Spike Lee invites controversy and discussion with his films, and Do the Right Thing remains his masterpiece and the best film to come out of the 1980s. Produced in 1989, Lee's film opened to considerable critical acclaim along with many reviews condemning its explosive and violent content, expressing the fear that the film would be accompanied by racial riots by angry blacks wherever the film screened. We had heard similar warnings from people who feared Malcolm X back in the 1960s, so it is little wonder that Lee would soon film Malcolm X.

The notion that Do the Right Thing would spark riots is ludicrous, and clearly shows that Lee's messages about racism are self-evident in those racist reviews. As Lee points out in the 2-disc Criterion DVD release, those same critics don't express fear about white kids rioting in the streets after watching a movie like Terminator. Why do these ethnocentric critics assume that African-Americans are so gullible that they can't tell reality from film, especially when you see how stylized Do the Right Thing actually is?


The Community

As far as the story goes, the theatrical conceit consists a simple one-day slice of life. Take the hottest day of the year on a city block in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, noted for being a community for the black under-class. Show the various individuals of that block, and weave their stories together to show this living and breathing community has racial problems that will eventually rise to the surface in a Howard Beach-inspired climax of chaotic proportions.

The inhabitants of the block are primarily black, but the two businesses facing one another on the corner are not. A fixture for over 25 years, Sal's Pizzeria has fed the neighborhood through more than one generation, and Sal (Danny Aiello) has plans for his sons to take over his business. Across the street lies the Korean fruit and vegetable stand, which irritates Coconut Sid (Frankie Faison) since the Koreans just "got off the boat" and already own their own business in his neighborhood. Sid declares that one day he's going to open up his own business too (saving from his social security checks, perhaps?), but his sidekick Sweet Dick Willie (Robin Harris) laughs at him and declares that he's going to give those Koreans some of his money for their cold beer. Sweet Dick realizes that Sid and he are just going to sit at that corner every day and comment on the world as it goes by without ever doing anything to change it.

Mookie (Spike Lee), on the other hand, just wants to get paid. He may be the lazy, shiftless bum and irresponsible father that his girlfriend Tina (Rosie Perez) thinks he is, but Mookie does have a job at Sal's delivering pizza. Never mind that he spends more time finding ways to slow down his delivery time to do less work, but he's earning money. In one sense Mookie bridges the white and black communities by wearing his Jackie Robinson shirt and being able to talk "brother talk" to the locals while being the sole black employee of Sal's establishment.

Sal may be the most complex character in the ensemble cast, as he attempts to be a tough business-owner who still wants to get along with everyone. He doesn't recognize his own racial prejudices when he refers to "these people," yet where does his oldest son, Pino (John Turturro), get his blatantly racist views? Pino hates the place, hates the neighborhood, and has no problem calling the locals "niggers" mostly behind their backs, even though he loves Prince, Dwight Gooden, and Magic Johnson. His younger brother, Vito (Richard Edson), contrasts completely and may be the one character who carries no racial baggage. No deep thinker, he just sees people as people and doesn't understand what the big deal is about racial differences.

We meet many of the other neighbors on the block as well. The elderly are represented by Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) and Mother Sister (Ruby Dee). Da Mayor offers his wisdom, but the younger generation mostly regards him as a drunken bum while Mother Sister has her own irritations with his shiftless drunkenness at first, as she sits watch over the street all day long.

There are a number of young men and women on the block, highlighted by Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) who blasts Public Enemy over his giant boom box continually while speaking very few words, and Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito) as the nonworking militant who demands that Sal put some "brothers" up along with the American Italians on his Wall of Fame. There's also a retarded Smiley (Roger Smith), persistently hawking his Martin Luther King and Malcolm X photos to the neighborhood.

Overseeing the community, and serving commentary on the goings-on is the local disc jockey Mister Senor Love Daddy (Sam Jackson before he was known as Samuel L.). The action starts slowly as we get to know the community, and there are many light touches near the beginning (like the convertible that gets a thorough dousing from the water hydrant), but racial tensions mount until they explode with the much-discussed violent ending.


What is the point?

I can certainly sympathize with Lee for getting tired of hearing the same old question of whether Mookie "did the right thing." If this is the deepest question that you can muster after seeing Do the Right Thing, you weren't watching closely enough. Every character in the film makes choices, and you shouldn't expect easy answers. Racism has been going on since the creation of man, so why should anyone expect Spike Lee to solve and resolve these issues in a 2-hour span? Besides, why do so many who see the film focus on the property destruction and overlook the actions taken by the police?

Spike Lee's films often make us think about racial and societal issues in ways that many white directors can't. Several early reviewers criticized Lee for leaving out the drug issue in Do the Right Thing, as many automatically assume that any film set in the under-class black community must contain a drug problem. That's one wonderful educational insight that the special edition DVD vividly counters. The background documentary shows a Black Muslim group in Bedford-Stuy that has closed down a known crack house, clearly demonstrating that this community doesn't automatically tolerate drugs.

With drugs being so prominent across society, why don't directors filming upper-class whites depict the drug problem as a matter of course? For Lee to add a drug component to Do the Right Thing would only cloud the race issue that dominates this film. Besides, Lee deals with the drug issue in other movies like Jungle Fever and Clockers.

Whenever Do the Right Thing causes discomfort for the audience, one of Lee's missions has been accomplished. His film provokes thought. No one is perfect in this film, so don't think that Lee is simply criticizing whites for their racism. People from all racial backgrounds should feel challenged by something in the film, but that's what makes growth possible. There's an excellent section that clearly challenges the black community as well to get off their behinds and create their own business opportunities. The fact that the Academy Awards ignored Lee's film and honored the more palatable Driving Miss Daisy in 1990 will forever taint the credibility of the Oscars, but very few thinking people take that superficial self-serving award ceremony seriously anyway.

Years from now people will still be watching Do the Right Thing and marveling at its wonderful characters, script, cinematography, and overall chemistry while Driving Miss Daisy will remain a footnote in the Internet Movie Database as the Oscar winner for Best Film in 1990. Ironically, Driving Miss Daisy will linger on the Blockbuster shelves as a largely unwatched dusty video while Lee's masterpiece will rise in stature. If you doubt Do the Right Thing's artistry, get hold of the Criterion special-edition DVD and check out the extra sessions with the cinematographer and editor; also watch how Spike Lee works with his actors and script.


Film Elements

Though I may criticize Universal Studios for producing commercial schlock like Jurassic Park: The Lost World, I must give them credit for entrusting Spike Lee with sufficient funds to make the movie that he envisioned. His decision to shoot Do the Right Thing on location in Bedford-Stuyvesant is brilliant, as it lends a realism to the set design that wouldn't have felt right on a back lot. Forget the fact that the sky may not always be blue with cumulus clouds during that one day, and realize that the cinematographer has done a wonderful job matching the lighting on the 8-week shoot, including the days that it was raining.

The camera work in Lee's films is generally fresh, energetic, and lively. Credit cinematographer Ernest R. Dickerson with much of the creative work. Dickerson has done the cinematography for seven of Lee's films, from his initial 1983 NYU student film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads to his 1992 Malcolm X. His efforts to match the lighting in Do the Right Thing are magnificent, and the judicial use of Dutch angles adds a great deal to the contemporary feel of the film. One other shot I really love comes near the end, inside Mother Sister's apartment with Da Mayor, as the camera slowly tracks backwards out of the window to Mookie on the street. It's a great transition.

And transitions are creatively accomplished throughout Lee's film, so credit must go to the editor Barry Alexander Brown and scriptwriter Spike Lee. With so many characters involved, the organization of the film potentially could prove to be very messy; however, the film script flows naturally and retains an exceptional tightness that focuses on the racial tensions of the community.

One transition that I really admire occurs right after Radio Raheem is cussing out the Korean shop-owners for not understanding his questions about his radio batteries. Immediately afterwards, we are across the street looking through Sal's pizzeria window at the Korean market as Radio Raheem emerges from the store. There are similar touches throughout that connect the seemingly disjointed scenes together, through a camera shot or a song or a piece of dialogue, like the three street sitters and police who mutually glare at each other while saying "What a waste" to communicate the feelings between these two entities in just a few seconds.

No one can watch Do the Right Thing without being drawn to the three street "bums." Though much of this is due to the humor exchanges and the fact that characters like these exist in every community, another striking aspect is that bright flaming red brick wall behind them. The cinematographer and set designer Steve Rosse worked together to create tones that would communicate the hotness of the day, and the wall is just one blatant example. Note subtler brown and reddish tones in other scenes and straight bright sunlit sets until the evening begins, where we are then introduced to green rooms with bluish lighting.

Though the camera work is outstanding, it's impossible to have a truly great film without some tremendous acting performances. Lee gathers a diverse cast in background and acting experience for Do the Right Thing, and he handles them beautifully. It's amazing to think that Rosie Perez is making her film debut here after Lee had noticed her dancing at a party he attended. He certainly puts her dancing talents on exhibition effectively during one of the most energetic opening credits you'll ever see, and watch her jutting chin as she angrily tells Mookie what a worthless bum he is. Two other relatively inexperienced movie actors who later go on to a great deal of acting acclaim are Samuel Jackson and John Turturro.

One favorite scene becomes an acting tour de force between Turturro and Danny Aiello, who deservedly received an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor. This scene also shows how Lee has created such a community with his actors that they can go off the script and improvise and create some truly magical moments. This wonderful scene occurs inside Sal's Pizzeria, when Pino and Sal intimately explain what they think of their work in the community. Near the end of the scene, Smiley interrupts by tapping on the glass, and Pino goes outside and begins to harangue the retarded Smiley while Sweet Dick Willie offscreen begins to shout at Pino to leave the boy alone (this is all unscripted).

Meanwhile, Sal inside despairs that his son is behaving so badly in a community that he has grown to appreciate, at some level. I marvel when I realize how real this scene is, and this is accomplished because Lee has allowed these actors to realize their characters.


Finale

Do I sound like I'm gushing about this film? Well, I am. Do the Right Thing is one of my favorite films, and will be on my all time top-ten list whenever I seriously get around to creating such a mythological entity.

It may have a few uneven places, just as all of Spike Lee's films are noted for that quality. But Do the Right Thing is the most unified of his work, and stands as a landmark film in American cinema. Never before had I seen any film that treated the urban black community so realistically and contained such a microcosm of racial issues that are worth discussing worldwide.

Racism is truly the most challenging and pervasive issue facing America, and the same basic issue exists elsewhere. No other film has ever tackled the issue as directly with as much humanity, sensitivity, and reality as Do the Right Thing.

Any critic who thinks that Spike Lee should have solved the racial ills of Bedford-Stuy in two hours, highlighted only Martin Luther King's statement as the only acceptable philosophy, and had Mookie "do the right thing" and refuse to take Sal's money, needs to go spend some time in the inner city. I only spent my first year teaching in inner-city Detroit and cannot have the same depth of feeling that someone who has lived his whole life in such an environment, but that was enough to convince me that Lee's theatrical piece speaks the Truth, Ruth. And it just ain't simple.


Note: Get hold of the Criterion special-edition DVD for all the extra background features. It's worth the DVD alone just to hear Spike Lee call critic Joe Klein an "asshole."