Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colourful 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 neighbourhood 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 parlour 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 DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy. This is a rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson [show more]
This is the best film made about race relations in the United States since To Kill A Mockingbird. A strong claim, I realize, but Spike Lee's third feature lives up to the hype. Following his comedic critical darlings She's Gotta Have It and School Daze, Spike Lee came back with this stunner of a drama film. The film plays out over the course of one day in Brooklyn, New York and charts one street's descent into disaster. Lee stars as Mookie, a regular guy, a pizza delivery man for the Italian owned pizza joint up the street, as he walks up and down, making his deliveries and visiting his girlfriend, played by Rosie Perez, he is shoved into the cauldron that cannot help boiling over. The film features tour de froce performances by a host of amazing black actors including Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L Jackson, Spike, and Giancarlo Esposito. The film also features excellent performances from Danny Aiello as the owner of the pizza place and John Tuturro as his incendiary son who starts stirring the pot early in the film. The film's tagline, "You Can Do Nothing, You Can Do Something, or You Can Do The Right Thing," sums up the thrust of the film perfectly as we continually watch characters do something and nothing and very rarely even attempt the right thing. Lee leaves no racial epithet unhurled and spares not even his black brother sna sisters in on of the films most arresting sequences, a montage of people ranging from the Italian pizza shop owner to the Korean grocery store owner to himself and Radio Raheem rattling off insult after insult to show how common it is and how easy to ignore the true impact unless it is literally shouted in your face repeatedly. This film accomplishes more effectively what more recent films like Crash and Babel have attempted in recent years. It plays as an allegory of prejudice along racial lines, while it does tip over to the preachy side on occasion, Lee's focus is clear, and when he takes aim at any subject, people's views change. There is no good guy and there is no bad guy, even the people who you'd think were the films heroes, characters like Giancarlo Esposito's Buggin' Out, hurl invective at people for tresspasses as insignificant and scuffing his shoes. This is the beauty of Do The Right Thing. People are people, no one is a hero, no man is more than a man, and with faults. I cannot recommend this film enough, anyone with any interest in American urban life would be remiss in skipping Do The Right Thing.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Spike Lee's study of racial tensions takes place on the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. The film charts the increasing tension between a black pizza delivery boy (Spike Lee) and his Italian bosses, the local folk and yuppy newcomers, and builds inexorably to a violent confrontation.
Spike Lee's study of racial tensions takes place on the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. The film charts the increasing tension between a black pizza delivery boy (Spike Lee) and his Italian bosses, the local folk and yuppy newcomers, and builds inexorably to a violent confrontation.
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