Do The Right Thing
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Do the Right Thing is a 1989 motion picture produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee and released by Universal Pictures. The film tells a tale of bigotry and racial conflict in a multi-ethnic community in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on the hottest day of the year. It stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn and John Turturro. Do the Right Thing also marks the feature film debuts of both Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. It is the second film role ever for Samuel L. Jackson, who plays DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy, an alternative voice of the author to Spike Lee's character.
It is often regarded as Lee's finest film (with the possible exception of Malcolm X).
In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. A Criterion Collection DVD of Do the Right Thing has been released: it is no. 97 in the Criterion series.
The song "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy is a recurring aural motif in the film, as blasted from a huge ghetto blaster toted by Radio Raheem (Nunn).
Roger Ebert famously said it was "the only film to ever make me cry." [link]
Synopsis
The film features a multitude of characters, almost all of whom are portrayed sympathetically. The main character in the film is Mookie (Lee), a young man who lives with his sister and works as a pizza delivery man for the local Sal's Pizzeria. Mookie isn't very diligent about making his deliveries with any sort of punctuality, but is obsessed with making money: "I gotta get paid". Sal (Aiello), the pizzeria’s Italian-American owner, has owned the shop for decades, even after most of the other white residents have moved out, because he respects his customers. His youngest son Vito (Edson) shares his view, but his eldest son Pino (Turturro) "detests the place like a sickness" and "hates niggers."
The Bed-Stuy street corner the characters populate is filled with distinct characters, most of whom are just trying to find a way to deal with the intense heat and go about their regular day-to-day activities. A philandering drunk called Da Mayor (Davis) is constantly trying to win both the approval and affection of the neighborhood matron, Mother-Sister (Dee). Three unemployed men on the corner constantly crack jokes on passersby, and comment on the Korean owners of the nearby convenience store. Mookie's girlfriend (Perez) is constantly nagging him about caring for their infant son. A young man named Radio Raheem (Nunn) lives for nothing else but to blast Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" on his boombox wherever he goes, and wears a "love" and "hate" four-fingered ring on either hand to symbolize the struggle between the two forces. A retarded man named Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith) constantly meanders about the neighborhood, holding up hand-colored (with crayons) pictures of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. A DJ named Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) operates a radio station nearby, acting as both a narrator and a character.
Buggin' Out (Esposito) is a wannabe Black nationalist who makes sure his points are heard by whoever is in ear shot. Upon entering Sal's shop, he notices that Sal's "Wall of Fame" is decorated with dozens of pictures of celebrity actors, athletes, etc.--all of them Italian. When Buggin' Out questions Sal about the "Wall of Fame" and demands he place some pictures of African-American celebrities on the wall (since, he explains, Sal's pizzeria is situated in a black neighborhood), Sal replies that this is his store, he is proud of his Italian heritage, and that he isn't going to put anyone but Italians on his wall. Buggin' Out attempts to start a protest over the "Wall of Fame", but no one will listen to him or take his trivial issue seriously except for Radio Raheem, who had been criticized by Sal earlier that day for playing his boombox.
Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out march back into Sal's, and stage a sit-in protest until Sal changes the pictures on the wall. Radio Raheem's boombox is blaring, as always, Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", and at the highest volume possible. Sal demands that they turn the radio down or leave the shop, which the two men refuse to do. Reaching his wit's end, Sal snaps, and, after screaming "turn that jungle music off!", destroys Radio Raheem's boombox with a baseball bat. His prized possession destroyed, Radio Raheem goes insane and begins choking Sal. A fight ensues between Buggin' Out & Radio Raheem on one side and Sal & Pino on the other, with Vito and Mookie trying to break it up. The fight spills out into the streets, where a white policeman apprehends Radio Raheem and places him in a choke hold that kills him (a reference to a 1983 incident where graffiti artist Michael Stewart was apprehended for defacing public property, and placed in a choke hold by the police that killed him). A major issue that instills in this series of arrests is that of 6 officers present in this majority African American neighborhood, only one officer on the scene is Black and the rest are White. Buggin' Out is arrested and states "You're taking me to jail, huh, you're not taking Vito or Pino or Sal." adding to the tension.
The fight had by this time gathered a large crowd of onlookers, all of whom become enraged after the police kill Radio Raheem. Deciding that the floodgates are going to burst open eventually, Mookie grabs a trashcan and, screaming "HATE!", slings it through the window to Sal's. The angry crowd becomes an angry riotous mob, and rushes into the restaurant and destroys everything within and Smiley starts a fire. Firefighters arrive and begin spraying the building as the crowd are held back by riot patrol. The situation escalates because of this and the firemen begin spraying the crowd with water and attacking them violently, trying to control them. When it is all over, Sal's pizzeria is burned beyond recognition, Sal and his two sons (saved by Da Mayor just before the riot starts) are out of a business, Buggin' Out has been carted off to jail, and Smiley, with no one else around to see, wanders back into the smoldering restaurant and, sympathetic to Buggin' Out's cause, hangs on what's left of Sal's "Wall of Fame" a picture of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. shaking hands.
The next day, Mookie goes to Sal's, where the two discuss the incident, Mookie gets his money, and he and Sal cautiously reconcile.
The film ends with two quotations. The first, from Martin Luther King, argues that violence is never justified under any circumstances. The second, from Malcolm X, argues that violence is justified when used to counter forces of oppression. The audience is left to resolve the contradiction themselves, since both quotes claim to "Do the right thing".
Controversies
The film was released to protests from many reviewers, including Joe Klein in New York magazine; it was openly stated in several newspapers that the film could incite black audiences to riot. In the event, no such riots occurred, and Lee criticized white reviewers for assuming that black audiences were incapable of restraining themselves while watching fiction.The central question at the end of the film is whether Mookie 'does the right thing' when he throws the garbage can through the window, thus inciting the riot that destroys Sal's pizzeria. The question is directly raised by the contradictory quotations that end the film, one advocating non-violence, the other advocating violent self-defense in response to oppression. Lee himself has stated that this question is only one that bothers white viewers. He believes that the key point is that Mookie was angry at the death of Radio Raheem, and that viewers who consider the riot unjustified are implicitly valuing property over the life of a black man.
Awards & nominations
1990 Academy Awards- Best Actor in a Supporting Role — Danny Aiello (nominated)
- Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen — Spike Lee (nominated)
- Golden Palm — Spike Lee (nominated)
- Best Director — Spike Lee (won)
- Best Picture (won)
- Best Supporting Actor — Danny Aiello (won)
- Best Director (Motion Picture) — Spike Lee (nominated)
- Best Motion Picture - Drama (nominated)
- Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture — Danny Aiello (nominated)
- Best Screenplay (Motion Picture) — Spike Lee (nominated)
- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture — Ruby Dee (won)
- Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture — Ossie Davis (won)
- Best Director — Spike Lee (won)
- Best Music — Bill Lee (won)
- Best Picture (won)
- Best Supporting Actor — Danny Aiello (won)
- Best Cinematographer — Ernest R. Dickerson (won)
- National Film Registry (1999)
- The Bucket of Excellence (lifetime achievement award, 2006)
Trivia
- During the riot scene, several African-Americans are chanting "Howard Beach!" at the police, a direct reference to the racially charged incident of December 20, 1986, which resulted in the death of African-American teenager Michael Griffith in the Howard Beach section of Queens in New York City. Some individuals have even suggested that the actual chant was "Coward Beach", which would be a sly commentary on Lee's part about racially charged attacks on African-Americans at the hands of both police officers and White civilians.
- The character of Smiley was not in the original script; he was created by Roger Guenveur Smith, who was pestering Spike Lee for a role in the film.
- Rick Aiello and Miguel Sandoval portray Long and Ponte, two racist police officers who eventually arrest Buggin' Out and kill Radio Raheem. Long and Ponte reappear to harass Wesley Snipes' character Flipper in Jungle Fever.
- In the surreal final scene of School Daze, Dap Dunlap (Laurence Fishburne) pleads with the other characters (and the audience) to "Wake Up!" This exhortation is repeated by Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) at the beginning of Do the Right Thing.
- The film was shot entirely on a real street in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood. The street's color scheme was, however, heavily altered by the production designer, who used a great deal of red and orange paint in order to help convey the sense of a heatwave.
- The ovens in the pizzeria set were actually operational, and Danny Aiello learned to knead pizza dough in preparation for his role.
- In contrast to the serious nature of the film, three of the cast members were stand-up comedians -- Martin Lawrence, Steve White, and the late Robin Harris.
- Spike Lee wrote the screenplay in two weeks.
- Spike Lee campaigned for Robert De Niro as Sal the pizzeria owner, but De Niro had to decline due to prior commitments.
- In June 2006, Entertainment Weekly magazine selected Do the Right Thing as #22 on its list of "The 25 Most Controversial Movies Ever".
References
- Spike Lee's Last Word. Documentary on the Criterion Collection DVD of Do the Right Thing. 2000.
- Spike Lee et al. Commentary on the Criterion Collection DVD of Do the Right Thing. 2000.
- In his 2006 movie "Inside Man," Director Spike Lee referenced "Do the Right Thing" by using pizza boxes that read "Sal's" on the lids.
External links
- [Script-O-Rama.com] - screenplay.
- [Roger Ebert essay at criterionco.com]
| Films directed by Spike Lee |
| ' • She's Gotta Have It • School Daze • Do the Right Thing • Mo' Better Blues • Jungle Fever • Malcolm X • Crooklyn • Clockers • Girl 6 • Get on the Bus • 4 Little Girls • He Got Game • Freak • Summer of Sam • The Original Kings of Comedy • Bamboozled • A Huey P. Newton Story • ' • Sucker Free City • 25th Hour • She Hate Me • Inside Man • When the Levees Broke |
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