Over the course of one summer day in a Brooklyn neighborhood, tensions rise along with the sweltering heat wave temperatures as different personalities and different ethnicities interact with one another. Mookie, a young man played by Spike Lee, engages in dialogue with everyone on the block while delivering food for a local pizzeria owned by Sal, an Italian-American played by Danny Aiello. Sal’s eldest son, played by John Turturro, dislikes working in the predominantly black area, while his youngest, played by Richard Edson, maintains an easygoing friendship with Mookie and is accepting of his environment. “Da Mayor”, an affable alcoholic played by Ossie Davis, ambles up and down the street to observe and impart wisdom, while Mother Sister, played by Ruby Dee, watches from her perch. Mookie’s girlfriend, played by Rosie Perez, and his sister, played by Joie Lee, both want him to move up in the world and are frustrated by his apparent lack of ambition. Cop cars patrol the streets as a Korean storeowner watches his customers with a stern eye. Radio Raheem, played by Bill Nunn, walks around the block blasting Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” from his boombox. All the while, a radio DJ, played by Samuel L. Jackson, graces the proceedings with smooth tunes and a smooth voice.
The fragile dynamics between these disparate souls with whom we have spent the day escalate into violence and destruction after a boycott and a tragic act of police brutality. As the sun rises on a new morning, however, hopes for reconciliation and understanding can still be salvaged from the aftermath.
The 1989 drama,
Do the Right Thing, which was written, produced, and directed by Spike Lee on the heels of his first two features,
She’s Gotta Have It (1986) and
School Daze (1988), blends comedy and pathos onto a colorful visual palette with kinetically energized momentum. Despite being confined to the location of a single street block, this motion picture gives viewers the impression that they have traveled the world several times over. From the opening credits sequence, as Rosie Perez dances in front of brick buildings, the story is marked by an exuberant attention to detail in every still frame. I could watch the sporadic dialogue exchanges between three older men, played by Frankie Faison, Robin Harris, and Paul Benjamin, for hours just because of the lively way that they are shown on the street against a red background.
A key reason why I am passionate about movies is that I love “meeting” interesting people on the screen. Despite the confrontations that occur, there are no villains in Lee’s story. Each and every character is given a chance to shine and to show us a glimpse of the locale through his or her eyes. The ensemble cast of actors, including Perez and Martin Lawrence in their first feature film roles, is a joy to watch as they figuratively bounce off of one another to the music score of Bill Lee and the cinematography of Ernest Dickerson.
Do the Right Thing was quite a sensation upon its release three decades ago, when critics responded to it with a mix of awe and trepidation, and when the explosive Public Enemy video, also directed by Lee, was shown constantly on MTV. It is often credited with setting the tone for the volatile climate of race relations during the 1990s, but I prefer to think of it as an overdue depiction of frustrations that had been brewing under the surface for too long. The late 1980s was an exciting time, when musicians like Public Enemy, Tracy Chapman, and Living Colour brought their vantage point of the inner cities to the masses, and I remember this movie as another gloriously timeless work of art from that era. Despite the controversies that greeted its release, this film covers all of its disparate personas with a fair perspective so that we understand each and every angle. Just as importantly, it never lets us forget that movies should be fun and invigorating. This is great cinema, through and through.
It will take me a couple of days to finish immersing myself in the special features on the second disc of this
Criterion Blu-ray package, but I had a great time last night with the main feature, the Disc One extras, and the informative director’s journal from Lee that is included in the booklet.
This is one of the best-looking presentations in my Blu-ray collection as far as video quality is concerned.
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