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Hugh A. O'Brien,
Eddie Bo Smith, Jr.,
Hugh A. O'Brien,
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Spike Lee,
Spike Lee
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: Criterion
: Drama, Criterion Collection
: English
: English
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Director Spike Lee dives head-first into a maelstrom of racial and social ills, using as his springboard the hottest day of the year on one block in Brooklyn, NY. Three businesses dominate the block: a storefront radio station, where a smooth-talkin' deejay (Samuel L. Jackson) spins the platters that matter; a convenience store owned by a Korean couple; and Sal's Famous Pizzeria, the only white-operated business in the neighborhood. Sal (Danny Aiello) serves up slices with his two sons, genial Vito (Richard Edson) and angry, racist Pino (John Turturro). Sal has one black employee, Mookie (Spike Lee), who wants to "get paid" but lacks ambition. His sister Jade (Joie Lee, Spike's sister), who has a greater sense of purpose and a "real" job, wants Mookie to start dealing with his responsibilities, most notably his son with girlfriend Tina (Rosie Perez). Two of Mookie's best friends are Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), a monolith of a man who rarely speaks, preferring to blast Public Enemy's rap song Fight The Power on his massive boom box; and Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), nicknamed for his coke-bottle glasses and habit of losing his cool. When Buggin' Out notes that Sal's "Wall of Fame," a photo gallery of famous Italian-Americans, includes no people of color, he eventually demands a neighborhood boycott, on a day when tensions are already running high, that incurs tragic consequences. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Special features - Criterion site
Roger Ebert essay - Criterion site
Great Movies essay - Roger Ebert
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Spike's adaptation of Richard Price's novel is not quite as artistically successful as Do the Right Thing, but packs a wallop nonetheless; highly charged and gritty
School Daze
A hint of greater things to come, Lee's second film was fantasy-musical-drama hybrid that was uneven but also quite frank and thought-provoking
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| Do the Right Thing (Criterion Collection) (Bonus Disc) (1989) |
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| Watch the Right Thing
by RJones3
July 12, 2008 - 6:20 PM PDT
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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Movies that are above the ordinary can change our perception of things, but any movie worth watching depends on values that do not change, our instinct for what is ultimately right. Like virtually all reviewers at the time of its release in 1989, I cannot not help being impressed with Spike Lee's cinematic accomplishment. It nevertheless left a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps it was Mookie's gall in demanding his pay after setting off a riot that destroys his employer's business. We cannot discount police brutality, but the incident that first sparks the violence is the stuff of sitcoms. And why should the violence be directed at Sal, whose food the kids of the hood grew up on? Judge for yourself. Is this what Malcolm X called self-defense?
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