Do The Right Thing - Spike Lee

On a sweltering hot day in a Brooklyn neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant aka "Bed-Stuy", everyone has their own issues to deal with and tensions between Blacks and Italians rise. Issues of pride and prejudice, justice and inequity come to the surface as hate and bigotry brings rise to bring to light the racial conflict in the multi-ethnic community.

"The film was released to protests from many reviewers, and it was openly stated in several newspapers that the film could incite black audiences to riot. No such riots occurred, and Lee criticized white reviewers for implying that black audiences were incapable of restraining themselves while watching a fictional motion picture.

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. Critics have seen Mookie's action both as an action that saves Sal's life, by redirecting the crowd's anger away from Sal to his property, and as an "irresponsible encouragement to enact violence". 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.

Spike Lee has remarked that he himself has only ever been asked by white viewers whether Mookie did the right thing; black viewers do not ask the question. Lee 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." - Wikipedia

The movie starts off with a Hispanic girl dancing to Public Enemy's song "Fight The Power" with boxing gloves. This is also the song that Radio Raheem loves to blast on his radio on the loudest possible volume. "Fight the Power" is not about fighting authority, it’s about fighting abuse of power. I felt like this was fitting because the police and white men abused their power in that neighborhood. I also felt like it was ironic that Radio Raheem was murdered by the police officer and he was the one always playing the song.

 "Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant ---- to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother---- him and John Wayne
Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check
Don't worry be happy
Was a number one jam"



There were also a lot of references to two civil rights leaders (who both happened to be assassinated in their time); Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) and Malcolm X.  The film ends with two quotations. The first, from MLK argues that violence is never justified under any circumstances. The second, from Malcolm X, argues that violence is not violence, but "intelligence" when it is self-defense. Critics say that it is unclear where Spike Lee stands in respect to these two but I feel as though he is perfectly in the middle. In the movie, he didn't use violence until he felt like he had to. And even then it was only until the end that he actually turned to violence when he threw the garbage can through Sal's window.

This movie also did not hesitate to call out the stereotypes that different races have about each other. They pull absolutely no punches and speaks the truth. It has African Amercans speaking about Italians and vice versa, Hispanics about Asians, etc. It leaves no stone unturned.

All Buggin' Out wanted was for some black faces to be up on the wall. Is that really too much to ask? Blacks were the one who supported his business. In the end, it really didn't have to come to what it came to. Radio Raheem would still be alive, Sal would still own his store, and everyone could be one big happy "family". It shows just how unnecessary violence is because what did they really accomplish? Nothing changed. But overall, this was a really good movie. I would definitely recommend it and watch it again. I can't believe it didn't get any recognition back then because even today it is such a moving movie.