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Homage to Radio Raheem

samovar - 2013-03-14 10:12

It goes without saying that all serious s2goers know by heart Spike Lee's classic, Do the Right Thing (1989)

 

do_the_right_thing

 

So I'm preaching to the converted when I refer to the famous scene when Radio Raheem wins the boombox battle with his neighbors. Ever since the premiÈre of the movie, RR's badass SuperJumbo has risen to cult status and his favorite song, Fight the Power by Pubic Enemies, has become the symbol of hip-hop even for those who know next to nothing of street culture

 

RR_Superjumbo

 

Yet two questions keep haunting me, and I won't find peace until somebody helps me solve the riddle. What is the box defeated by the SuperJumbo, and what's the song wiped out by Fight the Power?

 

other_side_of_RR

brutus442 - 2013-03-14 11:52

Hey Samovar,

 

Not sure about the song, but the radio looks like a Prosonic PQR 9850 or an AKA

http://REPLACEMENT ERROR/clip/236319751707309599

 

bison - 2013-03-14 16:59

Love that battle scene,always makes me smile.the box i carried as a kid would simply be turned off if any other boxes were around it was that lame..)

samovar - 2013-03-15 03:05

Hey Brutus442! Yes, the Prosonic or one of its a.k.a. seems to be a very likely candidate --if not "the" candidate-- for the anti-SuperJumbo. How beautiful it is! It would be interesting to stage a real battle with a Super Jumbo and see what happens!

 

I too love this scene, bison. Spike Lee is a wonderful director with an immense talent and an even greater cinematic culture. See how he pays homage to Robert Mitchum in the scene where the audience is introduced to the character fo Radio Raheem: Here's the clip from Do the Right Thing:

 

 

Compare it with the one from Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter (1955):

 

 

The homage, pointed out by Spike Lee himself in an interview, is cleverly put in context in the movie. To wit: since Radio Raheem is an Afro-American raised in the myth of Jack Johnson and Mohammed Ali, wrestling is turned into boxe, and the love/hate tattoo into oversized rings. Isn't it wonderful?

 

 

deech - 2013-03-15 07:04

This movie is so great not only for the boxes

used by the protagonists but also for

the message it manages to deliver .