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Film Journal: Do the Right Thing
Do the Right Thing is written and directed by Spike Lee. The film tells a tale of racial conflict in a multi-ethnic community in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, on the hottest day of the year. It stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis and John Turturro. Do the Right Thing also marks the feature film debuts of both Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. It is the second film role ever for Samuel L. Jackson, who plays DJ Mister SeД±or Love Daddy.
This film features a variety of characters. The main character in this film is Mookie (Lee), a young man who lives with his sister and works as a pizza delivery man for the local Sals Pizzeria. Sal (Aiello), the pizzerias Italian-American owner, has owned the shop for years because he respects his customers. His older son Pino (Turturro) hates the place like a sickness and is racist. I found this to be very interesting to me because when I was growing up in the Bronx all the pizzerias were always family owned and always had someone of color working there, Spike Lee did a great job of capturing the New York life and my attention cause any film that deals with the urban area of New York is always a great thing because I can relate being from there.
The one thing that I noticed about this film is that Lee was able make this movie in one location. Throughout the whole film, Lee was able to make a movie in a one block radius which is crazy in my mind. You think when you watch a movie you see multiple scenes and locations. I like how he was able to use different characters to get his message across too. The one character that comes to mind that gets his message across is a young man named Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) who lives for nothing else but to blast Public Enemys “Fight the Power” on his boom box wherever he goes, and wears a “love” and “hate” four-fingered ring on either hand to symbolize the struggle between the two forces. I kind of see that in most of Lees films and I see that as an art form.
The one turning point of the movie is when Radio Raheem and Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito) walk into Sals, and stage a sit-in protest until Sal changes the pictures on the wall. Radio Raheems boom box is blasting as always, Public Enemys “Fight the Power,” and at