Aundre Thompson
Andrea Corneil
Media 103
December 10, 2013
Do the Right Thing Reaction Paper
"Do the Right Thing" is the 1989 film, directed, written, produced by and starring none other than the very talented, Spike Lee. It also stars an assorted cast of very talented actors that includes the likes of Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, and John Turturro.
New York City, New York is where the film is set, in the Brooklyn area in a neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. The film tells the story of a wild Brooklyn day on one of the hottest days of the summer. In the movie we are introduced to our protagonist, a young black man who goes by the name of “Mookie.” Mookie is an interesting character, not possessing many qualities that you would come to expect of the protagonist in a film. One of his strongest qualities is his love and protectiveness as a brother to his older sister whom he lives with. Mookie also wants to provide for his girlfriend and his son, but ultimately lacks the ambition to better his situation.
He works as a delivery man at the neighborhood Italian owned pizzeria, “Sal’s Famous Pizzeria,” which is a very out of place establishment amidst the predominantly black Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. But Sal, the pizza parlor’s owner doesn’t plan on changing his location any time soon. Sal’s sons also work with him at the pizzeria. Sal's oldest son, Pino, is a very racist and bigoted. He’s disgusted by having to work in a black neighborhood and tries to impart that same mentality on his little brother, Vito. Vito is more objective than his brother and doesn’t share that same bigoted attitude toward blacks. And is actually friends with Mookie, his brother is very unhappy about their friendship.
Mookie and Sal butt heads often about Mookie’s job performance. Mookie doesn’t like it there and doesn’t take his job seriously at all. He often slacks off and while on the job, makes trips to see his girlfriend, Tina, who he has a three-year old son with. She pleads with him to make a better life for himself, and make more time for her and his son. He seems to love Tina but is not committed enough to expand their relationship beyond a couple visits a month. He seems to be frustrated with his current situation, living with his sister, his job that he hates, and the state of his relationship with Tina and his son, but he’s not exactly proactive about how to remedy it.
The movie is littered with a variety of different characters, each having their own quirks and misgivings. Every character seems to have something interesting to do or say, or is going through some kind of conflict, no matter how small their role. I found it a bit confusing, though this element gave the characters genuineness, their portrayals in the movie were often very over the top, and almost caricature-esque. That is one of the bigger issues I had with the film. The sensitive issues that are handled here would’ve probably been more appropriately represented with more slightly toned down portrayals.
The neighborhood goes into turmoil when Sal’s restaurant is targeted as being racist against blacks. And a wild fight breaks out in the pizzeria. Mookie is caught in the middle; he doesn’t seem to be ready to side with Sal and the job that he hates, nor the community around him that is propagating most of the violence. But as tensions rise and the violence escalates. The police try to get the violent situation under control, but their own prejudices for the community leads to them brutally killing someone. The community erupts and Sal’s Famous Pizzeria is destroyed and burned down in the wake of the killing and leaves the neighborhood in disaster.
It's a very entertaining movie, a very stimulating film that that is definitely worth a watch. Though I don’t think it was intended to be when it came out, the film is like a period piece, with all of its 80s imagery. I don’t believe it would achieve what it set out to do politically today; maybe it did originally when it came out in the 80s. It just felt a bit too dated. While being one of the most primitive attitudes one can take, I believe racism has evolved to become something much more complicated now. The arguments stated in the film came across as way too simplified and general, almost in a very crude and rudimentary way, even right down to the closing scene where two very conflicting quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X (arguably the two most recognizable names in the civil rights movement) are put up on screen. It was just too obviously polarizing; a little more subtlety would have been welcome. But I do believe the simplicity and straightforwardness are part of its appeal. This was the theme of a lot of films to come out of the 80s so I can’t completely fault Spike Lee. I do believe how simple the story is does support the comedic aspect, which is a theme present throughout in the film and provides a more entertaining experience.
There is one thing that stood out to me a lot. Oddly, there are no typical cinema heroes. The hero trope will be a hard one to spot in this film. Everyone seems to have a very pitiless nature in this film, or maybe it was just the amount of obscenities spewing from every character, but the standard good guy you can root for is absent here. Not even Mookie came across as someone who you could get behind, with his un-ambitious nature and down and out attitude.
Spike Lee did great with Do the Right Thing, staging a very entertaining and honest look at race relations and what people’s feelings were toward race at that time. The racism that existed then and now are two very different things, as a society I believe we are on the right track, but this film is a reminder of how far we have come and an example of what is possible with the right attitude.