Reference no: EM13573398

Your assignment is to write a 750-word essay (word count is approximate) that responds to one of the questions below.

Thelma & Louise:

1. After you have viewed the film and formulated your own ideas about it, read the attached 1991 review of the film by Washington Post film critic Rita Kempley.

As you see, Kempley is generally enthusiastic about the film, yet toward the end she says: "It's hard not to enjoy this freewheeling journey, but it's even harder not to be troubled by the inappropriately dire ending. This borrowed ploy fails the characters, the movie and the audience. It's as if Khouri [Callie Khouri, author of the screenplay and Scott [Ridley Scott, the director] ran up against a roadblock" (Kempley review).

First, explain what Kempley means when she says the ending "fails the characters, the movie and the audience." Why does she call the ending "a borrowed ploy"? Second, is Kempley correct? Is the ending "inappropriately dire," as she claims? What are your reasons for agreeing with Kempley? If you disagree with her, that is, if you believe the Scott/Khouri ending is the right one for the film, explain why. [Explanation/persuasion.]

2. How do the characters Thelma Sawyer and Louise Dickinson change over the course of the film? Are their personalities different? What about their relationships with men? Why, for instance, does Louise want to avoid Texas at any cost? Who is Jimmy? Who is Louise's husband and why does she stay with him? Do the women's roles change during the film? How - and why -- do they change the way they dress? As always, cite specific scenes and details from the movie as examples of the similarities and differences between the two women. And, finally, what do those sims and diffs add up to? [Analysis of character.]

3. Some people become outsiders by choice, while others do so by circumstance or by force. Where do Thelma and Louise fit in this scheme? How do the causes of their "outsider-hood" contribute to their final destinies? [Analysis of character.]

Do the Right Thing:

4. After you have seen Do the Right Thing, thought about it and posted to the DB, read the attached retrospective commentary on the film by critic Roger Ebert. Toward the end of his commentary, Ebert says this about the film's characters: "None of these people is perfect. But Lee makes it possible for us to understand their feelings; his empathy is crucial to the film, because if you can't try to understand how the other person feels, you're a captive inside the box of yourself."

Explain what Ebert means by this statement. For which characters in the film does director Lee express "empathy"? What does Ebert mean by "...if you can't try to understand how the other person feels, you're a captive inside the box of yourself"?

5. Select a single character and explain that character's role or function in the film. Characters to consider are Sal (Danny Aiello), Mookie (Spike Lee), Mother Sister (Ruby Dee), Da Mayor (Ossie Davis), Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), Jade (Joie Lee), Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), Smiley (Roger Guenveur) and Mister Senor Love Daddy (Sam Jackson).

6. Consider the role of women in Do the Right Thing. They include Mother Sister (Ruby Dee), Tina (Rosie Perez) and Jade (Joie Lee, Spike Lee's real life sister). What is the role of these women in the mostly male world of the film? Are they merely relegated to cheering the men on from the sidelines or standing by and screaming for them to stop their violence?

7. What about the controversial scene in which Mookie tosses the garbage can through Sal's pizzeria plate glass window? Doesn't this rather dramatic act seem out of character for the normally peaceful Mookie? Why on earth would he do such a thing? What possible motive might he have? Is there any way in which it could be interpreted as "the right thing" to do? To understand this scene, I strongly recommend that (if it's at all possible and still have the DVD in your possession) you review frame by frame the moments that lead up to Mookie throwing the can. Notice what happens just prior to the act. Does viewing the scene again offer a possible explanation for his rash act? As part of your discussion of the scene, consider the film's final scene between Mookie and Sal. What's that all about? Why do these two men have a begrudging respect for each other, despite the fact that Mookie threw the can?

Comparing the two films:

8. Apply the King and Malcolm X quotations below to the situation of the two women in Thelma & Louise. Is Louise's act of violence toward the rapist an act of justified self-defense? Is the massive threat of violence at the end of the film justified?

Quotations at the end of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing:

"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 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." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

"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 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