Casablanca and Do The Right Thing

Casablanca and Do The Right Thing




This essay will discuss similarities and differences between Casablanca and Do The Right Thing. Firstly ,Casablanca  is a romantic drama and was set in 1942, during World War 2, the film was released when France was under German control. Although Do The Right Thing is a drama and  was set in Brooklyn in 1989 , this was the period where the majority of Brooklyn’s population was black.
Casablanca uses micro features such as a blank and white affect, this is how films were shot during 1942, the film is dialogue heavy, meaning most action happens in the audio codes rather than the visual codes. However, Do The Right Thing is shot using twenty first century affects, also the audio and visual codes are evenly spread out ,rather than one being heavier like Casablanca.
Secondly, Casablanca uses the character of Rick to represent America in the war , Rick is represented as mutual ,while Vichy French,German officials and desperate refugees conflict with each other, he seems to be on all of their sides, we get this from the audio codes in the film ,as he says no bad or good about them. This is supposed to represent America during the war because at this point they wasn't involved in the war. To an extent this is like Da Mayor in Do the Right Thing,they are similar because he also doesn't take sides in the racial conflict, this is presented in the audio codes when he says “always do the right thing” ,this connotes to him telling everyone to do your best to solve the inequality without hurting anyone , this represents him as mutual similar to Rick.
Do The Right Thing explores the theme of racial inequality by using a mid-shot ,where the camera is panning towards the characters , direct address is used while they say racial slurs to the camera , the shot shows a policeman ,Sal and Mookie doing so. It creates a message that racism is a widespread problem. On the other hand Casablanca does not use this theme ,instead it explores the theme of desperation ,for example refugees in Casablanca are desperate to leave to the  still-neutral United States ,as they feel preyed upon in Casablanca.

To summarise both films explore historical events i.e world war 2 and the movement of equal rights for black people but do not share the same micro features and themes such as black and white effect to Casablanca.

Comments

  1. Coulsdon A Level Film and Media10 December 2017 at 09:49

    There are some relevant points raised in this writing Meghan but i feel that you could have dug a little deeper with your research. Talked more about the production elements and circumstances of each film, the Directors and themes would also allowed the reader to have a better understanding of your comparative elements of these films. You have however used some important Film specific terminology and going forward just ensure that your establish some contextually early on.

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