Title: Do the Right Thing
Year: 1989
Director: Spike Lee
Country: U.S
Language: English
Spike Lee’s Do The
Right Thing is a unique and touching experience. There are few films as beautiful and well made as this. The
film is quite unique as it doesn’t take sides nor does it worry about crossing
any lines. It’s a movie about race
issues in America that emphasizes with all races involved. Yet it still created
quite a controversy, many critics at the time feared that it would cause an
uproar and create unrelenting chaos. Indeed people did get upset over this film,
if you would like to learn more about the controversy it is featured on a
television program called Movies that
Shook the World. Indeed Do the Right thing
did shake the core of the average man, but this should be expected of all great
films about love and hate.
None of the people in this film are perfect. There are
really no heroes or villains in the film. However Lee makes us empathize with
each and every character, because understanding is crucial in Do the Right Thing, without it you are
stuck inside the box of racism and injustice. The violence in this film is
absolutely necessary in showing how racism and hate can destroy us, how it can
turn man into a Beast. After all, racism
is engrained so deeply into our society
that it’s like a cancer that feeds at the soul. This cancer creates imbalance,
mischief and mayhem. All actions are brought on by our own insecurities,
suspicions and misunderstandings. Hate is never the “right thing”. Violence is never the “Right thing”. Violence
can only lead to the disintegration of
humanity, and destruction of the soul.
The hate begins when a black man named Buggin questions the
pictures on a pizza owner named Sal’s (Danny Aiello) wall, they are all of white
Latin American actors, why are there no black actors on his wall? The destruction begins when the likeable Mookie
(Lee), a man who Sal claims is “like a son” , throws a trash can into the
window of Sal’s pizzeria which incites a riot. To be “fair” this happens right
before two cops kill a black man outside the pizzaeria, however it seems both
cops did not intentionally try to kill the black man. Though the black man,
Radio Raheem, is at some fault as he plays his boom box so defiantly loud that
it drives Sal crazy, causing him to destroy the boom box with his bat which
then causes Radio to snap and attempt to beat the hell out of Sal. Of course
the whole hot Summer day has been leading up to these moments, the black and
white tension has been growing and growing until it reached its breaking point.
Nobody in this film is free of racism. The whites hate the
blacks, Sal’s son Pino often calls them “niggers” and is not hesitant to
treating the black people who enter the store with incredible rudeness. The
black people pick on the Koreans just because they can, and the Koreans shout
out racial slurs whenever they feel like it. This is true to Canada in 2012,
nobody is free of racism, though the racial discrimination is more centered on
our Aboriginal community. I’ve heard many White people say “Damn Indians, why
can’t they just get a job” and I’ve
heard many Aboriginals saying “I didn’t get the job because of those damn White
people.” Lee’s truth of 1989, is still truth in 2012.
Lee also points out the economic discriminations that have
been in place for many years in America and Canada. We see no black businesses
in the black populated neighbourhood, hell if it wasn’t for Sal’s and the Koreans there would not be
any food nearby. Indeed it seems that in America, black neighbourhoods are
often the poorest and have the worst schools and education systems in place.
How many films like To Sir With Love,
about teachers miraculously surviving a school centered in a black
neighbourhood have we seen? In Canada a lot of Aboriginal reservation
communities don’t even have drinking water, among many other problems.
In conclusion, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is a beautifuly made film that holds strong
truths about racism and hate, and how hate can destroy our community and our
souls. I am amazed that such a film that
refuses to take sides exists. Every character is shown in a good and a bad
light. Every character and race can be sympathized with. Ending with quotations
by Martin Luther King & Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing shows that it will be
love that conquers hate. For love has veins that run straight to the soul of
man. Praise it! 5/5
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