Spike Lee’s incendiary, stylish film Do the Right Thing is a wonderful example of race relations in the late 1980s; in the face of police brutality and gang warfare in the ghettos of America, a fine line exists between black pride and equality, portrayed elegantly and energetically by director Spike Lee. Multiculturalism is at a razor’s edge in this film, with many members of the community being one arbitrary offense away from being beaten or killed by an insensitive police force, or prejudiced, conflicted whites in their own neighborhood.
The film takes place in a predominantly black neighborhood of Brooklyn, where blacks and Italians have a shaky racial relationship. The owner of a pizzeria, Sal (Danny Aiello) and his sons (John Turturro and Richard Edson) exist in a vacuum among an urban community in the middle of a heat wave. An issue arises based on two black members of the community (one named Radio Raheem) insisting that Sal put up pictures of black people on the walls of his pizzeria, due to the community in which he works. He refuses, and it sets in motion a chain of events that leads to the death of one Radio Raheem, and the destruction of the pizzeria due to the resulting race riot.
Do the Right Thing portrays a somewhat realistic, if sensationalized and stylized, portrayal of race relations and multiculturalism. One of its defining attributes is its vibrant, bright cinematography, with frequent use of close-up, fisheye lens, and lo-fi sensibilities which lends it a personal, passionate atmosphere indicative of Lee’s work. The soundtrack is also a shining example of the best in rebellious black hip-hop, with one of the featured tracks being the civil rights anthem “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy. It is a searing call to action to a black community under siege by a disapproving, overly violent and discriminatory police force, which is a large factor in the film itself (Lee and Jones, p. 33).
The defining moment of the film – Mookie (Spike Lee) throwing a garbage can into Sal’s window, sparking a race riot – is one of the most powerful images in black cinema, as it showcases a defiant image of rage at the death of a man due to racism (Radio Raheem). There are many who have differing opinions as to whether or not Mookie “does the right thing” by doing this; in one way, Mookie may have saved Sal’s life by throwing the trash can, as it distracts the mob from him onto his property. On the other hand, he may have simply wanted to incite violence as an outburst of his own (Reid, p. 43).
If “the differences within a given human population are every bit as great as those between populations,” then the inhabitants of Do the Right Thing have a lot to learn from each other, both black and white (Cashin and Tanner, p. 266). The neighborhood exists in a vacuum; everyone has to help each other out, regardless of race or attitude, and the police is everyone’s enemy. It is a perfect microcosm for the attitudes of 1980s blacks, and the state of inter-race relations at the time.
Works Cited
Cashin, Kathryn, and Stacy Tanner. Multicultural film: an anthology fall 2005. Custom ed. Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Pub., 2005. Print.
Lee, Spike, and Lisa Jones. Do the right thing: a Spike Lee joint. New York, N.Y.: Fireside, 1989. Print.
Reid, Mark. Spike Lee's Do the right thing . Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Print.
