Out of any movie in Spike Lee’s 40-plus years in filmmaking, Do the Right Thing continues to withstand the test of time by being the most relevant picture in tackling race relations in America. It marked the culmination of the then-32-year-old director’s humble beginnings as a student filmmaker to a cinematic rebel pushing back against an industry that largely marginalized black performers. The film’s influence has only grown over time, with directors such as Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Blitz) citing it as “iconic”.
The power of Do the Right Thing has crossed ethnic lines as well. Not only did The Fantastic Four: First Steps star Pedro Pascal put it as his number three movie on Letterboxd, but also actor Ethan Hawke rated it higher on the movie review platform to number one, calling the Oscar-nominated drama “an incredibly meaningful movie in my life”. Between the bright-colored summer cinematography of Ernest Dickerson and the intensity of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” playing over Radio Raheem’s boombox, Do the Right Thing is a cinematic experience that haunts viewers long after they see it.
What Is ‘Do the Right Thing’ About?
Set on a scorching-hot summer day in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, Do the Right Thing’s central conflict surrounds pizza delivery boy Mookie (Lee) and his Italian-American boss Sal (Danny Aiello). The pizzeria itself is already filled with tension from within as Mookie often clashes with Sal’s bigoted son (John Turturro), while Sal himself is constantly at odds with the black community that makes up most of his business. The collision of class and race reaches a boiling point when a protest to add black celebrities’ photos in the pizzeria orchestrated by the conscience-minded Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito) turns tragically violent.
Do the Right Thing came at a pivotal moment in Hollywood history. As the start of the ‘80s was primarily ruled by the wildly successful comedy vehicles of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, a new wave of black filmmakers emerged with unique voices in biting parody, satire, and sometimes hard-hitting drama. This movement, led by Lee, Robert Townsend, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Charles Lane, and others, crafted cinematic tales that examined the struggles of African American life. Though he tackled modern black romance in She’s Gotta Have It and black fraternity life in School Daze, Lee was at his most artistically unrestrained in Do the Right Thing by exposing racial bias in a very animated fashion, unlike anything that came before.
The Cultural Influence of ‘Do the Right Thing’
While it’s very easy to sympathize with the likes of Lee’s Mookie, Radio Raheem, and the various black characters in the film, there are layers of ambiguity where the director does not depict Do the Right Thing’s world in black-and-white terms. Sal comes across as a traditionalist in the way he embraces Italian-American culture through the wall decor of famous figures like Frank Sinatra. Such a tradition gets challenged by Buggin’ Out and the neighborhood to conform to their culture and tradition because of their strength in numbers. Lee’s screenplay aims not to preach to the choir for the sake of an agenda. Instead, he addresses racism exactly how it is, addressing the audience through the various fourth wall-breaking monologues to make them think about racial bias in their own lives.
In re-examining the decade in which Do the Right Thing was produced, it pulled open a window shade that America was blocking. The mass media depicted great progress for African Americans post-Civil Rights Movement through the popularity of Michael Jackson, Magic Johnson, Oprah Winfrey, and The Cosby Show, to name a few. What the cameras were not showing, aside from local news outlets, was the fact that racial division was still present to the extent of boiling over. Do the Right Thing is a microcosm of such tensions that have only grown wider than that Brooklyn neighborhood in the days since its theatrical release in June 1989.
As Hawke has highlighted Do the Right Thing as a favorite of his, it’s easy to see how the choices in his film work have similar moral complexities as the Spike Lee joint. The script for his collaboration with Denzel Washington in Training Day shares a similar perspective as Do the Right Thing in that they both examine an America whose values are falling apart and leave an uncomfortable impression about our comfort zones being covered, for how we are culturally disconnected from one another. Similarly, Hawke’s Strange Way of Life co-star Pascal has tended to appear in socially informative projects such as Prospect, Narcos, and We Can Be Heroes. These are just some of the many signs of Do the Right Thing’s power in being exposed to future generations, as it will continue to do so for years to come.
Do the Right Thing is streaming on Netflix in the US.