“Incredibly original filmmaking”: the movie that set an aspirational bar for Edward Norton
Whenever artists at the top of their game reveal their sources of inspiration, it’s always fascinating for fans to revisit these works and understand how they have shaped their favourite’s journey over the years. For Edward Norton, the star of gems such as Fight Club and American History X, there is one particular movie that influenced him to view filmmaking from a completely different perspective.
That film was none other than Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, among the definitive American masterpieces that exposed the inherent violence embedded in the country’s historical and contemporary race relations. Set on a boiling hot summer day, it paints a vivid portrait of the residents of Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy as they navigate their own prejudices and problems, resulting in an unforgettable eruption of violent catharsis.
It’s interesting to note how Lee’s magnum opus affected Norton’s artistic vision, especially because the American actor has also been involved with political filmmaking. Be it the influential critique of capitalist alienation in Fight Club or the unsettlingly raw depiction of right-wing extremism in American History X, Do the Right Thing probably occupied a place in Norton’s subconscious while he was working on all these projects.
During a conversation recorded on Roger Ebert’s website, the Moonrise Kingdom star opened up about how Lee’s work completely transformed any preconceived notions he had about the power of visual storytelling and its potential. The viewing not only broadened his understanding of the medium but also showed that films could capture political realities in a way that other art forms were simply not equipped to do.
While talking about the movie, Norton explained: “One of the films that set my aspirational bar when I was of a certain age was Do The Right Thing. It was incredibly original filmmaking. It was so dynamic. It also was so incredibly sophisticated for this very young filmmaker at the time. It was like it took on things that nobody talked about, let alone in a film, and it didn’t answer the question.”
He added: “It clearly set up this whole dialogue, and then at the end, it put up a quote from Martin Luther King that said like, essentially violence is not a response that will create a progress, and then Malcolm X saying sometimes violence is the only rational answer, and then picture of the two of them together and fade out. Basically, it was like, ‘Oh my God, he just literally said over to you.’ He just said,'”I’m going to tell you a story, now you assess it.'”
Anyone who has seen Do the Right Thing knows that it’s the kind of masterpiece that remains embedded in your brain long after you’ve finished watching it, burrowing into your thoughts like a kernel of powerful artistic expression that’s ready to explode at any time. Any film that has attempted to broach the subject following Do the Right Thing’s release will always live in its shadow in one way or another, inevitably reminding audiences of how Lee got the ball rolling.
