The Reality of the Melting Pot in Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee

Tempers explode, emotions take charge, and a Italian-run pizzeria in a black Brooklyn neighborhood becomes the center of a violent conflict on a hot summer day in Spike Lees Do the Right Thing.

The film is a day-in-the-life of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community and it is one of the hottest days of the summer. Much of the action takes place around or inside the Sals Famous Pizzeria, owned and operated by Sal (Danny Aiello) and his sons Vito (Richard Edson) and Pino (John Turturro).

The restaurant has been in the neighborhood for years and many of the kids have grown up on his pizza. Sal remained in the neighborhood as it became predominately black as he showed pride and a love for the neighborhood. And over the years he has built a tradition of good relationships with his black customers. The story follows Mookie, the delivery boy for the pizza parlor, as he struggles to do the right thing throughout the day.

The events are set in motion when violence that breaks out is between two neighborhood black teens, Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Reheem (Bill Nunn), and Sal. They are upset that there are no black photos displayed on the wall of the pizzeria. Radio Reheem ends up being murdered at the hands of the police. The community turns against Sal and the pizzeria and a riot breaks out, in which his pizzeria is destroyed.

In Do the Right Thing, the subject is not just a struggle between races, but racial tension and miscommunication.

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Lees point is to show the way race affects the lives of those in America. He has focused his story on African-American characters, and how they relate to each other. Its central main character is Mookie, played by Lee himself, a friendly, yet irresponsible pizza delivery man and part-time father who is too immature to accept the responsibilities that take hold of him. There are many different culture clashes that take place within the city block. Italian, Black, Puerto Rican, and Korean descendants occupy the neighborhood. Lee creates different stories that takes place between different characters, in which they play off one another. The large ensemble cast is excellent. There’s Mookie, that is played by Lee himself, who takes on the world and tries to make everything right, failing in the end; Sal (Aeillo), Vito (Edson), and Pino (Turturro), all struggle to have their pizzeria succeed all the while trying to intertwine with the black community; Mookie’s sister Jade (Lee’s real sister, Joie Lee), who’s tired of having him in her apartment; Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith), who has a deeper message about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X; Radio Raheem (Nunn) and Buggin Out (Esposito), who double team in the race for equality within the white pizzeria; Mookie’s girlfriend, Tina (Rosie Perez), who wants him to take responsibility for their baby boy; and Da Mayor (Ossie Davis), a wise, but drunk elderly man. Mister Senor Love Daddy (Sam Jackson), the deejay for WE-LOVE radio, who commentates on the activities that take place outside his broadcast booth throughout the day. Lee presents his characters as mostly complicated, both black and white, sometimes easy to like, sometimes not. Special attention is given to the relationship between Mookie and his white employer, who cuts him slack when he takes his time on deliveries. With Vito and the white cops, whom the blacks in the neighborhood see as a harassing unit of protection, he is less successful. The movie runs on emotion and as a result, it is a moral workout. The film has us take a look at Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, then has us look at the ontradictions- a plea for tolerance and a reason for violent opposition.

Lee has made himself the kind of filmmaker working to tell black stories that have usually been ignored by Hollywood. Indeed, his success has opened the doors for a new generation of black filmmakers. Do the Right Thing, is to the point and entertaining with a serious view of the world. There are no absolute heroes or villains. There are no easy answers to the questions that this film poses.

Do the Right Thing is one of the best-directed, best made films of our time, a film in which the acting and visual style work together to make a statement about race in America. It is also bound to enrage many of its viewers, but that is Lees point: It takes emotion to do the right thing and we dont know what that is? It is left up to the viewer to determine what they think is right. And all the different characters have a different viewpoint and interpretation on what is the right thing.

A good thing about Spike Lees movie is that it makes people think about the issues raised. Public Enemy’s anthem: “You got to fight the power, fight the power, fight the powers that be,” is repeated throughout the film as the theme. Lees father, Bill Lee, wrote the film’s score. The main principle Lee is attempting to get across is the differences of the inner city. A bunch of opposites are used to do that: black and white, love and hate, man and woman, peace and violence. From the beginning you are blasted with music, whether it be from the rolling credits as we see Tina dancing furiously, or the Latin music as Radio Raheem and the Latinos have a sound off with their boom boxes. Blues music is also important and noted throughout the film as the depression of the neighborhood set in.

Almost all of Spike Lees films have to do with a play on black morality. He tells the truth to the African-American audience, but doing it in his flashy style. He wants people to face things as they are and defeat the monsters that scare them. In other such films as Malcolm X, Mo Better Blues, and He Got Game, are all relevant and this universal theme can be seen evidently in all of them.

Do the Right Thing has this relevant theme. It successfully shows the tensions in the differences of race and shows the tragic outcomes. He shows that it is not always splendid and gentle, but the harsh truth of reality. There is a great lesson that can be taught and learned from his film, and we have Lee to thank for that.