Review of Do the Right Thing (1989) by Diego T — 11 Jan 2014

Quick explanation: Starting now, I will no longer write 5,000-character reviews for movies that nobody cares about, because they tend to not get read, and it's a waste of my time. Instead, I will write one-to-two-paragraph long blurbs and post them as my reviews. If you want them expanded upon, please comment, and I will then write a full review for them. As always, recent movies that are still in theaters or came out this year will get full reviews.

It's pretty much universally accepted that movies reflect a lot about what a group, culture, or nation is going through at the time that the movie was made. Godzilla reflected the Japanese's fears of nuclear bombs, and their humiliation at losing WWII. Star Wars was a happy, straightforward, black-and-white movie with moral absolutes that made a welcome distraction from the war and poverty at the time. And just as these movies are perfect time capsules of the way we were then, Do The Right Thing is a time capsule of the way were were in the 1990s-- and unfortunately, still are. The one difference: Those movies didn't hit you in the face with their message until you were knocked unconscious.

Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, which he directs and stars in, is the story of racial tension in a small Brooklyn community on a hot summer day. This is a movie that asks a lot of its audience, forcing them to think (but not too much) and putting them through a dialogue-driven movie in which every character is all but incomprehensible. The stereotypes in this movie are surprisingly uncreative, with Korean grocery store owners who speak in thick accents, Italian pizza-makers who yell "BIPPITY BOOPITY BOO!" and black guys with afros who carry boom boxes around. I didn't expect it to be this stereotyped, but it works, as the movie definitely exposes some truths about racial tension.

Sadly though, the film takes a turn for the worse towards the end, where the main character Mookie (Spike Lee himself) initiates a riot against the aforementioned Italian pizzeria owners. We've supposedly been rooting for this character for the whole movie, and suddenly the character goes through a complete turnaround that makes him simultaneously unrealistic and unlikable. It's not very good. Not to mention that half of the characters are annoying, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. Mookie's girlfriend, a high-pitched, shrill Mexican girl is so fucking obnoxious I wanted to scream.

Final Score for Do The Right Thing: 6/10 stars. It's good but not great (as some people say). Although it's well-done, the thing it's trying to isn't very admirable. Sure, it's trying to expose truths about racial tension in mixed ghettos, but much like this year's Elysium, it spends way too much time establishing how important it is to the world instead of actually trying to convey its message. It's not that it's bad, but it insults the audience's intelligence by repeatedly drilling into our minds its bland and obvious message. It's a great premise that was thwarted by a sloppy and lazy execution. I wish it had been done better.