Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing Widescreen DVD

Spike Lee's racial and political filmmaking bent is given the full treatment with this simmering expos of racial tensions in a New York City neighborhood one scorching summer day. The film written by Lee and nominated for an Oscar follows a group of racially diverse inhabitants from Brooklyn's Bedford- Stuyvesant neighborhood as they spend their day trying to avoid the oppressive heat. These include African American pizza deliveryman Mookie Lee the racially sensitive Buggin' Out Giancarlo Esposito and the silent boom-box-blasting Radio Raheem Bill Nunn. Also thrown into the mix are Sal an Oscar-nominated Danny Aiello the Italian-American proprietor of Sal's Pizzeria as well as his two sons Pino John Turturro and Vito Richard Edson who hold completely opposing attitudes when it comes to race. After Buggin' Out tries to organize a boycott of Sal's because of the lack of racial diversity on his shop's Wall of Fame the tensions explode in an act of senseless violence. Lee's film is an electric work of political entertainment that confronts sensitive racial issues head-on. He deftly blends humor and drama as well as using specific music to further amplify his theme Public Enemy's song "Fight the Power" actually becomes the film's main catalyst for action. Boldly closing the film with opposing quotes from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King on the nature of race relations Lee leaves it up to the viewer to decide if Mookie's actions were the correct ones. Aiello and Esposito are standouts in an all-star cast that includes Lee himself his sister Joie "discovery" Rosie Perez and the married team of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Always one to spark controversy Lee's summer drama finds the filmmaker at the peak of his craft.

Do the Right Thing [VHS]

Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece-- maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings . Set on one block in Bedford- Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing." Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister Señor Love Daddy. A rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure, and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson