This year, 2009, marks
the 30th anniversary of 40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks, the production company
started by Spike Lee. Periodically, reviews of some of Mr. Lee's films
over the course of his ongoing 24-year feature film and documentary directing
career will appear here at The Popcorn Reel. Below is a review of
"Do The Right Thing", which opened on June 30, 1989, thirty years ago.
The film made $27.5 million in the
U.S. and Canada.
MOVIE REVIEW
Do The Right Thing
Weather Forecast: Slow Burn To Volcanic Eruption On The Hottest Summer Day In New York
City
Top left: Danny Aiello as Sal and Giancarlo
Esposito as Buggin' Out; Top right: Bill Nunn as Radio Raheem. Bottom
left: John Turturro as Pino and
Spike Lee as Mookie. Bottom right: Rosie Perez as Tina, in Mr. Lee's third
film "Do The Right Thing", which opened today across the U.S. and Canada.
(Photo: Universal Pictures)
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday, June 30, 1989
With "Do The Right Thing" filmmaker Spike Lee has cultivated an instant classic
-- a two-hour drama taking place on a Saturday that is also the hottest day of
the summer -- a drama that examines both the depths and shallows of racial
cohesion and discord, racism and open-heartedness, right and wrong. The
strongest thing that can be said about Mr. Lee's third film is that it is
breathtaking in its even-handedness and lack of equivocation. Crisply and
concisely written by the director, "Do The Right Thing" is set on one block of
Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York and is as tightly-drawn and
complex a film as any that has come out of the Hollywood studio system in many
years.
We intimately know the residents as if they are our own neighbors -- the young
kids who play on the street using fire hydrants to douse everyone's heated
passions generated by the scalding hot sun; the wise elderly lady who keeps
watch over the neighborhood (Ruby Dee); the drunk but no less relevant senior
who imparts words of warning and advice (Ossie Davis) and the bright local kid
always trying to do good (Mr. Lee, as Mookie). Into this atmosphere step
two businessmen residing outside the predominately black neighborhood: Sonny
(Steve Park), a Korean immigrant who owns a fruit and vegetable stand in Bed-Stuy,
and Sal (Danny Aiello), an Italian-American who owns a pizzeria there and has
his two sons as his primary helpers. One son, Vito, is a nice, easygoing
young man (Richard Edson), the other is a racist (John Turturro). Mookie,
a lackadaisical young father, delivers the pizzas for Sal. There are at
least two residents who don't take kindly to Sal, a sometimes boorish if affable
individual: Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), who objects to the absence of
black people on the wall of Sal's Famous Pizzeria, and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn),
a silent, brooding presence who carries around a beat-box radio that plays
ear-splitting editions of Public Enemy's song "Fight The Power", which pulses
repeatedly throughout "Do The Right Thing" as an anthem, including in its
opening credits.
Bold, vibrant, colorful and visually astounding (thanks to terrific camerawork
by cinematographer Ernest Dickerson), "Do The Right Thing" contains a rich array
of performances, including the exceptional work of Mr. Turturro, Mr. Davis and
Mr. Aiello. There's also the hilarious performance of comedian Robin
Harris as Sweet Dick Willie, one of the three street corner men who are the
neighborhood's Greek chorus. Rosie Perez is outstanding and memorable as
Tina, a Puerto Rican who is the mother of Mookie's son. Miss Perez's
enunciations make her character highly entertaining and very funny. The
situations in this film however, are not. The director has a keen sense of
history, specifically New York City political history, and he weaves some of the
Big Apple's real-life fatal racial confrontations into his narrative, dedicating
the film to the families of several black residents -- including the families of
Michael Stewart, Yvonne Smallwood, Michael Griffith and Eleanor Bumpurs -- all
of whom were killed either by New York City police or by large mobs of white
male youths -- whom received little if any jail time at all for their murderous
acts of violence.
"Do The Right Thing", which opened across the U.S. and Canada today, gradually builds with
a great music soundtrack from numerous artists, memorable, outrageously funny lines
of dialogue and a crescendo so rapid it feels like a fuse has been lit in a
matter of nanoseconds. Heat brings tension, tension explodes and all hell
breaks loose. By night's end, one person will have been murdered in cold
blood and the soul of a neighborhood will have been ripped out. The
epicenter of Mr. Lee's landmark film will have audiences debating on end about
whether what occurred on that blazing hot Saturday in Brooklyn could have been
avoided and whether anyone at all did the right thing. The answers to
those questions will literally depend on who you are and what your personal
perspective on those involved is. (Several prominent white film critics in
America's mainstream press have irresponsibly warned in more than veiled racist
terms that black people are going to riot at movie theaters across America when
they see "Do The Right Thing". Such sentiments are subtle and racist code
to a white audience: if you don't want to get hurt or killed by some angry,
violent black people, then avoid the movie theaters showing "Do The Right Thing"
and wait until Mr. Lee's film arrives on video so you can watch it in the
comfort and safety of your own home.)
In sparking debate about the actions of the diverse group of people that his
film chronicles Mr. Lee has accomplished the brilliant feat of layering an
intense and entertaining film with deeper subtext and thought provocation, as
well as end credit quotes from both Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
In a recent book on making "Do The Right Thing" that he co-authored with Lisa
Jones, Mr. Lee makes it clear which of the two late human rights leaders'
philosophies he's in line with -- but it isn't that important what Mr. Lee's
perspective is -- defining the film for yourself will provide the most resonant
experience any moviegoer can have. One other revelation of "Do The Right
Thing" is Bill Lee's stupendous jazz and orchestral music score. Simply
put, Bill Lee (the director's father) has devised one of the most beautiful and
textured scores ever heard in a cinematic feature. The father's score and
his son's film, are sublime and unforgettable.
With: Samuel L. Jackson, Martin Lawrence, Steve White, Leonard Thomas, Joie Lee,
Frankie Faison, Paul Benjamin, Rick Aiello, Miguel Sandoval, Frank Vincent
and John Savage.
"Do The Right Thing" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America.
It contains violence, racial epithets, lots of curse words and brief nudity. The film's running
time is one hour and 59 minutes.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2009. All Rights
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