New York! New York! New York!
Ahmiir McIver
Com 126New York! New York!
New York City is a common city that filmmakers use not only as a setting, but as a sort of character to portray their films overall themes and message. In the case of Do The Right Thing, Mean Streets, and Annie Hall; New York is more than a setting. It’s an identity that has all three films relate to each of the cultures stories that it represents and tells. From the Italian-American community in Mean Streets. The middle class Jewish community in Annie Hall. And the low income black community in Do The Right Thing.
Looking at Mean Streets, it can be seen that the film is an insider looking out. Martin Scorsese being of Italian descent, made this film from what he has experienced while growing up. In the film, we witness an Italian community that our characters have grown up in throughout their lives. With that in mind, they’ve witnessed and most likely experienced racism, misogyny, and crime. It’s a down to earth realistic representation of the citizens of Italian neighborhoods in NY because that was where a lot of them were getting off the boat at Ellis island. So, Mean Streets marked a turning point for cinema as I said before, a more realistic representation of everyday life for a citizen of a big city.
Annie Hall is the one film out of the three films that is very light on it’s representation. This film gave Allen an opportunity to represent the Jewish community in New York. Although the film has us follow a love story between Woody Allen and Diane Keaton’s characters, it has a sort of lighter tone to it compared to Mean Streets & Do The Right Thing. This film has many comedic elements to it, in order to give the audience and viewers a good perspective of what the characters in the film are going through internally. This is conveyed through Aldy and a few other characters being able to break the 4th wall and interact with the audience directly. This was done in the film to not only give the audience the characters perspective, but to know exactly how our pessimistic character Aldy thinks and acts on the world around him.
When it comes to Do The Right Thing, it shows the audience a representation of a culture that is still relevant in 2020; 31 years after the film's release. In the film, we are brought along for this journey of a black teen played by Lee as he navigates the low income black community that is portrayed in a hot summer in New York City. Throughout the film, we see some members of the community not being on good terms with the italian pizzeria run by Sal and his two sons. And connecting the italian representation in this film to Mean Streets, the audience saw how italians were a little racist towards other cultures. Particularly those of African American descent. So seeing those connect into Do The Right Thing and how that representation is carried over is just very interesting and crazy to think about. And the representation of the black community in the film could be said to be split into two. You have one side of the representation that wants to be a radical difference maker, and the other side can be the neutral. That wants to keep the peace and make everyone happy and satisfied.
In conclusion, all 3 of these films not only have New York city serve as the film's setting and backdrop, it also serves as storytelling that mixes different cultures and communities to tell this overarching story. And allow different representations for a melting pot of a city.
Intro is a huge organizational improvement! It leads the reader down a path that will connect and cross-examine cultural representations within the three films, using NYC as a backdrop. Your supporting paragraphs approach this sort of depth and investigation, but don’t quite solidify the connections between them. Your realization of the connection between Italian Americans in Mean Streets versus Do the Right Thing—their similarities and differences—is exciting to see you develop, but could use more fleshed out paragraphs, as well as examples from the films, to support. Very strong observation that Allen’s breaking of the fourth wall serves to let the audience into his character’s neurotic and self-obsessed perspective, and your assertion that Mean Streets is a “realistic representation” speaks somewhat to editing choices, however your overall technical and formal analyses of the films could be developed further. Overall, the organization of this essay is a big step forward in your writing process, AJ.
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