio with a baseball bat. Lee is illustrating to the audience that Sal has being doing the right thing for so long, however, when someone crosses the line, it is hard for any individual, even Sal, not do the wrong thing.

4. B.) The defining moment of Gone Baby Gone is when Patrick Kenzie had to choose whether or not to call the police and take Amanda to her drug-addicted mother or leave her safely with someone who actually cares for her--Doyle. It is the defining moment because the audience has no idea what Kenzie’s thoughts are. Swayed into thinking that Kenzie will leave her with someone secured like Officer Doyle, the audience is slapped in the face with the outcome when he decides otherwise. Kenzie has always played by the rules. The decision that Patrick Kenzie made has nothing to do with what is right or wrong. It is a matter of principles. To him, following your principles is more important than how much it hurts someone else. Following your principles is a hard thing to do at times and Kenzie proved to the audience that he has the strength to do it.
The Defining moment in Do the Right Thing is when Mookie surprisingly throws the trash can through Sal’s pizzeria window. Like Gone Baby Gone’s defining moment, the audience is appalled at Mookie’s action. How can Mookie do such a thing to Sal when Sal is like a fatherly figure to him? Sal has watched this neighborhood grow within the last 25 years. He definitely has respect for the people who lives in the neighborhood. Raheem’s death is clearly wrong but Mookie has no reason to blame Sal for something the police did. Sal did not murder Raheem and should not be punished for it. Mookie took his anger on something other than the source--the police. Mookie continues to shock the audience at the end of the movie as he approaches Sal with no remorse whatsoever and just took the money from Sal when he clearly does not deserve it.

BONUS:
In both Spike Lee and Ben Affleck’s films, there are different issues raising the question of what is ethic and unethical. One of the themes of Do the Right Thing is no matter how hard one try to avoid racial conflicts, racial tension will eventually build up. Spike Lee shows us that Sal is Italian and lives in a black neighborhood. As much as Sal tried to avoid racial tension, it still crept up behind him. Did Sal do the “right” thing when he beat up Raheem’s radio? Was throwing a trashcan at his window necessary? In Gone Baby Gone, the theme is do not trust anyone no matter how trustworthy they seem. Policemen are individuals who revolve their lives in following and enforcing the law. However, Ben Affleck reveals to us that even the law--policeman--is corrupt. Even though taking Amanda seemed like the right thing to do, was it ethical on Doyle’s part? Is it right capture a mother’s only child? In both films, Spike and Affleck focus on whether or not something is right. We all know that as perfect as America looks on the outside, the inside embraces more depth and concerns--racial, justice, betrayal, and much more.