Do the Right Thing (1989)

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Do the Right Thing (1989) – S. Lee

I’m sure it has been a couple of decades since I watched this last – and it really holds up.  Spike Lee’s loving look at the denizens of one Brooklyn street in Bed-Stuy over the course of one very hot day is also a careful analysis of a race riot.  Lee himself plays Mookie the pizza delivery man working for Sal (Danny Aiello) who runs his restaurant in an all black neighbourhood with his two sons, Pino (John Tuturro) and Vito (Richard Edson).  All seems friendly and community-like until Buggin Out (played by Giancarlo Esposito) notices that Sal’s “wall of fame” holds pictures only of Italian Americans.  This omission (a more passive form of racism than actual hostility) rankles him and he calls for a boycott of the restaurant.  Most of the (black) people on the street ignore him or actively dissuade him from the campaign (for example, Da Mayor Ossie Davis, a sweet old drunk), given their friendship with Sal.  But as the day gets hotter, everyone starts to get under each other’s skin and Pino’s explicit racism doesn’t help anyone.  Lee includes a great (non-naturalistic) bit where the central characters (including the Korean grocer across the street) hurl racist slang at each other (comic, though painful/real deep down).  Eventually, the easy-going day turns into a violent night – Lee’s script manages to engineer this change gradually and subtly; it’s possible no one is to blame or everyone is to blame – no one seems to have intended this outcome.  It might be better to say that society is to blame (racism is institutionalised), particularly as those with power wield it to very ill effect against those with no power.  Public Enemy on the soundtrack signals the call for change (Fight the Power!).  At the end, Lee leaves us with two quotes, one from Martin Luther King (advocating non-violent protest) and one from Malcolm X (advocating any means necessary).  To its credit, Do the Right Thing knows it’s complicated -- but we should all adhere to the title’s admonition if there is to be any justice in this world.