Casablanca/Do The Right Thing Comparison

Kurtiz' 'Casablanca' and Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing' are both influenced by the culture and history of the separate time periods they are set within America. While Casablanca's Film Noir Old Hollywood approach to the film mirrors the Second World War that is historically taking place at the time with America recently deciding to join in 1943 shortly after the influential meeting between Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt which most likely boosted the film's buzz at the time. Contrastly Spike Lee's DTRT arrived in 1989 at the turn of the decade which reflects the racially motivated themes of needed change within America that is promoted within the film. At the time hip hop was beginning to flesh itself out and it gave African Americans their voice in a place where they believed that they had none. Both films focus on the culture and historical context of their times but as an example to explain more complex issues such as race and crime within DTRT or international conflict and how it has affected interpersonal relationships inside Casablanca.

To deal with this both films examine the morality of their characters and how their society and surroundings effects the choices they make and various decisions that tend to have rippling effects as both films show through realism that their characters suffer the same realities as anyone susceptible to consequence. Casablanca for instance, depending on the where the character was born (Germany, France, America, allied states etc etc) it shows their alliance on a surface when used in the WW2 context but as we learn more about the characters we learn the most important within the film are the ones that aren't placed in either/or (good/bad, light/darkness) and their allegiances are subject to change depending sometimes on themselves. This shows how personal gain of can overrule the attitudes of a culture. This makes French Morocco an excellent example as the setting for the film as contextually all the characters are foreigners in a foreign land and visitors within Casablanca, politically Casablanca would have possessed a connection to France but due to their being considerable geographical distance between them it allowed Vichy French, Nazis and members of the resistance to reach a sort of uneasy understanding in which they are almost forced to be at ease in the midst of a war which naturally causes heavy amounts of tension and dangerous settings

Contextually however DTRT focuses on how your ethnicity has a large stake in the outcome of your life. Similarly both DTRT and Casablanca are set in ethnically diverse locations, DTRT in particular being set in Brooklyn, New York - mixture of blacks, hispanics, asians, latinas, italians american is presented as a literal melting pot (constant references to heat within the film through physical imagery of sweating and bright red scenery to emphasize heat) of races. This is shown through Casablanca and DTRT to emphasize racial tensions within America and how it can lead to violence all due to people refusing to accept one another due to  cultural differences.

In conclusion while comparatively DTRT focuses on how social and economical background effects the races within the film and Casablanca focuses on how as a basis all the different races within the film are literally at war with each other. Yet when both are examined on a deeper level it shows Casablanca tries to show the person behind the character trope and the roles they are forced into. DTRT shows how racial tension within American which has been prevalent even before Casablancas's release is leading to civil war conflicts between races that in reality share more in common than their oppressors, as there is a level of anger and hurt that only the heat and unhealthy food can emulate, the poorer people within this area feel the most amount of struggle in comparison to the ones with everything that attempt to take it for them; shown in the form of police brutality, within a riot the meaning behind the fight is lost unless it's done in the right way.