Comparative Essay Visual & Performing Arts Essay Paper

"Do the Right Thing" vs "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul": A Comparative Essay 
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Introduction.
Films are created to either support or oppose a particular point of view, a trending phenomenon, or an ideology. All films contain a notion of an ideology at some point in its viewing. However, whereas some movies oppose and criticize the subject matter in which it has been developed upon with an attempt to offer an alternative one, others support and drive for the activation of a dominant ideology by reinforcing commonly accepted principles, ideas, and social hierarchies. This essay intends to analyze how the prevailing social norms and forms of power come in conflict with the ideologies of the films, Do the Right Thing and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. The creators of the two films have included contrasting ideas that do not conform to the social norms of the land, to build an alternative ideology that should be adopted by the viewers.
Body
Do the Right Thing is an American comedy-drama movie released in 1989 by Spike Lee. The story of the film is one of the most controversial narratives of all time as it explores a neighborhood in Brooklyn, which is vastly dominated by racism and racial tension that results in the death of a black person on one day of the summer. The whole length of the movie exhorts the viewer to "Fight the Power," and their ideologies as its opening scenes and climaxes show a group of black people rioting in the streets of the city where one of them was murdered by the New York Police (Doherty, 2017). The film rotates around the correct answer for the question of what the right ideology would be for black people, from the three dominant ideologies ruling the city; riot, resistance, or economism. Spike Lee employs his outstanding moviemaking skills to bring out the numerous ideas of black people on moralism, ideological signification, their rap style, and many others of their street trappings as well as their thoughts on the relevance of the activities.
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is another film whose subject matter conflicts with the shared beliefs and social norms of the people. The film was created, written, and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1974 in West Germany. Having had a positive reception at the time, the film is considered one of the masterpieces of Fassbinder despite its message. The story revolves around the relationship between a sixty-year-old cleaning mistress, Emmi, and away from a younger individual, Ali, an ex-pat from Morocco (Fassbinder, 1974). The setting of the film is in West Germany in 1974. The two started their relationship as close friends, and then developed into a deep romance. Nevertheless, their pairing was rendered improbable, and their association caused significant among the family, relatives, and friends of Emmi. The central theme of the movie is that love conquers all social barriers (Auestad, 2012). This is in the wake of the sense that the two were from arguably different social classes and races, and the stigma and the laws of the land did not allow for such relationships during the time.
The two films are similar to their content, the idea of racism, and conflicts arising from social hindrances. This section discusses how the creators of the two films have presented the notion of racism. In Do the Right Thing, racist implications appear throughout the film. The type of racism displayed in the movie is both institutional and individual. Firstly, the setting of the film was agreeably appropriate as it is acted in a neighborhood in Brooklyn in the 1980s where people were subjected to live and interact with people from different races and classes. Therefore, there arose numerous conflicts and problems that contribute to the main plot of the movie. Institutional racism is presented in the form of Sal's Pizzeria, a joint owned by a family of Italians. Two families are outwardly racist and have a robust dislike of the black community. One significant conflict on the grounds of race in the film is when the owner of the pizzeria asks Sal why he has only pictures of other Italians on his wall (Doherty, 2017). The kid attempts to complain, and he is kicked out of the store.
In Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, the two lovers encounter a robust racial tension. The neighbors of Emmi are visibly upset with her decision to live with an Arab man in her apartment. Therefore, to punish her, they demand that Emmi should start cleaning the stairwell twice a month on the same wage because Arabs bring too much dirt than other people living in the building (Fassbinder, 1974). Moreover, Emmi's landlord is disappointed in her actions as he finds it odd, letting Ali lives in the neighborhood. After they decided to get married, they visit a restaurant where another racial conflict a...