Review of Do the Right Thing (1997) by Ross B — 27 Jun 2010

Do The Right Thing is a provocative film, with every aspect of it reflecting the inner conflict between love and hate that culminates in the destruction of Sal's Famous Pizzeria and the death of a defiant black man, Radio Raheem. It is he who expresses this conflict most plainly: he has four-finger rings on each hand, one spelling "Love", the other "Hate". "Hate: it was with this hand that Cain iced his brother. Love: these five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man...The story of life is this: static. One hand is always fighting the other hand, and the left hand is kicking much ass...But hold on, stop the presses, the right hand is coming back...Ooh, it's a devastating right and Hate is hurt. He's down. Left hand Hate KO'd by Love." The whole script is this poetic. It's something else, and easily Spike Lee's crowning achievement as an artist. Believable yet lyrical, just as the whole movie is natural yet stylized, breaking the fourth wall with such ease you don't notice it.

Yet sometimes the break in the film's reality is abrupt and shocking, such as when the different ethnic characters all deliver the racist tirades they're thinking directly to the viewer. It is all simmering beneath the surface, in even the most compassionate characters. Do The Right Thing presents racism as a tributary of anger, overriding a person's faculties just as blaring rap music overrides the smooth jazz of the film's soundtrack, or the natural, vital tracking shots of a harmonious street are replaced with rapidly cut, slanted close-ups and fourth wall breaking thoughts. This anger leads to the climactic riot, which is instigated by a boycott over Sal refusing to put pictures of black people on his "Wall of Fame".

The film has a complex ethical dimension, as nobody seems to have done the "wrong" thing, yet someone has ended up dead and the community is scarred. Should Sal have put black people on his wall, which is exclusively populated with pictures of Italian-Americans? Is he not allowed to celebrate his heritage? Yet isn't Buggin' Out right to say that since only blacks patronize his pizzeria, they should have some representation? And, most importantly, was Mookie right to throw the trash can that instigated the riot and destroyed Sal's pizzeria, which he owned for 25 years and built with his bare hands? Spike Lee seems to think only by everybody giving concession can racial harmony be achieved. For the first time in the movie, Radio Raheem turns off his boombox in Sal's pizzeria, and he is served for it.

The presence of a mentally disabled man, Smiley, shows how anger begets anger, and also reveals the irrationality of racism. When the police kill Raheem, nobody listens when he points out that one of them was black. There is also a store run by Korean immigrants which is almost engulfed in the riot, until its owner says "I'm black. We're the same." Even the elderly matriarch of the street cries out for blood.

Do The Right Thing is a fascinating study of race relations in a microcosm of America. It is highly entertaining and easy to watch, yet this heightens the disturbing impact of the ending. It is Spike Lee's best work and I recommend it to people of all tastes.