doing the right thing narrative essay

• Movies Explained
• How to Watch a Film

Do the Right Thing (1989) | The Definitive Explanation

Table of contents

What is do the right thing about, movie guide table of contents, a recap of the ending, the escalation of racial tensions, the riot and its symbolism, the struggle for recognition and respect, ending with contrasting philosophies, the struggle for racial recognition, the use of racial slurs, the need to riot, what is the “right thing”, love vs. hate, the tension between community and identity, the coexistence of community and identity.

• Why is the movie called Do the Right Thing?

Sal’s wall of fame

Love and hate, the trash can, radio raheem’s radio, the neighborhood, police brutality, why won’t sal put any black people on the wall of fame, why did mookie throw the trash can, now it’s your turn.

Welcome to our Colossus Movie Guide for Do the Right Thing . This guide contains everything you need to understand the film. Dive into our detailed library of content, covering key aspects of the movie. We encourage your comments to help us create the best possible guide. Thank you!

Do the Right Thing is an emblematic narrative about racial tension, policing, and the consequences of pent-up frustration in a culturally diverse community. The film presents a microcosm of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on the hottest day of the summer, where a boiling point of racial conflict reaches its inevitable climax. Central to this tale is the inherent paradox of “doing the right thing,” a theme that is complex and is constantly reframed, thereby triggering the audience to question its own moral compass.

The movie’s core conflict derives from the systemic divide and racial disparity witnessed within the urban neighborhood, projecting both subtle and overt displays of prejudice. From Sal’s pizzeria, a locus of contention due to its Wall of Fame lacking black celebrities, to the fatal chokehold incident, Do the Right Thing continually forces audiences to grapple with what is just and unjust. The film’s conclusion leaves an impression of cyclical violence, suggesting that the resolution of societal conflicts can’t be achieved through violent retaliation, but also pointing out that peaceful protests often go unheard. By not providing a clear answer to what the “right thing” is, the movie suggests that the path towards justice is labyrinthine and fraught with challenging ethical dilemmas.

• Spike Lee – Mookie (also writer and director)
• Danny Aiello – Sal
• John Turturro – Pino
• Richard Edson – Vito
• Bill Nunn – Radio Raheem
• Rosie Perez – Tina
• Giancarlo Esposito – Buggin’ Out
• Ossie Davis – Da Mayor
• Ruby Dee – Mother Sister
• Samuel L. Jackson – Mister Señor Love Daddy
• Roger Guenveur Smith – Smiley
• Rick Aiello – Officer Gary Long
• Miguel Sandoval – Officer Mark Ponte
• Joie Lee – Jade
• Martin Lawrence – Cee
• Leonard L. Thomas – Punchy
• Christa Rivers – Ella
• Robin Harris – Sweet Dick Willie
• Paul Benjamin – ML
• Frankie Faison – Coconut Sid

The ending of Do the Right Thing explained

Buggin’ Out, Radio Raheem, and Smiley storm into Sal’s Pizzeria, protesting Sal’s Wall of Fame. Sal orders Raheem to turn off his blaring boombox, but Radio Raheem refuses. Fueled by the tension, Buggin’ Out becomes derogatory towards Sal and his sons, vowing to close the establishment until Black people are represented on the Wall.

Sal retaliates in a fit of anger, racially insulting Buggin’ Out and smashing Raheem’s boombox, sparking a brawl that quickly engulfs the pizzeria and spills onto the streets, attracting a crowd. As Raheem puts Sal in a chokehold, Officers Long and Ponte arrive to quell the chaos. Raheem and Buggin’ Out are apprehended, and in an alarming twist, Long chokes Raheem with his nightstick despite pleas from Ponte and the crowd. Raheem’s life is tragically taken and the officers, cognizant of their error, hastily drive off with his body.

The crowd, shattered and incensed over Radio Raheem’s death, hold Sal and his sons accountable. Da Mayor tries to reason with the crowd about Sal’s innocence but to no avail. Overcome by fury and sorrow, Mookie hurls a trash can through Sal’s Pizzeria window, catalyzing the mob to raid and wreck the establishment. Smiley sets it ablaze as Da Mayor rescues Sal and his sons from the impending mob, now fixated on Sonny’s store.

Sonny, in a state of dread, successfully dissuades the mob. With the arrival of the police, firemen, and riot patrols, the crowd is dispersed, and the fire is extinguished amidst continued discord and arrests. A bewildered Mookie and Jade observe the scene from a safe distance while Smiley, reentering the charred premises, places one of his photos on the remnants of Sal’s Wall.

In the aftermath, Mookie confronts Sal about his due pay, following an argument with Tina. The two men bicker, reach an uneasy truce, and Sal finally pays Mookie his wages. Local DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy memorializes Radio Raheem with a dedicated song.

As the film nears its end, contrasting quotes on violence by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X appear, followed by an image of the two leaders in a handshake.

Here is the quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by destroying itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

And the quote from Malcolm X:

I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn’t mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.

The film is then dedicated to the families of six victims of police brutality or racial violence: Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Griffith, Arthur Miller Jr., Edmund Perry, Yvonne Smallwood, and Michael Stewart.

The climactic confrontation in Do the Right Thing is a reflection of escalating racial tensions that have been brewing throughout the entire film. The tension between the different racial groups in the neighborhood is palpable from the onset, underscored by motifs of incredible heat and Sal’s Wall of Fame.

The heat represents the smoldering racial tensions within the community. The sweltering summer weather creates an atmosphere of restlessness and agitation that mirrors the community’s emotional state. It’s a visual and sensory metaphor for how racial tension and frustration can simmer below the surface, intensifying until they reach a boiling point.

Sal’s Wall of Fame acts as another significant symbol, representing the denial of racial recognition. The wall, adorned with only Italian-American celebrities, starkly contrasts with the predominantly Black neighborhood the pizzeria resides in. This omission doesn’t go unnoticed, especially by Buggin’ Out, and becomes a significant point of contention that adds to the building tension.

When Sal destroys Raheem’s boombox after a heated confrontation over the Wall of Fame, it is not merely an act of aggression but a metaphorical dismissal of the Black community’s culture and identity, thus igniting the existing tension into a full-blown conflict. The fight spills onto the streets, attracting a crowd and the police’s attention, which culminates in Raheem’s tragic death by chokehold.

Radio Raheem’s death thus underscores the deadly consequences of systemic racism and racial tension. Even though Sal didn’t instigate the fight, he becomes the community’s target due to Raheem’s unjust death, showing how racial tension can distort perceptions and escalate conflicts. This escalation reflects the destructive cycle of racial prejudice, illustrating how deep-seated biases can lead to unjustifiable violence.

Riots are often a manifestation of pent-up frustrations of marginalized communities. In Do the Right Thing , the destruction of Sal’s Pizzeria is the physical representation of this suppressed anger breaking free. The community feels disenfranchised, and this explosive display of defiance becomes a means to voice their longstanding grievances.

The riot, in this sense, becomes a form of catharsis, an emotional release for the community. For them, it’s a reaction against systemic inequities that they have been forced to endure. It is a destructive, yet significant, means of rebellion against a system that consistently overlooks their needs and concerns. While the destruction may seem senseless to an outside observer, for the people involved, it is an act of reclaiming power and agency, however transient it might be.

This act of rebellion is further underscored by Radio Raheem’s earlier “Love and Hate” speech. Here is that speech in full:

Let me tell you the story of Right Hand, Left Hand. It’s a tale of good and evil. Hate: it was with this hand that Cain iced his brother. Love: these five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man. The right hand: the hand of love. The story of life is this: static. One hand is always fighting the other hand, and the left hand is kicking much ass. I mean, it looks like the right hand, Love, is finished. But hold on, stop the presses, the right hand is coming back. Yeah, he got the left hand on the ropes, now, that’s right. Ooh, it’s a devastating right and Hate is hurt, he’s down. Left-Hand Hate KOed by Love.

That speech takes on an ironic tone as the riot unfolds. The community, driven by love for their own and a sense of justice, turns to what can be perceived as an act of hate: the destruction of Sal’s pizzeria.

This irony embodies the complex reality of racial struggles, where love for one’s community can lead to actions perceived as hateful. The riot, while destructive, embodies this struggle, highlighting the community’s desperate need for acknowledgment and change. It shows that when pushed to the brink, when love seems to be losing the fight, actions born out of frustration and a thirst for justice can be misunderstood as acts of hate.

Mookie’s act of throwing the trash can is a powerful image and a potent symbol for the ongoing struggle between love and hate that Radio Raheem talks about. Mookie loves his community and sees it suffer. He’s also aware that Sal’s pizzeria, at that moment, is a symbol of the community’s oppression—an embodiment of the racial tensions and the lack of recognition that sparked the fight and led to Raheem’s death. Mookie chooses an act of apparent hate, not because he hates Sal personally, but out of love for his community and a need for justice. You could also argue that he throws the trash can out of love in order to protect Sal and his sons.

In the aftermath of the riot, Mookie’s return to Sal to demand his weekly pay carries significant symbolic weight. Mookie’s insistence on being paid, despite the previous night’s catastrophic events, underscores a fundamental theme of the film: the struggle for recognition and respect.

Mookie’s demand for his salary, against the backdrop of the smoldering remnants of Sal’s pizzeria, isn’t just about money. It represents his assertion of self-worth and dignity in a system that consistently undermines it. Mookie, a pizza delivery man, has spent his days serving the community, and his demand for pay is symbolic of his fight for acknowledgment of his labor’s value, even amidst chaos. And Sal’s eventual decision to pay Mookie, albeit begrudgingly, signifies a moment of recognition.

This scene, however, doesn’t suggest a complete resolution of the racial tension. Instead, it reveals a moment of temporary truce within the ongoing struggle, a small step towards mutual recognition. It emphasizes that the journey towards racial harmony and recognition is fraught with conflict, but not devoid of the potential for understanding and change. This small act of transaction underscores the film’s commentary on the complex dynamics of race, labor, and respect in a racially diverse community.

At the end of Do the Right Thing , Spike Lee presents quotes from two iconic figures in the civil rights movement: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. These quotes reflect their respective philosophies towards social change: King’s nonviolent resistance and Malcolm X’s belief in self-defense in the face of oppression.

King once said, “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.” This speaks to his conviction that violent reprisals, while initially gratifying, are ultimately detrimental to the larger goal of societal harmony.

In contrast, Malcolm X once stated, “I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man’s problem—just to avoid violence.” This is emblematic of his belief in the legitimacy of violence as a tool for self-defense, asserting that black people have the right to protect themselves when institutions fail to do so.

Spike Lee’s decision to include these seemingly contrasting statements is a reflection of the complex nature of racial struggle, particularly as it’s depicted in the movie. The narrative doesn’t promote one approach over the other. Instead, it showcases the multifaceted and often conflicting responses to racial oppression.

By juxtaposing these quotes, Lee suggests that the film’s narrative is not a prescriptive solution to racial tensions, but an exploration of the myriad ways individuals might respond to the same. It’s a recognition that the struggle for racial equality is not monolithic and that different approaches can coexist, even if they seem contradictory.

In the end, Do the Right Thing doesn’t definitively answer what the “right thing” is. Instead, it encourages viewers to contemplate the complexities of racial tension and the multitude of responses it evokes. This makes the film not just a depiction of racial tension, but also a platform for dialo

The themes and meaning of Do the Right Thing

Racial tension

Racial tension is a pervasive theme in Do the Right Thing , manifesting through various characters, their interactions, and conflicts. The film provides a microcosmic view of the broader racial dynamics in America by focusing on a single day in a Brooklyn neighborhood. It presents racial tension not as an external force, but as an inherent part of everyday life in an ethnically diverse society.

Racial recognition, or the lack thereof, serves as a significant driving force behind the tension and conflict in Do the Right Thing . The struggle for recognition and respect of one’s racial identity and culture is a shared experience among many characters, creating an undercurrent of resentment and frustration that fuels the escalating tension throughout the film.

The struggle for racial recognition is deeply entwined with the motif of Sal’s Wall of Fame. The Wall, solely featuring Italian-American celebrities, stands in Sal’s Pizzeria, a business operating in a predominantly black neighborhood and serving mostly black customers. The Wall becomes a symbolic site of contention because it omits representation of the black community, even though the pizzeria is a shared community space. This omission is a stark reminder of the broader societal bias that often overlooks the contributions of marginalized groups.

Buggin’ Out, recognizing this lack of representation, challenges Sal to include African American icons on the Wall. Sal’s refusal and his argument that it’s his pizzeria and he can display whomever he wishes shows an entrenched racial bias and disregard for the cultural contributions of his black customers. This conflict underlines the struggle for racial recognition, illustrating how the lack of representation can lead to feelings of erasure and fuel discontent.

The motif of baseball serves a similar purpose, highlighting the struggle for racial recognition within shared cultural experiences. The heated argument between Buggin’ Out and Pino over the best baseball player becomes a proxy battle for racial pride and recognition. Each character argues for a player of their own race, emphasizing the divide that persists even within universal cultural symbols like baseball. This conversation illuminates the fact that even in areas of shared national identity, racial disparities and the struggle for recognition persist.

In Do the Right Thing , these motifs accentuate the constant struggle for racial recognition faced by the characters. This struggle is not a mere subplot but forms the foundation of the narrative, driving the actions and reactions of the characters. The growing frustration and tension due to this lack of recognition eventually erupt in the film’s climax, manifesting in the form of the riot. The riot, therefore, is not just an act of wanton violence, but a bold assertion for racial recognition, marking a culmination of the characters’ long-standing struggle.

Language plays a pivotal role in Do the Right Thing , serving as a mirror to reflect the simmering racial tension in the neighborhood and offering a critique of the casual prejudice that permeates everyday society.

Throughout the film, characters express their racial prejudices and underlying tensions through their choice of words and phrases, revealing how deeply ingrained these biases are in their everyday interactions. For instance, the loaded conversation between Pino and Mookie about famous African-Americans reveals Pino’s subconscious racial bias. Although he admires several black celebrities, he harbors prejudice against the black community in his immediate vicinity. His words, heavy with contradiction, illustrate how stereotypes and prejudice can coexist with admiration, underscoring the complex nature of racial bias.

A particularly potent example of language reflecting racial tension is the scene often referred to as the “racial slur montage.” Here, characters unleash a flurry of racial slurs against various racial groups, unveiling the raw, unfiltered racial prejudices that exist beneath the surface of their daily interactions. This verbal violence serves as a metaphor for societal tension, laying bare the stereotypes each racial group harbors about the others. By doing so, the film depicts the multifaceted nature of prejudice, where individuals can be both victims and perpetrators of bigotry.

The casual and conversational manner in which these slurs and biased comments are tossed around further demonstrates how racial prejudice has seeped into the fabric of everyday life, often normalized and unchallenged. This habitual use of racially loaded language illustrates how racial tension can simmer beneath the surface of a community, ready to boil over at any provocation.

The riot at the end of the movie is triggered by the unjust death of Radio Raheem, a black man, at the hands of the police. This brutal event resonates with real-world instances where violence against black individuals has sparked widespread public outrage and unrest, such as the murder of George Floyd. The representation of Radio Raheem’s death and the subsequent riot underscores the film’s critique of systemic racism and police brutality, issues that remain pertinent decades after the movie’s release.

The film portrays the riot as an eruption of pent-up racial tension, accumulated resentment, and shared frustration. It is a chaotic, violent, and emotional response to the violence inflicted upon Radio Raheem and, by extension, the black community. The act of Mookie throwing the trash can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria can be interpreted as an act of deflection, diverting the mob’s wrath from Sal to his property, or as an act of rebellion, symbolically challenging the system that continually marginalizes his community.

In this context, Do the Right Thing is neither justifying nor condemning the riot but presenting it as a complex reaction to a deeply embedded societal problem. The film, instead of simplifying the event into a matter of right or wrong, forces audiences to grapple with the circumstances that lead to such incidents. It challenges viewers to question the structures and biases that perpetuate racial violence and injustice, eventually leading to such outbursts.

Ethics and morality

The theme of ethics and morality runs deep in Do the Right Thing , challenging audiences to grapple with what constitutes “the right thing” in a racially charged context. The film presents various characters wrestling with their moral convictions amidst escalating racial tensions, forcing audiences to reflect on the relativity of moral judgments.

The advice from Da Mayor to Mookie to “do the right thing” is a significant narrative element that sets the stage for the exploration of ethics and morality in Do the Right Thing . This seemingly simple advice, delivered early in the film, introduces the audience to the complex moral universe they are about to navigate.

By positioning Da Mayor, an older character with life experience, as the deliverer of this advice, the film establishes a sense of generational wisdom. Da Mayor is portrayed as a somewhat flawed but wise figure who has witnessed and understood the complex nature of morality in their racially charged environment. His advice underscores the inherent moral quandaries the characters face and positions him as a moral compass, albeit a nebulous one, as he doesn’t spell out what the “right thing” is.

The phrase “do the right thing” is deceptively simple but inherently complex due to its subjective nature. It presents morality as a fluid concept, shaped by personal perspectives, societal norms, and cultural backgrounds. This leaves room for interpretation, setting the stage for the moral dilemmas that unfold throughout the movie. It allows for multiple interpretations of what the “right thing” is, reflecting the diversity of viewpoints in the neighborhood and the wider world.

The climax of the film, where Mookie throws a trash can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria, culminates in this theme of moral ambiguity. Mookie’s action can be viewed from different ethical perspectives: as a betrayal of his employer, as a justified act of defiance against a system that devalues black lives, or as a strategic move to redirect the mob’s anger away from Sal and onto his property.

The film does not provide a definitive answer on whether Mookie’s actions constitute “the right thing,” which aligns with the film’s broader approach to ethics and morality. It suggests that morality isn’t fixed or universally agreed upon, but rather a product of individual circumstances, societal influences, and personal interpretations. This approach encourages the audience to engage with these complexities, asking them to consider the factors that shape their understanding of “the right thing.”

Radio Raheem’s “Love and Hate” speech in Do the Right Thing is a pivotal moment that delves into the thematic exploration of ethics and morality. Holding up his brass knuckle-adorned hands, one reading ‘LOVE’ and the other ‘HATE,’ Raheem delivers a dramatic monologue about the eternal struggle between these two forces.

Here’s the entire speech:

This speech is a nod to the dichotomy of good and evil, love and hate that has been a central theme in literature and philosophy for centuries. It introduces the concept of ethical and moral dualism, the conflict between positive and negative moral forces, into the narrative. Radio Raheem’s hands become metaphors for these opposing forces, demonstrating how closely they can coexist and how one’s actions can tip the balance in either direction.

In terms of ethics and morality, this speech underscores the complexity of the characters’ choices and actions throughout the film. The struggle between love and hate is reflected in the characters’ interpersonal dynamics, their actions, and their reactions to the escalating racial tension. It symbolizes the ethical quandaries they face, the choices they make, and the consequences they bear.

For instance, Mookie’s decision to throw a trash can through Sal’s Pizzeria’s window can be viewed through the lens of this dichotomy. Was it an act of hate against Sal, or an act of love to divert the crowd’s anger away from Sal to his property, potentially saving his life? This act, like many others in the film, doesn’t fit neatly into categories of “right” or “wrong,” reflecting the intricate interplay between love and hate, good and evil, ethical and unethical.

Radio Raheem’s speech encapsulates this moral complexity, reminding viewers that actions are often motivated by a mix of love and hate, righteousness and anger, morality and immorality. It reflects the film’s overall stance on ethics and morality, demonstrating that these concepts aren’t clear-cut but rather a product of constant struggle and negotiation between conflicting forces.

Community and identity

Do the Right Thing presents community and identity as intertwined themes, exploring how individual identities contribute to community dynamics and vice versa. The motif of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, with its diversity, is a melting pot of identities, all coexisting in a delicate balance of harmony and discord.

Do the Right Thing delves into the tension between maintaining individual identity and fostering community harmony, shedding light on the complexity and delicate balance of multicultural societies. Throughout the film, characters grapple with expressing their unique cultural identities while cohabitating a shared community space, revealing the inherent challenges and conflicts that can arise from such a dynamic.

Sal’s Pizzeria serves as a central location for this tension. Sal, an Italian-American, runs this establishment in a predominantly black neighborhood, leading to clashes of cultural expression. The Wall of Fame, adorned with only Italian-American icons, is a clear symbol of Sal’s insistence on maintaining his individual identity. Yet, his pizzeria operates as a communal hub for a black neighborhood, raising questions about representation and the inclusivity of community spaces.

Buggin’ Out’s demand to include black icons on the Wall of Fame exemplifies the tension between individual identity and community harmony. Buggin’ Out seeks acknowledgment of the neighborhood’s cultural identity, believing that the community’s patronage should be reflected in the space they frequent. This is seen as a threat by Sal, who feels his personal identity within his business is being undermined.

However, the film does not present this tension as a simplistic binary conflict. Characters such as Da Mayor and Mother Sister demonstrate a more harmonious coexistence of individual identity within the community fabric. Da Mayor, though often at odds with younger community members, ultimately embodies wisdom and peacekeeping. Mother Sister, while maintaining a somewhat aloof and watchful role, shows concern and care for her neighborhood.

The climax of the film underscores the devastating potential of these tensions when left unresolved. The riot that engulfs Sal’s Pizzeria can be viewed as an explosive expression of suppressed individual identities that felt unheard and unrecognized within the shared community space.

At the same time, the film emphasizes the strength of the community. Despite the conflicts, there is a sense of shared experience and mutual support among the residents. The community’s collective outrage at Radio Raheem’s death and the subsequent riot signify a shared sense of injustice and a collective struggle for change. This shared experience, born out of adversity, underlines the power of community and the importance of collective identity in challenging societal structures.

Why is the movie called Do the Right Thing ?

The title Do the Right Thing might appear straightforward, suggesting a simple moral directive to make ethically correct decisions. However, as the film unfolds, it becomes clear that determining what constitutes the “right thing” is steeped in layers of complexity, ambiguity, and subjectivity.

Da Mayor’s directive to Mookie to “do the right thing” early in the film sets the stage for the narrative’s exploration of morality, ethics, and societal pressures. His advice, though seemingly simple, resonates throughout the movie as we observe characters navigating their personal moral landscapes amid escalating tensions. Initially, the quote seems to foreshadow a traditional morality tale where characters will face clear choices between right and wrong, a concept most audiences are familiar with.

The deeper meaning of the title lies in the fact that what may be deemed as “right” is often a matter of perspective. Depending on one’s values, experiences, beliefs, and even their place in a social or racial hierarchy, the definition of the “right thing” can drastically differ. For instance, the character Mookie throws a trash can through the window of Sal’s pizzeria, which, on the surface, is a violent act of vandalism. However, in the context of the story, it can be viewed as an expression of pent-up anger, frustration, and a desperate cry for justice following the death of Radio Raheem. Is Mookie doing the right thing? From his viewpoint, this act was perhaps a necessary measure to draw attention to racial violence. However, to others, his actions might seem destructive and unproductive, potentially escalating the conflict.

By the end of the movie, Da Mayor’s quote takes on a more profound significance. The climactic conflict at Sal’s pizzeria, culminating in Mookie’s act of throwing the trash can through the window and the subsequent riot, forces the audience to grapple with what the “right thing” truly means in such circumstances. Is it peace at the cost of justice, or is it a disruptive act to draw attention to a grave injustice? The ambiguity inherent in Da Mayor’s advice thus becomes a point of reflection for the audience, prompting them to reconsider their understanding of morality and justice.

In the broader context, the title serves as a commentary on systemic racial and social inequalities that still persist in society. It underscores the fact that individuals from marginalized communities often have to navigate a complex moral landscape where the “right thing” may differ vastly from the mainstream narrative. In the face of systemic oppression, their fight for equality might be deemed as an act of defiance, disobedience, or even criminal activity by those in power.

The title’s deeper meaning lies in its challenge to the audience. As viewers, we’re urged to question our notions of what is “right” and “wrong.” We’re prompted to examine our biases, our preconceived notions, and the societal narratives we’ve accepted. This demand for introspection and self-reflection continues to resonate long after the film ends, causing us to grapple with these issues in our own lives.

Important motifs in Do the Right Thing

In Do the Right Thing , heat is a constant presence that accentuates the rising racial tensions. The temperature, which continues to escalate throughout the day, not only aggravates the discomfort and irritability of the characters but also symbolizes their growing frustration and anger. The heat-induced exhaustion and agitation of the characters mirror the societal fatigue that stems from enduring racial inequalities. The film’s climactic riot occurs at the peak of the day’s heat, symbolizing that when tensions, like temperatures, rise too high, a boiling point is inevitable, resulting in an explosive reaction.

Sal’s Wall of Fame serves as a constant visual reminder of the racial divide and lack of representation. By exclusively displaying Italian-American celebrities, Sal subtly dismisses the cultural contributions of his predominantly black clientele. This oversight escalates into an issue of contention, leading to the pivotal conflict in the movie. The Wall of Fame is a representation of the cultural erasure and systemic bias faced by the black community. Its destruction during the riot is a symbolic act of rebellion against this exclusion, highlighting the community’s demand for recognition and respect.

The “Love” and “Hate” rings worn by Radio Raheem serve as a metaphor for the societal and personal struggles the characters face. They depict the internal struggle between love, represented by understanding and acceptance, and hate, characterized by prejudice and anger. The symbolic battle between these forces reflects the volatile dynamics within the community. The narrative arc of these rings also mirrors the film’s progression: while Radio Raheem’s monologue about love conquering hate initially offers hope, his death at the hands of the police, a tragic symbol of hate, paints a grim reality.

Music is used in Do the Right Thing to give voice to the community’s struggle. Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” resounds throughout the film, symbolizing the black community’s resistance against systemic oppression. It’s more than just a background score—it becomes a rallying cry that reflects the anger and defiance of the community. This repetition serves as a constant auditory reminder of the unresolved societal issues at hand. The conflict around the volume of Radio Raheem’s radio is also indicative of the clash between individual expression and conformity.

The act of Mookie throwing the trash can through the window of Sal’s pizzeria is one of the film’s most iconic scenes. The trash can is symbolic of the pent-up frustrations, racial tensions, and simmering anger within the community. Mookie’s action is not merely an act of vandalism—it is a bold assertion of protest against racial injustice. This act of rebellion, caused by the metaphorical “heat” of the conflict, challenges the status quo and demands immediate attention to the unjust death of Radio Raheem, making the trash can a powerful motif of resistance and call for justice.

Radio Raheem’s boombox serves as an extension of his identity, broadcasting his presence and his defiance against the norms of society. The persistent blare of “Fight the Power” underscores the theme of resistance against racial injustice. When Sal destroys the radio, it signifies a violation of Radio Raheem’s personal space and an outright dismissal of his cultural expression. This act escalates the existing tensions, leading to the climactic confrontation. Therefore, the radio functions not only as a symbol of individual autonomy but also as a catalyst for the events that unfold.

In Do the Right Thing , pizza serves as a symbol of cultural interaction and, paradoxically, cultural division. Sal’s pizza joint, a primarily Italian establishment in the heart of a black neighborhood, becomes a meeting point of cultures. However, Sal’s decision to only honor Italian-American celebrities in a place frequented by mostly black patrons underscores the racial disparities. The pizzas, sold to black customers but representative of Sal’s Italian heritage, also symbolize the economic transaction that doesn’t necessarily translate into cultural respect or understanding, reflecting the real-world dynamic often found in racially diverse urban settings.

The Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Do the Right Thing is not just a setting—it’s a character in its own right. The neighborhood, with its vibrant mix of racial and ethnic groups, embodies a microcosm of broader societal relationships. The dynamics between the residents, their shared spaces, and escalating tensions serve as a reflection of real-world racial conflicts and complexities. The tight-knit urban setting amplifies the personal and social issues faced by the characters, making the neighborhood a crucial motif in the narrative.

Baseball, as a motif in the film, serves as a conduit to discuss racial tension and cultural pride. The sport, considered a quintessential part of American culture, becomes a battleground to challenge racial representation. The debate between Buggin’ Out and Pino over who the best baseball player is, with each arguing for a player of their own race, exemplifies the struggle for recognition and respect within the same national fabric. This motif underscores the racial divide that persists even within shared cultural experiences.

Police brutality is a recurring motif in Do the Right Thing , symbolizing the systemic violence and racial injustice prevalent in society. The unjustifiable killing of Radio Raheem serves as a stark reminder of this societal issue. The scene of the police car driving away after the act symbolizes the impunity often enjoyed by law enforcement in cases of police misconduct. This motif is a grim commentary on the ongoing struggle against racial discrimination and police brutality, resonating beyond the narrative of the film into real-life societal discussions.

Questions & answers about Do the Right Thing

In Do the Right Thing , Sal’s Wall of Fame becomes a focal point of the movie’s racial tension. It prominently features Italian-American celebrities, a fact that Buggin’ Out points out as problematic, given that the pizzeria is situated in a predominantly African-American neighborhood.

Sal’s refusal to put up pictures of black celebrities is a complex issue. It’s not merely an act of racism, but rather, a testament to his personal identity and history. Sal’s pizzeria, including the Wall of Fame, is a microcosm of his Italian heritage, a testament to the figures he admires and identifies with. In a neighborhood that is rapidly changing, it serves as a symbol of stability and tradition, something that he holds onto tightly.

However, this adherence to his tradition comes at the cost of acknowledging the changing demographic of his customer base. His customers are predominantly African-American, and his refusal to represent them on the Wall of Fame could be interpreted as a lack of respect for their culture and contributions.

Sal’s resistance to alter the Wall of Fame is a visual representation of the broader struggle for recognition and representation in the film. It becomes a symbol of racial tension and cultural clash, representing Sal’s unwillingness to fully acknowledge and respect the African-American community that sustains his business. It’s a potent symbol of the unspoken racial divide in the neighborhood, which ultimately escalates to the destructive climax of the film.

Mookie’s act of throwing the trash can through Sal’s pizzeria window is a pivotal moment in Do the Right Thing and has been the subject of much debate. It’s a symbolic act that represents a culmination of the racial tension simmering throughout the film. Mookie’s act of destruction is not necessarily directed at Sal personally, but more towards the system that he sees as responsible for Radio Raheem’s death and the general racial inequality that the community faces.

Several interpretations can be drawn from this moment. Some argue that Mookie is redirecting the crowd’s anger towards property instead of people, possibly saving Sal and his sons from physical harm. Sal’s pizzeria becomes a stand-in for the systemic injustices they’ve been enduring. By targeting the property, Mookie sparks a riot that expresses the community’s rage and grief without directly harming the individuals they’ve associated with the cause.

Others interpret this as Mookie’s personal tipping point, where he can no longer remain neutral amidst the racial tensions. Despite his affiliation with Sal, he identifies more strongly with his community’s anger over Radio Raheem’s death, leading to his drastic action. It’s an act of rebellion against the racial injustices he and his community face, aligning himself firmly with them.

Regardless of the interpretation, this moment underscores the film’s central theme of racial tension and serves as a tangible manifestation of the community’s collective frustration and anger. Mookie’s act is a decisive response to an ambiguous command given earlier in the film: to “do the right thing.”

Have more unanswered questions about Do the Right Thing ? Are there themes or motifs we missed? Is there more to explain about the ending? Please post your questions and thoughts in the comments section! We’ll do our best to address every one of them. If we like what you have to say, you could become part of our movie guide!

• do the right thing
• movie guide

Vanilla Sky explained | Dream a little dream

The favourite explained (2018), fight club explained, chungking express explained, the batman (2022) | the definitive explanation.

The Definitives

Critical essays, histories, and appreciations of great films

Do the Right Thing

Essay by brian eggert july 28, 2019.

“Wake up!” announces Samuel L. Jackson’s Mister Señor Love Daddy, a disc jockey in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, the setting of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing . The first line, which is also the last line of his previous feature from 1988, School Daze,  is meant to  incite contemplation and discussion rather than supply an unequivocal lesson. In Do the Right Thing , the DJ’s morning address follows the stagelike title sequence in which Rosie Perez dances to a Public Enemy song that encourages listeners to “fight the power.” Within its first moments, Do the Right Thing establishes Lee’s dialectical intention to pose unanswered questions by exposing the artifice of cinema and engaging the critical viewer. The film does not explain what exactly its audience should wake up from, what power we should be fighting, or what constitutes doing the right thing. But Lee’s aesthetically rich work of art uses a distancing effect to incite critical viewership. His technique draws attention to his stylistic choices: the theatrical quality of the drama and staging, the unforgettable moments that nonetheless interrupt the narrative, the choices of actors and their performative styles, and scenes that amount to an allegory in the manner of a Greek tragedy. Together these elements arouse contemplation about the intractable dilemmas of race and ethnicity in American culture. And given Lee’s refusal to provide easy solutions to enduring problems or pacify our emotions with some measure of closure, Do the Right Thing endures as an essential work of cultural introspection.   

Set on the hottest day of the summer, Do the Right Thing frames the rise of racial tensions between an African American community and an Italian American business. Sal’s Famous Pizzeria, long-established in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood, is owned and operated by the venerable entrepreneur Sal (Danny Aiello). His sons, the unapologetically racist and angry Pino (John Turturro), and Pino’s bullied younger brother Vito (Richard Edson), also contribute to the parlor. Though, Pino no longer wants to work there as he despises the local African American community. Their sole employee, the slacking delivery boy Mookie (Lee), spends much of his time wandering the neighborhood or attempting to reconcile with Tine (Rosie Perez), the mother of his child. The day’s conflict begins when a young Black man named Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito) demands that Sal include some African American faces on his establishment’s “Wall of Fame,” which features exclusively Italian American actors and performers. Sal refuses, arguing that it’s his restaurant, and he will display whomever he chooses. Buggin Out wants Sal to acknowledge that he’s in a neighborhood populated almost entirely by people of color, and since without them Sal’s would not exist, he should show his respect. When Sal refuses, Buggin Out attempts to organize a neighborhood boycott.

Lee structures Do the Right Thing as a philosophical argument whose lessons are ambiguous and whose methods spur the viewer into a dialogue. His dialectical intentions begin with the Universal Pictures logo in the opening, over which a saxophone plays the first bars of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” sometimes called “The Black National Anthem” given its author, NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson. In the next moment, Perez delivers her pulsating dance of coded gestures and shadowboxing to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” a rap song that urgently challenges the so-called progress made to end racism in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement, and then demands action. The two songs are representative of the many strains of back-and-forth viewpoints present throughout the film. The viewer can understand Buggin Out’s opinion that Sal should recognize his place in the Black community by including people of color on his Wall of Fame, just as the viewer can accept Sal’s right as a business owner to decide how to decorate the interior of his restaurant. The way Radio Raheem, Buggin Out, and Smiley provoked Sal may not have been wise, but then Sal’s use of racial epithets and a baseball bat to smash Radio Raheem’s boombox escalated matters to violence. Almost every confrontation in the film can be read from multiple perspectives. And after the sobering conclusion, Lee offers two quotations, one from Martin Luther King and another from Malcolm X, each outlining their oppositional views on the use of violence to solve matters of racial intolerance. He sees the benefits and dangers of both violence and peaceful protest, and rather than declare his faithfulness to one or the other, he does something far more dangerous by calling on the audience to answer his dialectical prompt. 

Lee’s quintessentially American brand of filmmaking springs from his cultural and ethnic background, and from there, he focuses on an equally specific range of themes, stylistic choices, and social values in his work. Lee was born in Atlanta in 1957, but his family moved to Brooklyn when he was still an infant. His mother taught African American art and literature while his father worked as a jazz musician. As a boy, he explored his neighborhood with a Super 8 camera and quickly realized what he would do with his life. He completed his first short film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn , at 20, as an undergraduate at Morehouse College. He later graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1982, and his thesis film, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads , earned the Student Academy Award. In an interview with Delroy Lindo, the star of Lee’s Crooklyn (1994) and Clockers (1995), the director said that he wanted to film “the richness of Africa American culture that I can see, just standing on the corner, or looking out my window every day.” But Lee has always been concerned with more than representations of contemporary New York life in his resident neighborhood. Ed Guerrero called him an “issues-oriented” filmmaker, noting that he often frames his films around a sociopolitical concern or historical event. Lee does not work in a single genre or style. The defining quality of his cinema is his willingness to engage with the social dynamics of race and culture, most often through the lens of African American identity, history, and representation.   

Do the Right Thing was released at a time when hostilities involving race and difference flared, rippling out from New York City across the entire country. A series of racially charged killings of African American men—Willie Turks in 1982, Michael Stewart in 1983, and Yusuf Hawkins in 1989—were carried out by mobs of white people in New York, heightening racial tensions. Lee references the highly publicized Tawana Brawley rape case, where the 15-year old girl accused four white men of raping her over several days and leaving her body marked with racial epithets in November 1987. Although the allegations were contested in court, one scene in the film features “Tawana told the truth” written in graffiti on a wall. The shooting of Eleanor Bumpers by white NYPD officers during an eviction process in 1984 also fueled the tension. And just before the film’s release, the sexual assault of Trisha Meili in April 1989 led to the Central Park Five scandal, where African American and Hispanic teenagers were coerced into confessions of rape and assault, only to be exonerated much later after the true perpetrator confessed in 2001. For much of this, Lee blamed the policies of Ed Koch, and the director included the words “Dump Koch” in the background of another scene. The voting public did just that when they elected David Dinkins over Koch in 1990. These interwoven issues of race, crime, and accusation saturated the cultural discourse that inspired Lee’s film, making Do the Right Thing seem of the moment .

The film premiered at the Canned Film Festival in May 1989 and remains his most widely esteemed and debated work. It received an impressive number of awards and nominations after its release, including a nomination for the Palme d’Or and an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Lee and his cast also won several awards. These include the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s prizes to Lee for his direction, Lee’s father Bill for composing the score, Aiello for best supporting actor, and the top prize for best picture. Several other critical associations and film institutions gave it honors, whereas the mainstream Academy Awards issued their statues to Driving Miss Daisy , a film whose discussion of race relations limits itself to a white audience. Whereas the Oscar for Best Picture went to Driving Miss Daisy , a film that has been largely forgotten in the decades since its release, Lee’s film continues to be at the forefront of the cinematic discussion about representation, race, and unanswerable questions about America and its history. It also took only ten years for the Library of Congress to add Do the Right Thing to the National Film Registry as a work that demands cultural preservation. Driving Miss Daisy has yet to make the list. 

Actually, it’s a small miracle that a Hollywood studio distributed Do the Right Thing. Most studios, especially in the 1980s, maintained an aversion to films that rested on ambiguity, polemical ideologies, or challenged widespread views about American identity. Hollywood, too, rarely made films about issues of race and difference, and their conflicted place in the fabric of American history and social power structures. Lee’s film goes against the usual Hollywood production’s push toward entertainment-first and commercial certainty, challenging the relatively moderate limits of the usual political liberalism of Hollywood. Though historically Hollywood productions have used ambiguity and left-leaning ideologies, rarely does a studio film make an unwavering statement, so as not to isolate a segment of the market and, thus, limit the commercial appeal. Then again, the film industry of the 1980s viewed African American audiences as a niche market, and so Black filmmakers and stories were marginalized because such material rarely had crossover appeal. Lee had his own obstacles to overcome. His first two films were profitable but earned him a reputation, which he described as “a wild-eyed black militant, a baby Malcolm X” that flashed a warning sign to Hollywood executives. 

When Lee was shopping the script to various studios, Paramount Pictures was the first to show interest; however, they demanded that Lee make alterations to the material to suit their audience. “Paramount wanted Mookie and Sal to hug at the end of the movie,” Lee told The Hollywood Reporter . Lee expanded in his journal, “They are convinced that black people will come out of the theaters wanting to burn shit down.” When Lee refused to tame the film’s central conflict, the studio canceled negotiations. After talks with Paramount ended, Touchstone Pictures also turned down the production. Lee felt he had to combat how he was perceived in Hollywood at the time, that any Black man who was not accommodating to white interests was deemed “difficult” and would not align with studio considerations. Still, Universal Pictures ultimately agreed to finance Do the Right Thing . Head of production Tom Pollack maintained it was not because they wanted to release social issue films, which was the perception after they distributed Martin Scorsese’s controversial The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Rather, Pollack noted their interest in Lee’s film was primarily a matter of recognizing its potential to make money from a relatively inexpensive $6.5 million budget ( School Daze cost the same and earned over $14 million). After Pollack agreed to finance the picture, Lee shot for 40 days and, by the end of its theatrical run, Do the Right Thing earned $27 million at the domestic box office. Universal would distribute several “Spike Lee Joints” throughout the 1990s.  

Structurally and visually, Do the Right Thing alternates among the Bed-Stuy characters, building through a dialectic the tensions and uncertainties that charge Lee’s situations and themes. The rhythm of the film’s arrangement has a theatrical quality, as though the entire neighborhood was the stage and, from scene to scene, Lee dims the lights on one area and illuminates them on another. It’s a film comprised of intervals and interruptions, asides and isolated moments. Lee does not follow a single character for long periods of the film. His drama alternates from individual scenes with Mookie to Sal to Buggin Out to children on the street cooling down in an open fire hydrant. The transitions seldom occur through abrupt cutting, but rather as Dickerson’s fluid camera movements track one scene and then, as another character enters from elsewhere in the neighborhood, the camera reconfigures its attention. Within a given scene, however, Lee often alternates between quarreling characters in a mirroring technique of editing that emphasizes the conflict. The harder the cut, the more intense the argument. When Buggin Out first enters Sal’s early in the film, Lee frames his debate with Sal about the cost of extra cheese, a relatively mild topic of contention, with both characters in the same shot. A moment later as their argument about Sal’s “Wall of Fame” heats up, the cutting becomes a sharper back-and-forth with a cut between each response, representing their opposition since the conflict is more serious. Lee uses these visual rhythms to underscore the connections and breaking points between people of Bed-Stuy. 

Disjointed as this may feel at times, Lee ensures that every interval leads to something more in the overall drama of the film. For instance, several scenes involving the Korean store owner Sonny (Steve Park) and his wife Kim (Ginny Yang), and their interactions with more prominent characters, supply an unmistakable arc. In an early sequence involving the Greek chorus, ML bickers about the presence of the Korean grocer in the Black neighborhood: “I betcha they haven’t been a year off da motherfucking boat before they opened up their own place.” Sweet Dick Willie refuses to listen, saying “you got off the boat too,” before sauntering over to get a beer from the grocer. In another scene, Radio Raheem has a tense exchange with Sonny and Kim over batteries for his boombox and the language barrier that prevents him from getting the twenty “D” Energizers he needs. The initial impression of the Korean family in Bed-Stuy is one of animosity; however, the African American locals begin to identify with the Korean Americans, relating to them as similarly displaced people—the African Americans by slavery, the Koreans by emigration. When, in the climactic scene, the rioters enraged over Radio Raheem’s death direct their rage at the Korean grocery store, ML turns from Sal’s to Sonny and shouts, “Your turn, fucker!” But Sonny declares in broken English, “I no White! I Black! You. Me. Same!” The rioters accept this and refrain from continuing their attack.   

The racial slur sequence is just one of many Brechtian flourishes, where Lee breaks from the narrative momentum to face the viewer. Another moment features Radio Raheem performing a “Love and Hate” monologue to Mookie during their brief encounter in the street. Raheem wears large gold rings, almost brass knuckles, with the words “LOVE” and “HATE” spelled out on the right and left hand, respectively. He proceeds to tell a mythical story, represented as Raheem shadow boxes toward the camera, each punch marking how either Love or Hate has the advantage in their ongoing battle, until finally the Hate is “KO’ed by Love.” Lee borrowed the moment from Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter (1955), featuring Robert Mitchum as a murderous preacher with the words “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on his hands. Mitchum’s Rev. Harry Powell tells “the story of good and evil” in a writhing, expressive display in which his fingers are interlocked, and the sequence exemplified that film’s storybook conflict between the evil preacher and the innocent children he sought to kill. In Do the Right Thing , the monologue places Raheem at the center of the film’s conflict between love and hate, echoed by the philosophies of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X quoted at the film’s conclusion. Caught between these two opposing views, Raheem becomes a victim of the conflict at the climactic scene, marshaling the neighborhood and the viewer into introspection. As a character who teaches a lesson in the middle of the film, his death becomes the catalyst for another type of lesson in the finale whose interpretation is far less apparent than the one symbolized in his monologue. 

Although Lee never breaks the fourth wall, he offers, in a manner that addresses the spectator, scenes that call attention to their uniqueness and placement within the overall film as emblematic of Do the Right Thing ’s persistent themes. When the frame rushes toward each participant in the racial slur sequence, these characters unleash their discriminating remarks on each other. But Lee has framed them as though they are vented directly to the viewer. Similarly, Dickerson’s handheld camera faces Raheem during the “Love and Hate” monologue, and though the shot could be interpreted as being from Mookie’s perspective, Lee seems to want the audience to consider Raheem’s words outside of the film’s surface context. Along with the presence of Mister Señor Love Daddy, the Greek chorus on the corner, and even the violent climax of the film, Lee frees himself from the constraints of cinematic realism and engages in a form of theatricality, wherein the characters and, perhaps most importantly the violence , occurs on a performative and edifying platform. The violence of the finale functions as a highpoint to the emotional trajectory of the film, but it also represents the meeting of several conflicting views that are neither resolved within the story nor by lessons of the film. These theatrical moments in the film’s discourse become a strategy through which Lee demands a dialectical and not purely emotional outcome. 

Lee’s interest in the theatrical legacy of actors extends from Davis and Dee to the Oscar-nominated turn by Danny Aiello, who developed and deepened his character into more than the racist figure Lee originally wrote. Davis and Dee’s performances in the film exist in another, older theatrical style, as their scenes play out in a stagey mini-drama with allusions to the past. In tender performances that could have been authored by playwright Lorraine Hansberry, the two characters have lived through the last half-century of racial tensions and personal failures, and the scars weigh on them. Though the details of their characters’ lives remain scant, the presence of these actors as these characters tells us everything we need to know about them. The performances themselves are theatrical and marked by emotional projection; their voices and expressions reach to the back row, while their presence offers a metatextual link to the tradition of progressive African American voices in cinema and theater. In a different sort of performance, Aiello and Turturro carry out their roles with a naturalism defined by the characters’ shared background, which the actors improvised on the set. In a scene of pronounced psychological realism, Sal and Pino discuss the pizzeria’s legacy, Sal’s devotion to the neighborhood, and Pino’s unwavering racism, and the scene transforms Sal into someone worthy of the audience’s empathy.   

Lee grants humanity to each of his characters, while also demonstrating how quickly racism and anger strip away that humanity. In the climactic moment, Mookie, often a voice of reason, shouts “Hate!” before he tosses a garbage can into Sal’s window. During the riot, the seemingly goodhearted Smiley lights the match that sets Sal’s ablaze, while the sweet Mother Sister shouts “Burn it down!” outside. It is the film’s enduring dialectic between nonviolence and violence, love and hate, that keeps the viewer engaged in an essential and productive discussion. The end titles put much of Do the Right Thing into a constructive, open-ended context by questioning what constitutes the appropriate action for people of color to combat racism given the divergent lessons of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Two quotes appear on the screen. First, King denounces violence as a method to bring about racial justice because it stops a healing dialogue and achieves only “a descending spiral ending in destruction for all.” Second, Malcolm X calls the use of violence in “self-defense” a form of “intelligence.” Before the end credits roll, a photograph of the two leaders laughing and shaking hands appears on the screen, the same photo Smiley hawks throughout the film. Lee ends his masterpiece by juxtaposing two personal philosophies that remain at the center of an ongoing debate. 

Bibliography:

Bogle, Donald. Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers . Running Press, 2019.   

Conrad, Mark T., editor. The Philosophy of Spike Lee . The University Press of Kentucky, 2011. 

Enelow, Shonni. “Feel the Love.” Film Comment . July-August 2019, pp. https://www.filmcomment.com/article/feel-the-love. Accessed 20 July 2019.

Guerrero, Ed. Do the Right Thing . BFI Modern Classics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. 

King, Susan. “‘Universal Was Not Afraid’: Spike Lee Reflects on the Fearmongering That First Met ‘Do the Right Thing’.” The Hollywood Reporter . 2019 June 28. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/do-right-thing-spike-lee-reflects-fearmongering-first-met-1989-film-1220715. Accessed 21 July 2019.

Lee, Spike, and Lisa Jones. Do the Right Thing: A Spike Lee Joint . Simon and Schuster, 1989.   

Reid, Mark A., editor. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing . Cambridge University Press, 1997. 

Schuessler, Jennifer. “Portrait of a Marriage, Onstage and at the Barricades.” The New York Times. 12 November 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/arts/ossie-davis-ruby-dee-archives-schomburg.html. Accessed 20 July 2019.

Sterritt, David. Spike Lee’s America . Polity Press, 2013.

Related Titles

• In Theaters

Recent Reviews

• Good One 4 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
• Strange Darling 3 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆
• Blink Twice 3 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆
• Alien: Romulus 2.5 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆
• Skincare 3 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆
• Sing Sing 3.5 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
• Borderlands 1.5 Stars ☆ ☆
• Dìdi 3 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆
• Cuckoo 3 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆
• The Instigators 2 Stars ☆ ☆
• Trap 2.5 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆
• Patreon Exclusive: House of Pleasures 4 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
• Patreon Exclusive: La chimera 4 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
• Deadpool & Wolverine 3 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆
• Starve Acre 3 Stars ☆ ☆ ☆

Recent Articles

• The Definitives: The Spirit of the Beehive
• Interview: Jeff Vande Zande, Author of The Dance of Rotten Sticks
• Reader's Choice: Even Dwarfs Started Small
• The Definitives: Nocturama
• Guest Appearance: KARE 11 - Hidden Gems of Summer
• The Labyrinth of Memory in Chris Marker’s La Jetée
• Reader's Choice: Perfect Days
• The Definitives: Kagemusha
• The Scrappy Independents of Mumblegore
• Reader's Choice: Society of the Snow

Jotted Lines

A Collection Of Essays

Do The Right Thing: Summary, Analysis

Summary: .

Set on a city block during the hottest day of the summer in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant (‘Bed-Stuy’), Do The Right Thing follows the character of ‘Mookie’ (Spike Lee), a pizza delivery boy, and a day in the life of the neighborhood residents as the climate gives way to escalating encounters and disputes around culture, ethnicity and community. 

Do The Right Thing was Spike Lee’s third feature film following School Daze (1988) and She’s Gotta Have It (1986). The film came a decade removed from the Blaxploitation film cycle and two years before the ‘black film explosion’ of 1991.1 A prolific film auteur, Lee continues to challenge the idea of black film and American cinema. 

The opening credits of Do The Right Thing open to the strains of a soprano saxophone rendition of James Weldon Johnson’s ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’. The song ends screen black and the title sequence begins with Public Enemy’s ‘Fight The Power’ and a cut to a stage. Evoking the conceit of the film musical’s opening number, the montage of the sequence features the hip-hop dance of Rosie Perez in multiple costumes against a changing backdrop of Brooklyn photographs backlit by an array of colour schemes. This opening montage is cut to match the movements of Perez’s dance, a dance of militancy and popping contractions with a face that never smiles. She is more than merely a woman to be leered at or reductively posed as an object of pleasure. Her dance signals a cultural politics of hip-hop and what Guthrie Ramsey notes as the mark of ‘a present that has urgency, particularity, politics, and pleasure’. 2 With these two compositions and their distinct spatiotemporal origins, the present of Do The Right Thing demonstrates a century of urgency. 

‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ began as a poem by James Weldon Johnson that debuted in 1900. Johnson and Johnson’s brother, J. Rosamond, would set the poem to music and this composition would eventually be dubbed the ‘The Negro National Anthem’ and adopted as the official song of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP promoted the use of the song as an anthem for the black struggle for access to freedoms and inalienable rights denied by the discriminatory and terrorist practices of white supremacy and the Racial Contract. Moreover, the use of the song during the Civil Rights Movement and its eventual retitling (‘The Black National Anthem’) continued the purposing of the song as black anthem of protest. As Shana Redmond points out, 

“Black anthems become incubators not only for a race/sound fusion but also the merger of art and practice. The conditions that give rise to these anthems within diaspora include colonialism, Jim Crow segregation, and myriad legal and extralegal enactments of persistent inequality; therefore liberation and its pursuit are necessarily narrated and exercised in tandem with philosophies and acts of resistance.” 3 

Public Enemy offers an anthem less reconciled to the Christian doctrine of social protest and nonviolence but nonetheless remains a song compelled by conditions that animate defiant verse. 

While the first song offers the perseverance of faith and belief in inalienable rights, the latter demonstrates a cultural nationalist tact, a more politicised sense of culture and the black lifeworld. Cultural nationalism shifted the meaning of race from the biological to a deliberate posing of race as cultural praxis and a matter of engagement with the anti-hegemonic struggle against white supremacy as embodying features of black personhood. Moreover, the distance between the poles is made plainer with the modal of hip-hop modernism and not that of the sacred verse of gospel. As a sorrow song of what Mark Anthony Neal calls ‘postindustrial soul’, ‘Fight The Power’ offers a sobering and artful discontent from streets far removed from Birmingham, but a relation nonetheless.4 

The depth of Do The Right Thing demonstrates the staging of a political art richly informed by multiple historiographies of black visual and expressive culture. The film is propelled by an intersection of history, music, cinema and blackness. This generative nexus of historical scripts encompasses such issues as gentrification, the black public sphere, police brutality, the popular, cultural and ethnic conflict, and the everyday urban. In other words, anti-realist in its stance, the film positions itself in the matrix of black representation as an interpretative echo and refabulation of race and art. The film employs a 24-hour conceit of the hottest day of the summer in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant (‘Bed-Stuy’). This plotting of a ‘day in the life’ amplifies the masterful way the film functions as a discrete representational system. The seamless accounting of the day on the block through continuity editing is facilitated by such things as Mister Señor Love Daddy’s radio broadcast, colour, physical movements, emblematic framing, an intricate orchestration of ensemble casting in the depth of field, and sound bridges. With the deliberateness of the film structure, one learns to watch the film and recognise the spatiality of the setting. Eventually, one recognises that at one end of the block is Mookie and Jade’s building, Mother Sister’s brownstone, the Korean-run grocery, and across the street against the red wall are the corner crew (Sweet Dick Willie, ML, and Coconut Sid). At the other end of the block, starting across from the grocery is Sal’s Famous Pizzeria, the stoop where the Puerto Ricans sit, the station home for 108FM ‘We Love Radio’, and the brownstone owned by the Celtics’ fan. The film details a dynamic community of personalities and histories, a space textured by infinite encounters. 

The cohesiveness of this spatial conceit does not comply with the platitudes of Our Town, USA. The film proves that the most rewarding consequence of America as ‘The Melting Pot’ is that the analogy has never worked. We the people are not the same: we have different cultures, belief systems, and freedom dreams. These differences Do The Right Thing (1989) 209 represent at times collateral interests but never truly identical ones. In this way, the interethnic conflicts that circulate up and down the block are but a red herring. Do The Right Thing vitally avoids the classical tact of the social problem film to present the problem of differences as systemic or a result of the idea of America itself. In the social problem film, these staged eruptions of racial conflict are resolved and contained with a tacit framing of our spectatorship in terms of cinematically enacted cures. 

As Michael Rogin writes, ‘Hollywood, inheriting and universalizing blackface in the blackface musical, celebrated itself as the institutional locus of American identity. In the social problem film it allied itself with the therapeutic society. Generic overlap suggests institutional overlap; Hollywood was not just Hortense Powdermaker’s dream factory, but also the American interpreter of dreams, employing roleplaying as national mass therapy.’ 5 Social problem films with race as their object choice usually enact a limited and circumspect sense of social problem-solving. In particular, the way these films are saddled with the extra-diegetic responsibilities of reconciliation between the races promotes a dangerously ridiculous sense of film as social policy. After all, what James Baldwin called the ‘price of the ticket’ should mean more than matinee admission. Do The Right Thing poignantly demands that one’s spectatorship entail a recognition of our respective subject positions and/or complicities in a productively non-patronising way. 

The central conflict of Do The Right Thing cycles around the issue of How come there ain’t no brothas on the wall? Outraged by the absence of black representation on the pizzeria wall, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito) organises a boycott against Sal’s Pizzeria in response to the ‘Wall of Fame’, a collage of photographs devoted to Italian Americans. The call for economic sanctions echoes the use of these strategies throughout the twentieth century by churches, unions and civic leaders as a way of combatting the economic disenfranchisement of anti-black racism. This call for representation is emblematic of a diacritical sense of value. First, there is the value suggested by economic empowerment of a raced consumer-citizen. Second, there is the measure of culture as value. In this way, the central conflict that accrues over the course of the film becomes that of the political and cultural value of blackness. 

However, the film’s vessel of civil disobedience and cultural nationalism is far from sound. Buggin’ Out does not articulate a clear plan of black economic development. His persona is that of empty rhetoric; more hothead than firebrand. Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) lumbers and speaks like a heroic throwback from the mind of Jack Kirby. A laconic giant, his voice and being are embodied by ‘Fight the Power’, the only thing constantly blaring from his boombox. His ‘Love vs. Hate’ direct address constitutes the most that he ever speaks, a gesture to the absurd holyroller ways of Robert Mitchum’s itinerant honeymoon killer in Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955). Yet, this ad infinitum struggle between good and evil, coupled with Raheem’s devotion to the gospel of Public Enemy, frame him as a very textured figure. He wanders throughout Bed-Stuy spreading the word, battling any and all windmills along the way. Every interaction is a contest and exclamation of his being. Finally, closing out the rebel band is Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith). Mentally disabled and physically spastic, Smiley’s speech is as indecipherable as the irreconcilable coupling of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. in the photograph postcards he marks and peddles. Stumbling through the film, Smiley tags his cherished wares in a style imitative of Jean-Michel Basquiat.6 

This crisis of representation emblematic of this rebel ensemble embodies the necessary tensions surrounding the political question of black representation and film as an art practice. Specifically, what is the purpose of the term ‘black film’? Does it represent an entirely foreign film practice? Is it merely a reflection of black people, not art but simply black existential dictation? Like all other expressions of the idea of black film, Do The Right Thing should not be thought as mimetically tied to the social category of race. The ‘black’ of black film represents something other than merely people. Instead it must be appreciated in terms of the art of film and enactments of black visual and expressive culture. In this way, film blackness functions as a critical term for the way race is rendered and mediated by the art of film.7 

This alienation effect of the film escalates with the final sequence of Radio Raheem’s murder by 210 Do The Right Thing (1989) the police. The broken band of rebels storm the pizzeria and what begins as canted and absurd quickly accelerates. Sal begins a litany of ‘nigger’ and pulls out a baseball bat. He then proceeds to destroy Raheem’s boombox, silencing the roar of the Public Enemy anthem.8 Yes, the film resonates with prejudices and interethnic conflict but it also gestures towards the idea of communities constituted by ambivalences. Regardless, the confusion of this confrontation signals a shattering break. Things have gone too far and as Radio Raheem strangles Sal, pulling him over the counter, the fight spills into the street. The fight draws a crowd and the NYPD arrive. A police hold is administered with a nightstick against Raheem’s neck as he is raised and lynched until his kicks wind down. He is murdered. Radio Raheem is dead. 

A void appears in the quick exit of the police with a corpse and Buggin’ Out in tow. There is the mournful calm of what has happened and how it has come to this. Mookie they killed him. They killed Radio Raheem. A divide appears, with Mookie, Sal, Pino and Vito on one side and the witnesses from the neighbourhood frozen still, growing angrier in the street. Everyone is a stranger; everyone is revealed. Murder. They did it again. Just like Michael Stewart. Murder. Eleanor Bumpers. Murder.9 The extradiegetic victims of murder at the hands of the police (not persons unknown) now have Raheem among their ranks. Mookie walks away before returning into this breach, throwing a garbage can through the pizzerio’s window. Fireman and police readied in riot gear arrive and the historical rupture is complete. Even in the absence of Birmingham’s finest with German Shepherds at hand, Sweet Dick Willie makes it plain: Yo where’s Bull Connor?10 Smiley begins a new Wall of Fame amid the wreckage by tacking one of his postcards on the smouldering wall: finally some brothers are on the wall. But, was this really what it was all about? Smiley with his ever-delirious visage appears to be the only one to claim some semblance of a victory. 

The day after brings the new normal of an awkward, yet tender, meeting between Mookie and Sal. In the end, Mister Señor Love Daddy broadcasts the only available closure – a reminder to register to vote and a mournful shout-out to Radio Raheem.11 The film ends with scrolling citations from Martin Luther King Jr. and X before the film’s final image: the King and X photograph. The offering of these two contrasting political positions – the immorality of violence and the pragmatism of self-defence – is one of the major reasons that the film continues to haunt, inspire, and provoke. For only there on the screen does their proximity hint at some kind of dialectical resolve or compatibility. Do The Right Thing orchestrates the tensions and distinctions between social categories of racial being and the art of film. The film is a question masquerading in the form of a call to action. In other words, the film functions in a way too irresolute to be thought of as merely provocative protest. If the film is troubling, so be it. Killing the messenger has always been convenient, but it never truly disavows that a message has been sent. Always do the right thing. That’s it? That’s it. I got it. I’m gone. 

Michael B. Gillespie

Notes 

1. For more on the history of the Blaxploitation cycle and the significance of 1991, see Ed Guerrero, Framing Blackness, Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press, 1993. 

2. Guthrie Ramsey, Race Music: Black Cultures from Be Bop to Hip-Hop, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 2003, p. 178. 

3. Shana L. Redmond, ‘Citizens of Sound: Negotiations of Race and Diaspora in the Anthems of the UNIA and NAACP’, African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2011, p. 22. 

4. See Mark Anthony Neal, What The Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture, London and New York, Routledge, 1999, pp. 125–57. 

5. Michael Rogin, Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1998, p. 221. 

6. The photograph was taken on March 26, 1964, in the halls of the United States Capitol Building during Senate debates on the Civil Rights Bill. It documents the only meeting between the two men and lasted only a few minutes. 

7. For more on ‘film blackness’, see Michael B. Gillespie, ‘Reckless Eyeballing: Coonskin, Film Blackness, and the Racial Grotesque’, in Mia Mask (ed.), Contemporary Black American Cinema: Race, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies, New York, Routledge, 2012. Also, see the press conference (May 1989) that followed the premiere screening of Do The Right Thing at the Cannes Film Festival. (Available on the Criterion Collection and 20th Anniversary Edition DVD releases of the film.) The insistence by much of the audience on reading Do The Right Thing in social reflectionist terms glaringly illustrates the need to distinguish between black people and black film. 

8. The baseball bat references Howard Beach and the death of Michael Griffith. On the evening of 19 December 1986, a group of black men entered a pizzeria in the Queens neighbourhood of Howard Beach seeking help after their car broke down a few miles away. Upon leaving, the men were confronted by a group of Italian Americans from the neighbourhood armed with baseball bats. Attempting to escape from a continued beating by the mob, Griffith was struck and killed by a car on the highway. 

9. Michael Stewart was a New York City graffiti artist killed while in the custody of New York Transit Police (1983). Eleanor Bumpers was a mentally ill, African American senior citizen killed by NYPD officers during the eviction from her home (1984). 

10.Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor served as Public Safety Commissioner of Birmingham, Alabama (1957–1963). A rabid white supremacist, Connor was responsible for the brutal and violent responses (the use of police dogs and fire hoses against protestors) to the desegregation campaigns spearheaded by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 

11.This call to vote was part of Lee’s endorsement of David Dinkins’ mayoral run. Dinkins would be elected New York City’s first African American mayor the following year. 

Cast and Crew:

[Country: USA. Production Company: A Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks Production. Director: Spike Lee. Producer: Spike Lee. Co-producer: Monty Ross. Line Producer: Jon Kilik. Screenwriter: Spike Lee. Cinematographer: Ernest Dickerson. Editor: Barry Alexander Brown. Music: Bill Lee, featuring Branford Marsalis. Cast: Danny Aiello (Sal), Ossie Davis (Da Mayor), Ruby Dee (Mother Sister), Richard Edson (Vito), Giancarlo Esposito (Buggin’ Out), Spike Lee (Mookie), Bill Nunn (Radio Raheem), John Turturro (Pino), Paul Benjamin (ML), Frankie Faison (Coconut Sid), Robin Harris (Sweet Dick Willie), Joie Lee (Jade), Miguel Sandoval (Officer Ponte), Rick Aiello (Officer Long), John Savage (Clifton), Samuel L. Jackson (Mister Señor Love Daddy), Rosie Perez (Tina), Roger Guenveur Smith (Smiley), Steve White (Ahmad), Martin Lawrence (Cee), Leonard Thomas (Punchy), Christa Rivers (Ella), Frank Vincent (Charlie).] 

Further Reading: 

Darby English, How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness, Boston, MIT Press, 2007. 

Ed Guerrero, Do The Right Thing, London, BFI Publishing, 2001. 

Stuart Hall, ‘What is this “black” in black popular culture?’ and ‘New Ethnicities’ in David Morely and Kuan-Hsing Chen (eds), Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies, New York, Routledge, 1996, pp. 468–78. 

Spike Lee with Lisa Jones, Do the Right Thing, New York, Fireside, 1989. 

Mia Mask (ed.), Contemporary Black American Cinema: Race, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies, New York, Routledge, 2012. 

Paula J. Massood (ed.), The Spike Lee Reader, Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press, 2007. 

W. J. T. Mitchell, ‘The Violence of Public Art: Do the Right Thing’, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 16, No. 4, Summer, 1990, pp. 880–99. 

Source Credits:

The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films, Edited by Sarah Barrow, Sabine Haenni and John White, first published in 2015.

Related Posts:

• She’s Gotta Have It (Movie): Summary & Analysis
• Killer of Sheep: Summary & Analysis
• The Cool World (Movie): Summary & Analysis
• Towards a Definition of Film Noir (1955) by Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton
• Notes on Film Noir (1972) by Paul Schrader
• Malcolm X – Movie Report

“Do the Right Thing” Film by Spike Lee Essay (Critical Writing)

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

In his film Do the Right Thing , Spike Lee focuses on stereotypes that exist within a neighborhood, which allows him to show how the representatives of the general public face societal issues, emphasizing that their political sensibilities can hardly be altered by the influence of one person but inevitably yield to the environment and community.

The sense of united diversity is vital for the film, as it allows Spike Lee to show that people who are made to interact will not be able to coexist normally and create a positive environment unless they find the thing they have in common. Buggin’ Out attends Sal’s pizzeria but is willing to talk only about black civil rights.

The characters of Do the Right Thing pay enormous attention to their heritage and the color of their skin, which creates racial problems and prevents them from successful adaptation to their reality. African-Americans and Italian-Americans live in the same community, but they do not perceive themselves as Americans and emphasize their differences. Buggin’ Out and Pino meet in the pizzeria because of its location, but they are not ready to accept each other.

Buggin’ Out triggers all those events that happen in the film but it does not mean that he is the only one to be blamed because one person is enough to plant doubt in people’s minds, but a group is needed to start a riot and carry it through. Initially, his words were ignored, and no one supported the protest.

The film is based on the contrast between love and hate, which shapes the way the characters treat each other, as they tend to divide their community into friends and enemies. Mookie seemed to be Sal’s friend but then he turns into a foe who is blamed for the protest.

Spike Lee refers to the concept of violence to make at the end of the film to make the readers recollect the events and consider whether they can be accepted in some situations or not. Malcolm X states that it is the right thing to do in a case of self-defense even though a person was killed (Lee).

The majority of people who attend an Italian-American pizzeria are African Americans. One of them asks to change photos of Italian celebrities to those of black ones. Still, who is right in this situation?

One of the characters plays music on the street. The majority of people accept it because they treat him as his neighbor and friend. So when Sal disagrees with this idea, he becomes their enemy. The same happens in the pizzeria.

Nothing happens when one person protests against the photos, but a riot that ends with death starts when a group of people unites.

Spike Lee created Do the Right Thing to reveal the effects of racial discrimination and stereotypes. In the film, he describes the life of a neighborhood that unites African-Americans and Italian-Americans. They live side by side and interact every day but differentiate themselves and refuse to adapt, which leads to societal issues. They try to make others yield so that they can remain the same, but it does not work. Still, gathering in groups, they become stronger and receive a chance to alter their environment so that it meets their needs and expectations.

Lee, Spike. “Do the Right Thing.” YouTube , uploaded by Leatrice Thigpen, 2016, Web.

• "Troy" Film by Wolfgang Petersen
• "The Devil Wears Prada’s" Movie by David Frankel
• Afro-Americans in the "Do the Right Thing" Comedy
• Spike Lee "Do the Right Thing" Analysis
• Italian Heritage and Its Impact on Life in the US
• "Scandalous" Behavior in Women's Films
• "Crash" (2004) Crime Drama by Paul Haggis
• Batman Film Trilogy by Christopher Nolan
• "Downsizing" Science Fiction Film by A. Payne
• Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas"
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, May 9). "Do the Right Thing" Film by Spike Lee. https://ivypanda.com/essays/do-the-right-thing-film-by-spike-lee/

""Do the Right Thing" Film by Spike Lee." IvyPanda , 9 May 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/do-the-right-thing-film-by-spike-lee/.

IvyPanda . (2021) '"Do the Right Thing" Film by Spike Lee'. 9 May.

IvyPanda . 2021. ""Do the Right Thing" Film by Spike Lee." May 9, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/do-the-right-thing-film-by-spike-lee/.

1. IvyPanda . ""Do the Right Thing" Film by Spike Lee." May 9, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/do-the-right-thing-film-by-spike-lee/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . ""Do the Right Thing" Film by Spike Lee." May 9, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/do-the-right-thing-film-by-spike-lee/.

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

Home Essay Samples Entertainment

Essay Samples on Do The Right Thing

Provoking reflection: "do the right thing" film analysis.

Spike Lee's 1989 film "Do the Right Thing" stands as a poignant subject for film analysis essay, offering a compelling and thought-provoking examination of racial tensions and societal intricacies within a Brooklyn neighborhood. Set against the backdrop of an oppressive summer day, the film's narrative...

• Do The Right Thing
• Film Analysis

Brooklyn Neighborhood’s Simmering Racial Tension Through the 'Do The Right Thing'

The first time I saw “Do the Right Thing” was in my English class. Do the Right Thing (1989), directed by Spike Lee, The movie take place in a hot day of summer in a neighborhood of Brooklyn, this is not a action movie with...

Boiling Animosities In Do The Right Thing 

Boiling Animosities in Do the Right Thing Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is a uniquely crafted film that emphasizes and focuses on a tight-knit, yet subtly expanding community. As the film spans mostly over the course of a single day, the audience experiences a day...

• African American

Comparative Analysis of Spike Lee and Yoky Matsuoka

Shelton Jackson Lee popularly known as Spike Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1957. Spike Lee came from artistic, education-grounded background; his father- Bill Lee was a jazz composer, and his mother, a schoolteacher. He majored in communications at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, where he...

Do the Right Thing: Racial Inequality Leading to Violence

Is violence the answer to everything? After watching “Do the right thing” when I left the class left my face stunned and a few tears left my eyes. Spike Lee did an impossible thing. He had made a movie about race in America that understood...

• Racial Segregation

Stressed out with your paper?

Consider using writing assistance:

• 100% unique papers
• 3 hrs deadline option

Movie Review of Do the Right Thing: A Controversial Masterpiece

Do the Right Thing is a politically powerful, controversial and symbolic movie, which is directed and produced by Spike Lee. It concentrates on a particularly hot summer’s day and the lives of racially diverse residents who reside and work in a lower class neighbourhood in...

• Movie Review

Social Problems Adressed by Spike Lee in His Movie Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee writer and director of “Do the Right Thing” addressed many issues that were the cause of much controversy in America. Lee used ethos, pathos, and logos in his project to appeal to Americans. Many topics that related to the huge racial tensions that...

• Social Problems

The Semiotics of Race and Power in the Spike Lee Film, Do The Right Thing

The use of symbolism and iconography in Spike Lee’s film, Do The Right Thing (1989) serve as an indicator (use diff word) of racial divides in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bed-Stuy and the power divide (use another word?) between racial groups. My goal is to...

Best topics on Do The Right Thing

1. Provoking Reflection: “Do the Right Thing” Film Analysis

2. Brooklyn Neighborhood’s Simmering Racial Tension Through the ‘Do The Right Thing’

3. Boiling Animosities In Do The Right Thing 

4. Comparative Analysis of Spike Lee and Yoky Matsuoka

5. Do the Right Thing: Racial Inequality Leading to Violence

6. Movie Review of Do the Right Thing: A Controversial Masterpiece

7. Social Problems Adressed by Spike Lee in His Movie Do the Right Thing

8. The Semiotics of Race and Power in the Spike Lee Film, Do The Right Thing

• Bridge to Terabithia
• Good Will Hunting
• A Wrinkle in Time
• Dallas Buyers Club
• A Beautiful Mind

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

*No hidden charges

100% Unique Essays

Absolutely Confidential

Money Back Guarantee

By clicking “Send Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails

You can also get a UNIQUE essay on this or any other topic

Thank you! We’ll contact you as soon as possible.

Home / Essay Samples / Entertainment / Do The Right Thing / Gentrification and Class System in the Film “Do The Right Thing”

Gentrification and Class System in the Film "Do The Right Thing"

• Category: Entertainment , Government
• Topic: Do The Right Thing , Film Analysis , Gentrification

Pages: 4 (1959 words)

Views: 3096

• Downloads: -->

Introduction

--> ⚠️ Remember: This essay was written and uploaded by an--> click here.

Found a great essay sample but want a unique one?

are ready to help you with your essay

You won’t be charged yet!

Democracy Essays

Republic Essays

Community Policing Essays

Police Brutality Essays

Ruby Bridges Essays

Related Essays

We are glad that you like it, but you cannot copy from our website. Just insert your email and this sample will be sent to you.

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service  and  Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Your essay sample has been sent.

In fact, there is a way to get an original essay! Turn to our writers and order a plagiarism-free paper.

samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->