Do The Right Thing, Megan Highland

Hello Everyone!

Today I am going to be discussing Do the Right Thing, starred and directed by Spike Lee, this was a powerful and emotional at sometimes comical movie of times in a black neighborhood in Brooklyn NY. The cast is well rounded with many characters that add a little to every scene from Bugging Out(Giancarlo Esposito) to Mother Sister (Ruby Dae) many of these wonderful actors fill the screen and bring to life these 

characters and the story as if unfolds. 

          

When it first debuted the movie received many well received reviews marking Lee as a serious filmmaker in just a few short years. Lee brings such a strong message and allows the audience to take away their own interpretation as well as displaying his own throughout the movie.  According to a review by Jim Emerson, the message is very clear, WAKE UP!!! Spike Lee is challenging people to do something, to not just let things go, but to do the right thing and to think about what is really going on in the world around us. Following the steps and making it known as of those before him, such as Dr. King, Malcolm X and others, with the quotes at the end of the movie, trying to inspire some to just to look a little closer and wake up, pulling to the social issues and fight for the rights people deserve. 

         

At its time of opening June 30^th 1989 it was very controversial and many had things to say about the young Lee and many were confused and maybe that was the point to make people confused and to create controversy. Because then people are talking about it and it is out in the open, Ebert writes that it suppose to be confusing, but seem to capture the central feel of America today (talking of 1989), people are hateful, good people do bad things and do conflicting things, and maybe that is the point, that this is a true picture of how America was and in some ways still is today. Lee took a concept and it was relevant of the time and made a movie that would entertain and make people think, not just sit ideally by watching the screen change from one scene to the next.  

The scene that was my favorite was the end, when Mookie and Sal are standing in front of the burned down pizza shop and Mookie asks for his pay. The scene is nicely framed with both characters standing across from each other, eye to eye and the behind them is the ruin of their relationship, the employee/ employer and that things will never be the same from here on out. As the scene ends it pans out allowing the viewers to see the street and hear the radio DJ as if everything is normal and the burned down pizza shop in the background. That shot seemed to sum up the entire movie that things happen in the heat of the moment and in one second things can change and everything can be lost, including life.