Review of Do the Right Thing (1989) by Andy B — 11 Feb 2010

(****) I'm no expert on racial themes, or on movies about them. Normally I find them shallow and melodramatic. However, Do The Right Thing is so powerful and deep that it left me with an immense feeling of uncertainty and uneasiness for the rest of the day. It is a great film which I intend to see again in the very near future.

Let me start by speaking a bit about my preconceived notions of Spike Lee. I'd heard surprisingly little about him, aside from his criticism of Tarantino's use of the n-word, and that, according to many sources, he hates whitey. Therefore I pretty much expected a "fight the power" propaganda piece, and I still cannot say for sure that that isn't what I saw. But it was done in such an emotionally powerful way which I didn't expect at all. It has a healthy dose of comedy built around racial stereotypes which keeps you laughing and not too concerned, but at the same time there is an undeniable degree of tension building the entire film.

Do The Right Thing takes place on one of the hottest days of the summer. In my interpretation, the heat is essentially the woes which the people within this poor community face. How they deal with them, however, and who they blame, is what makes the story interesting. While there isn't a pronounced protagonist and antagonist, the freakin heat has to be in contention for the antagonist position. There are a series of protagonists none of whom really qualify as someone we can one hundred percent root for. Even Mookie, the "main" character, is a slacker who constantly skips out on work and doesn't take responsibility for his family.

So who is the protagonist here? If heat and hardship are the antagonist, then I'd have to say the protagonist is the Right Thing. Early in the movie, an old drinking man called the Mayor (probably the most all-around likable character) stops Mookie on the sidewalk and advises him to "always do the right thing." This sticks with Mookie more than he shows, and becomes his primary conflict. At the end of a movie where Mookie does alot of nothing, he does something very important. Is it the Right Thing? I think that's the question the movie was made to present. As soon as you think Spike Lee is taking one side of the argument, as represented in the first quote of the end credits, he turns around, like the quote which immediately follows it. So what is the Right Thing? I know what I think, and my views tend to lean towards Dr. King. However, I'm still not sure what Spike thinks, and it may take some Googling to figure it out.

To find the answer, as in many real-life circumstances, one may need to look to the morning after. As Mookie wakes up after he has made his crucial decision, the weather forecast comes on the radio. The forecast for the new day? Hot.