#96. Do The Right Thing

Year: 1989

Director: Spike Lee

Academy Awards Nominations:

• Best Actor is a Supporting Role
• Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Director Spike Lee takes his audience into the heart of Brooklyn for the hottest day of the year, where tensions and racial prejudice boil to the brink of violence.

The film sets the tone of racial tension from the get-go with a Public Enemy intro which is very fitting for hip hop culture at the birth of the 90's. With a fruitful cast featuring stars such as Samuel L. Jackson, Danny Aiello, and a young Martin Lawrence, Do The Right Thing follows a young man named Mookie (Spike Lee) as he  rides the rising tides of bigotry in his neighborhood. Mookie battles the heat while working as a pizza delivery boy for Sal's Pizza, the lone Italian establishment in a predominantly black neighborhood. I found Spike Lee's portrayal of Mookie to be very likable, definitely a character you can find yourself cheering for.

I also found myself cheering for Salvatore 'Sal' Fragione (Danny Aiello's), founder and owner of Sal's pizza. He's a stern yet kind character who finds great pride in feeding the people of his community. Sal's son Pino, however, is highly resentful toward the African American community, even though all of his favorite celebrities are, in fact, black. Sal keeps his son in line, but Pino becomes even more resentful when a punk named Buggin Out comes into Sal's and begins bashing the establishment's wall of famous Italian actors. Buggin Out demands that they put some brothers up on that wall, but Sal pridefully refuses. Buggin Out is kicked out of the pizzeria and spends the rest of the day gathering support to boycott Sal's Pizza.

After the drama, Mookie finds himself bouncing around town delivering pizzas. He takes a few breaks to beat the heat, one of which is to see his sister, probably the most respected member of the community. She tells him to quit being a bum so he can take care of his responsibilities. We soon discover another one of these responsibilities when Mookie takes a trip to see his son and baby momma.

In the meantime, Buggin Out is telling everyone that he's going to take Sal's Pizza down. Most of the community won't even give him the time of day, saying that they grew up on Sal's pizza. Unfortunately, he finds support from a young man named Radio Raheem. Raheem carries around a boombox and blasts Public Enemy at all times.

It's also worth noting that supporting actor Robin Harris stars as Sweet Dick Willie. Fantastic name.

Later that night, Sal stays open late to give some of Mookie's friends a few slices. Public Enemy blares as Buggin Out and Radio Raheem storm into the pizzeria demanding that Sal put some brothers up on the wall. Sal tells Raheem to turn the music off, then screams it, then violently screams it, but Raheem stands firm. The conflict builds until Sal takes a baseball bat to Raheem's boombox, silencing the noise once and for all. The irate teen grabs Sal by the throat and the brawl begins. The neighborhood comes out to see the scuffle, which causes quite a commotion. The cops, the white, racist cops, hit the scene in time to keep Raheem from choking Sal to death. Sadly, the racist cops murder Raheem in the conflict before driving off into the night with Buggin Out in chains. The community is stunned and the audience feels like the action has climaxed. This is when Mookie, horrified and confused by his friend's murder, takes charge and tosses a trash can throw Sal's window. This invokes a violent mob which proceeds to loot and burn what remains of Sal's Pizza. Sal can only stand and watch as his place, is pride and joy, his life, is burnt to ashes. The mod also tries to attack the adjacent Korean grocery store, but a small Korean man wards them off, claiming that he's one of them. The mob hesitates, but seems to have an understanding that even though their outward appearances may be different, they are all the the same on the inside.

Spike does a great job of building this conflict. The fight had been brewing all day in the heat of the Brooklyn summer, and his cast executed it brilliantly. Truthfully, throughout the film, the community melds together to create a very realistic depiction of late 1980's hip hop Brooklyn. Lee also does a nice job of balancing comedic moments with strong dramatic scenes.

Simply put, I really enjoyed his storytelling.

Until the last ten minutes of the film...

Things really fell apart at the end. After the really violent climax of this hot, tense day, I was looking for some sort of resolution, which I struggled to find. The morning after Mookie sparked the destruction of Sal's Pizza, he finds himself face to face with Sal, the man who has done nothing but treat him like a son for the entirety of the film. Thinking Mookie will "do the right thing" and make some sort of resolution with Sal, I entered the credits a bit disappointed.

Instead of doing anything that resembles apologizing, Mookie asks Sal for his salary. An enraged Sal goes on to explain that his pizza place meant so much because he built it with his bare hands, just to watch it be destroyed by the very mouths he had been feeding for years. Mookie, still upset by the death of his friend, fails to feel sympathy for his boss - or former boss - I'm not really sure if the trash can through the window was a resignation. Sal, in disgust, begins to throw Franklins at his pizza boy. Mookie picks up the five bills, throws two back at his boss, and tells Sal, "My salary is 250 a week all right? I owe you 50 bucks." There is an awkward standoff as the two decide who should keep the final two-hundred. After the dust settles, Mookie and Sal have a civilized chat about the heat and gettin' paid until Mookie picks up the last two-hundred and walks away. Before Mookie goes home to see his son, Sal tells him to always try to do the right thing. That's it. The film fades out as Mookie walks down his street to see spend the day with his son. Samuel L. Jackson narrates the outro, telling his listeners that today's gonna be another hot one. RIP Radio Raheem.

Perhaps Sal not ripping Mookie's head off implies that there was some sort of resolution between the two. 

Perhaps Lee intended to leave the conflict unresolved to parallel the unresolved conflict of bigotry in the world. 

Perhaps Mookie forsaking any ownership of his role in burning down Sal's pizzeria isn't important. 

Perhaps doing the right thing is just getting paid so you can go spend time with your infant son.

Perhaps none of it really matters. A young man was murdered on the streets of Brooklyn.

As the film fades to black, we see a quote that may provide some closure.

"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 a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King... Classic.... Now I have a better idea of where Spike was going with his film. Great quote in favor of nonviolence. There's the sense of resolution I was searching for. 

Oh wait. What's that? Another quote?

"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."

- Malcolm X

Damnit. 

Goodbye closure, hello ambiguity.

In summary, I did enjoy Do The Right Thing. However, I would like to sit down with Spike Lee, maybe split a pack of the high life, and discuss the ending of his cinematic vision.