Do the Right Thing

Do The Right Thing is a 1989 comedy-drama created by and starring Spike Lee. This film depicts the racial tensions within a certain majority black neighbourhood in Brooklyn. It’s obvious too assume that there are tensions between white and black Americans, however the film also shows the racial hatred between the different minorities in Brooklyn. The film shows the different opinions towards race relations and also shows the different ways in which individuals protest racial inequality. Some characters have a more aggressive approach highlighting and Malcolm X’s values and others have a more passive but equally important approach resembling Martin Luther King Jr’s values.

Spike Lee’s character ‘Mookie’ is a 25 year old African American father, he works for an Italian character called ‘Sal’ at a local Pizzeria which has been established for twenty-five years. Sal has two sons called ‘Pino’ and ‘Vito’, both brothers have different attitudes towards Mookie. The oldest brother Pino has an intense hatred towards African Americans and openly shows his racist attitudes towards Mookie throughout the film, Vito on the other hand has no problem with Lee’s character. There are many quirky characters in this film such as ‘Da Mayor’ who is the local drunk and ‘Radio Raheem’ who carries his boom box and plays public enemy openly without any regard for the rest of the neighbourhood. While in the restaurant Mookie’s friend ‘Buggin’ Out’ questions Sal’s ‘Wall of Fame’, the wall is full of Italian Americans and due to the fact the restaurant is in a majority black neighbourhood Buggin’ Out feels that there should be black celebrities on the wall. Sal disagrees and this leads to issues of race between two minorities, Mookie and Pino begin insulting one another based on their ethnic backgrounds. Later that night Radio Raheem and others supporting Bugin’ Out’s idea return to Sal’s and demand that there be black celebrities on the wall, tensions rise and a brawl breaks out. In one of the most iconic scenes in the movie police arrive to stop the brawl and one officer refuses to release Raheem from a chokehold, as a result he dies. A riot breaks out due to the death and Sal’s restaurant is destroyed.

Reviewers suggested that the ‘film could incite black audiences to riot’, Spike Lee criticised this view saying that the majority white reviewers were ‘implying that black audiences were incapable of restraining themselves while watching a fictional motion picture.’ You can see the racial tension that this movie caused after it was released. Do the Right Thing portrays the fragility of certain characters in terms of race, both ethnic groups are minorities but both still try to oppress the other. The film highlights issues such as police brutality and comparisons can be drawn from Raheem’s death and the Black Lives Matter movement of 2014 where the slogan was ‘Hands up, don’t shoot.’ This film shows the racial inequality between minorities and white America and many issues within this film are present today such as unnecessary police violence.       

Klein, Joe. "Spiked?" New York June 26, 1989: 14–15.

Spike Lee's Last Word', special feature on the Criterion Collection DVD (2000)