Review of Do the Right Thing (1989) by Andrewburge — 09 May 2018

I'm pretty sure I forgot to breathe during some parts of Spike Lee's 'Do The Right Thing'. Not only because the way it penetrates the mind and soul of any sensible viewer, but also because I felt ashamed by the approach I took to this movie. With a stunning Public Enemy soundtrack, I expected this film to be a Black Power Movement propaganda. Was I wrong!

It is 1989, a 32 year-old black man decides to make a film about race and discrimination. His approach, though, is as impersonal as it gets. He fills a Brooklyn Street during a single steaming hot summer day with every single racial representation of American immigrants. There is a Korean grocery store and an American-Italian Pizzeria, ran by the father Sal (Danny Aiello) and his two reluctant sons Vito (Richard Edson) and Pino (John Turturro) all set in a neighborhood dominated by African-Americans and even Latinos. There are no heroes and no villains among them.

The plot is far from your average structure. It manages to deconstruct and implode upon itself in a slow and procedural manner like few films achieve. By keeping the location small, Lee succeeds in presenting us all the characters in a great, great level of detail, unraveling the hatred and subconscious cultural manners and views that are in every one of us through slow and wise writing and directing. Lee often lets these characters express themselves in a unique approach which I have never seen in any other film. Often they would be filmed from the front, and in a brilliantly executed subtle transition they would talk about themselves and their beliefs as if the entire film would decompose and it was just you and them. It is this technique alone, which allow the very essence of their personality to be revealed.

There is a scene, in which Lee lets nearly every character spew racial slurs, almost signaling that through this hot day something waits to happen! And it does. It all builds up after Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) claims that among the Italian heroes there should be pictures of some 'black folks' on Sal's Pizzeria, to which Sal disagrees. From this rather banal issue, Spike Lee created a sprawl of hatred which ends in tragedy. But, it is not the issue which fuels the hatred, but it is the self-loathed delivery of their characters, each of them believing their truth to be the truth. The only exception is Da Mayor (Ossie Davis); an old man filled with regrets, wondering around the streets like a preacher of sorts. But, in the end, he is the only man which transcends race and eludes true love to all the characters, even though most of them despise him.

In the end, Spike Lee's 'Do The Right Thing' is more than just the racial infighting that has been present since the dawn of man. It is also about the real and harsh acceptance of the fact that given the smallest catalyst, man will engage in chaos and violence, and also how important leaders are, from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X to the humble so-called Mayor.