Do the Right Thing

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Do the Right Thing
Directed by Spike Lee
Produced by Spike Lee
Written by Spike Lee
Starring Danny Aiello
Ossie Davis
John Turturro
Ruby Dee
Richard Edson
Spike Lee
Bill Nunn
Rosie Perez
Giancarlo Esposito
John Savage
Music by Bill Lee
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) Flag of France May, 1989 (première at Cannes)
Flag of the United States June 30, 1989
Running time 125 minutes
Language English
Budget $6,500,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Do the Right Thing is a 1989 film produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee. 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 marks the feature film debuts of both Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. Samuel L. Jackson plays DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy, an alternative voice of the author to Spike Lee's character.

In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry one of three films to do so in its first year of eligibility.. A Criterion Collection DVD of Do the Right Thing has been released: it is no. 97 in the Criterion series. In 2007, the American Film Institute listed the film as the 96th greatest American Movie in Film History.

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). It appears 15 times in the film.

Do the Right Thing remains one of the few films to retain a 100% "Fresh" rating on the critics' site Rotten Tomatoes.[1]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Do the Right Thing is set on a single street in Bed-Stuy, a neighborhood in Brooklyn. The street is populated primarily by African-Americans and Puerto Ricans. At one end of the street is a pizzeria run by an Italian-American family and a Korean owned corner store.

The film features a multitude of characters. 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 pizzeria. Sal (Aiello), the pizzeria’s Italian-American owner, has owned the shop for twenty-five years. His older son Pino (Turturro) "detests the place like a sickness" and holds racial contempt for the neighborhood African Americans. His younger son Vito (Edson) is friends with Mookie, which Pino feels undermines their fraternal bond.

The Bed-Stuy street corner, which the characters populate, is filled with distinct personalities, 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 (Ruby Dee). Three unemployed men on the corner...Sweet Dick Willie, Coconut Sid and M.L. continuously crack jokes. M.L. detests the presence of a Korean owned and run market in their African American neighborhood, when they as African Americans are jobless. The character of Sweet Dick Willie replies that he will go to the market and that one of them(Coconut Sid/Frankie Faison) "came off the boat", not long ago. Mookie's girlfriend, Tina (Perez), is constantly nagging him about caring for their young son, Hector, and stopping by more often. 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. He wears a "love" and "hate" four-fingered ring on either hand which he explains in one scene to symbolize the struggle between the two forces. A mentally handicapped man named Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith) constantly meanders about the neighborhood, holding up hand-colored (with marking pens) pictures of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.. Mookie's sister, Jade (Joie Lee, the director's real life sister), and the local DJ, Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) round out the cast of characters.

Buggin' Out (Esposito) 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. 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 and sells pizza to black people). Sal replies that it 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 support his protest, until Radio Raheem, who got into an argument with Sal about playing his boombox loudly in the store.

Buggin' Out's own angst from gentrification comes to the front when he verbally attacks a white bicycler (John Savage), who knocks him in the back without apologizing and unknowingly scuffs his shoe. Buggin' Out begins to harass the man, regardless of the man's apology, telling him to "go back to Massachusetts." The small crowd continues to harass him and they unanimously object by exclaiming "Awwwww!" when he replies that he was born in Brooklyn.

Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out march into Sal's and stage a sit-in, protesting that Sal change the pictures on the wall. Radio Raheem's boombox is blaring, as always, Public Enemy's "Fight the Power," at the highest volume possible in lieu of their protest. 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 destroys Radio Raheem's boombox with a baseball bat. Radio Raheem's prized possession destroyed, he becomes enraged and begins choking Sal. Vito and Pino jump onto Radio Raheem in attempt to pull the men apart, at which point the other African American men in the restaurant join the scuffle. A fight ensues between Radio Raheem and Sal on one side and Buggin' Out and Pino on the other, with Vito and Mookie trying to break it up. The fight spills out into the streets, to a crowd of spectators cheering on the fight. White policemen arrive at the scene and begin to apprehend Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out. Radio Raheem is placed 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 killed by the arresting officer in a similar manner).[2] An underlying issue in this series of arrests is that of six officers present in this mostly African American neighborhood, only one officer on the scene is black and the rest are white. Buggin' Out yells angrily "You ain't gonna give a fucking beatin' to Pino, huh? Or Sal!?", and "you can't kill us all!" as he is arrested. Officers continue to beat him from the front seat of the car as they drive him away from the scene.

The fight drew a large crowd of onlookers, all of whom are enraged about Radio Raheem's death. Deciding that the floodgates are going to burst open eventually, Mookie grabs a trash can and, screaming "HATE!", slings it through the window of Sal's restaurant. The angry crowd becomes an angry riotous mob, and rushes into the restaurant and destroys everything within and Smiley starts a fire. The crowd yells "Burn it down!" as the fire spreads.

From there, the mob of black people...lead by M.L. begins to head for the Korean's market. "It's your turn now, mothafucka!" yells M.L. But Sunny, the owner tries to fight them off with a broom all while yelling, "I no white! I black! You...me...same! We same!", trying to explain he is one of them. The mob spares his store realising that he too is a racial minority, and begins to disperse with Coconut Sid saying to M.L., "Leave the Korean alone! He's alright!"

Firefighters arrive and begin spraying Sal's building as the crowd are held back by riot patrol. The firefighters turn their hoses on the mob (much like how Blacks were hosed during Civil Rights Movements in the 1960s) which further enrages the mob.

When it is all over, Sal's pizzeria is burned beyond recognition, while Sal and his two sons were saved by Da Mayor just before the riot started. 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" one of his pictures of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. shaking hands.

The next day, Mookie, who has been at Tina's goes to Sal's, where Mookie gets his weekly pay he had earlier been demanding to receive early. He and Sal cautiously reconcile.

The film ends on an ambiguous note due to two quotations. The first, from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., argues that violence is never justified under any circumstances. The second, from Malcolm X, argues that violence is "intelligent" when it is self-defense.

[edit] Characters

Mookie (Spike Lee)

Sal (Danny Aiello)

Da Mayor (Ossie Davis)

Mother Sister (Ruby Dee)

Vito (Richard Edson)

Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito)

Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn)

Pino (John Turturro)

ML (Paul Benjamin)

Coconut Sid (Frankie Faison)

Sweet Dick Willie (Robin Harris)

Tina (Rosie Perez)

Officer Ponte (Miguel Sandoval)

Officer Gary Long (Rick Aiello)

Mister Senor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson)

Jade (Joie Lee)

Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith)

Sonny (Steve Park)

Ahmed (Steve White)

Cee (Martin Lawrence)

Punchy (Leonard L. Thomas)

Ella (Christa Rivers)

Stevie (Luis Ramos)

Kim (Ginny Yang)

Clifton (John Savage)

Charlie (Frank Vincent)

[edit] Production

Spike Lee wrote the screenplay in two weeks.[citation needed] The original script of Do the Right Thing ends with a stronger reconciliation between Mookie and Sal. Sal's comments to Mookie mirror Da Mayor's earlier comments in the film and hint at some common ground and perhaps Sal's understanding of why Mookie was motivated to destroy his restaurant. It is unclear why Lee changed the ending. [3]

The film was shot entirely on a real street in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood. The street's color scheme was 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.

Spike Lee campaigned for Robert De Niro as Sal the pizzeria owner, but De Niro had to decline due to prior commitments. 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.[4] 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.

[edit] Controversies

Sal and Mookie in the aftermath of the riot
Sal and Mookie in the aftermath of the riot

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.[5] 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.[6]

For many viewers, one of many questions 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. However, Lee himself has stated that only white viewers ask this question. He believes the key point is that Mookie was angry at the death of Radio Raheem, and that viewers who question the riot's justification are implicitly valuing white property over the life of a black man.[7] Mookie tells Sal to "Motherfuck a window. Radio Raheem is dead".

In June 2006, Entertainment Weekly magazine placed Do the Right Thing at #22 on its list of "The 25 Most Controversial Movies Ever".

[edit] Political allusions

The film contains several allusions to then-recent race-related violent acts.

In the scene in which Mookie shows frustration with his sister for getting too close to Sal, "Tawana told the truth!" is spray painted on the bricks in the rear of this shot, referring to the 1987 Tawana Brawley rape incident. Towards the end of the film, at the peak of the riot that ensues after Radio Raheem's death, the gathered characters begin to chant "HOWARD BEACH! HOWARD BEACH!" referring to the 1986 Howard Beach incident.

[edit] Awards & nominations

1989 Academy Awards

  • Best Actor in a Supporting Role — Danny Aiello (nominated)
  • Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen — Spike Lee (nominated)

1989 Cannes Film Festival

  • Golden Palm — Spike Lee (nominated)

1990 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

  • Best Director — Spike Lee (won)
  • Best Picture (won)
  • Best Supporting Actor — Danny Aiello (won)

1990 Golden Globes

  • 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)

1991 NAACP Image Awards

  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture — Ruby Dee (won)
  • Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture — Ossie Davis (won)

1989 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards

  • Best Director — Spike Lee (won)
  • Best Music — Bill Lee (won)
  • Best Picture (won)
  • Best Supporting Actor — Danny Aiello (won)

1989 New York Film Critics Circle Awards

AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies

  • The American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the American film industry voted it the 96th greatest film of all time in its 10th Anniversary Edition, 2007

National Film Preservation Board

  • National Film Registry (1999)

MTV Movie Awards

  • The Bucket of Excellence (lifetime achievement award, 2006)

[edit] Connections with other Lee films

  • 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 whole 'Wake Up' scenario would go on to appear in numerous ways in Spike Lee's films such as Jungle Fever.
  • The child character (Eddie) to whom Da Mayor gives money to buy beer and whom he saves later on, wears a shirt with the inscription 'Da Butt.' 'Da Butt' was a song performed by Experience Unlimited that became popular after the band performed it in the party scene in Spike Lee's School Daze
  • The Air Jordan sneaker scuff scene was originally going to be in She's Gotta Have It, where a complete stranger steps on Mars Blackmon's black and red Jordans.
  • Rick Aiello and Miguel Sandoval portray Long and Ponte, two police officers who eventually arrest Buggin' Out and kill Radio Raheem in a choke-hold. Long and Ponte reappear to harass Wesley Snipes' character Flipper in Jungle Fever. Rick Aiello would go on to play a police officer in the final scene in 1995 movie, Clockers which was directed by Spike Lee.
  • In his 2006 movie Inside Man, Lee references Do the Right Thing by using pizza boxes that read "Sal's" on the lids.
  • In Bamboozled, white television producer Thomas Dunwitty attempts to demonstrate his knowledge of African-American culture by pointing to photos of black athletes hanging in his office and saying, "Look at all the brothers on the wall."

[edit] In popular culture

  • The comedic scenes involving the trio of middle-aged black men chatting on the street corner inspired animator Mike Judge to create the television show King of the Hill. He recalls, "I loved the moments of the old guys sitting out there, talking about the Korean grocer. I thought somebody should make a movie like that, but just about my suburban neighborhood." [8]
  • Strong Bad Email 4 branches references it when Strong Bad says, "or throw a trashcan through a plate glass window".
  • In the Episode "Miserable" (S1E2) of The Critic, Mookie (wearing a Malcolm X hat) yells "Yo, Sal, I got something for you man!" and throws a garbage can into Sal's window. Sal predictablely rushes out but contrary to normal expectations says "Aw Mookie! You found my trashcan!" and both chuckle in affection and embrace each other in a hug.
  • In an episode of Family Guy, Peter says "brothers and sisters fighting is as natural as a white man’s dialogue in a Spike Lee movie," leading to a cutaway to a black customer ordering a pizza and then focuses behind the counter to a character who vaguely looks like Danny Aiello drooling, clawing and snarling at the customer.
  • Spike Lee and Do the Right Thing have been honored by the release of special edition Air Jordans. On April 14, the Do the Right Thing Jordan 3 was released. The toe of the Jordan 3 can be seen on the cover of Do the Right Thing.
  • In the second season of Futurama, the episode "Mother's Day" sees a robot rebellion instigated by the villainous Mom. During a montage of the resulting carnage, a robotic trashcan leaps from the curve and throws himself through a plate glass window emblazoned with the words "Sal's Pizza".
  • In the Space Ghost: Coast to Coast episode "Hungry", Moltar calls a pizza parlor called "Sal's Pizza". There is also a chef named Mookie.
  • Canadian-Rapper Kardinal Offishall released a mixtape with Clinton Sparks entitled "Do the Right Thing".
  • In the TV series Martin starring Martin Lawrence, who also starred in the movie, the poster for the movie is on the wall in his apartment.
  • A reference to the film is made in the song "Oh, I Think They Like Me" by Dem Franchise Boyz, with the line: "Yeah I switched it up, I got a 9 cuffed tightly, so you better do the right thing, like Spike Lee".

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_the_right_thing/
  2. ^ "Spike Lee's Bed-Stuy BBQ", interview with Lee by Marlaine Glickman, 1989, rept. in Spike Lee Interviews, ed. Cynthia Fuchs (University Press of Mississippi, 2002), p.17.
  3. ^ Original script for Do the Right Thing
  4. ^ Do The RIght Thing DVD Audio Commentary
  5. ^ Klein, Joe. "Spiked?" New York 26 June 1989: 14-15.
  6. ^ 'Spike Lee's Last Word', special feature on the Criterion Collection DVD (2000)
  7. ^ 'Spike Lee's Last Word', special feature on the Criterion Collection DVD (2000)
  8. ^ Features - Esquire

[edit] 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.
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[edit] External links

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