Do the Right Thing (1989) – 3/5

Spike did the right thing only for two thirds of the movie

„Do the Right Thing“ is an American film mostly in the English language and this movie, which runs for almost two hours, was released back in 1989, so it will soon have its 35th anniversary. The film got shown again here as part of a retrospective on Black American cinema where it fits in nicely of course thematically. The writer and director here is Spike Lee and he was minimally over 30 when he shot this one. It was not his first filmmaking credit, but still an early effort. His body of work is a bit all over the place with all his music video works back then, but at that point he had also penned and directed other full feature films. Of course, he also plays a central character here and there are moments where I would say that his character is the only one that you could consider lead from this movie. We see him during work and also with his closest folks away from work and he is also the one who does one crucial act that changes everything towards the end. Still, Lee did not hand himself first credit, but that one, according to imdb, went to Danny Aiello. He is also the one from the cast who scored the most awards attention, was nominated for a Golden Globe and the Oscar. Lee was nominated for his screenplay on both occasions, but the film lost steam in-between as at the Globes it was also still nominated in the Best Picture/Drama category and got Lee a director nomination. In general, you can say that to this day this is maybe Lee’s most spectacular achievement or if you are a fan of his recent Adam Driver movie that is shown as part of the retrospective too, then we can say this is Lee’s biggest early achievement. He was so incredibly prolific over the years. Or decades now. I was a bit surprised how packed the room was during my screening. I went to see other films that were part of the aforementioned retrospective and I was rather surprised there that the number of viewers in the audience was not particularly high at all, but this film had almost more people there than the 3 or 4 other films I saw before that taken together.

Let’s say a few more words about the cast: Given the film’s age now, it is no huge surprise I assume that many are not alive anymore and this includes the three older cast members Danny Aiello (not as old as the other two), Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee of course, even if they reached fairly respectable ages around the age of 90. I am a bit surprised too that Davis did not score any awards attention here. I felt his character was really baity, especially with the scene when he saves the boy and before that talks about his struggles in the past, but also gets in some solid comedy here and there. One who did not reach an old age at all, but died not long after the release of this movie under the age of 40 is Robin Harris. He played Sweet Dick Willie and apparently the actor was a close friend of Spike Lee’s. Tragic story there. Bill Nunn, who worked with Lee on other occasions too and played the tragic character from the end of the movie here also did not reach a really old age. But luckily there are more than a handful actors still with us. This includes the likes of Lee himself of course, Samuel L. Jackson, who is always easy to appreciate or Richard Edson and John Turturro played Aiello’s character’s sons here and especially the latter is always easy to identify. Danny Aiello’s son Rick is also in the movie, so it was a bit of a family affair, but he died in 2021 two years after his dad. And another Aiello, who had the same first name like his dad was a stunt double in here and sadly he even died almost a decade before his father. As a big Breaking Bad fan, I must also mention Giancarlo Esposito. He was in quite a few films from that era dealing with racism or the tense situation in New York back then. More than I thought he was. And I must admit that while in „Fresh“ I recognized the actor eventually, here I did not until I read his name in the credits. Quite the chameleon physically in contrast to Samuel L. Jackson for example who is always obvious and he also played in Fresh and this one here with Esposito, even if they literally did not have any scenes together in both films. And finally, John Savage deserves a mention too. He only has one scene here and probably not too many remember him today, unless they love „The Deer Hunter“, but I do as I indeed like this movie and love the series „Dark Angel“. His Larry Bird jersey I will remember for quite some time here.

Away from the actors, the film had other strong components. I guess it was thanks to the cinematographers and set decorators that I could really feel the heat in this movie, like the high temperatures I mean with that. And I really wanted a slice of that pizza. Happily gonna pay the two bucks for extra cheese. The moment when one character pours all the parmesan on his pizza was one of the funniest. For me at least, not too many others were laughing. But it is a comedy at its core and you will smile or maybe even laugh a lot during the screening. This heavy comedy focus is also why it was so surprising what happens in the long final act then, the last third of the film, even if there comedy is also not completely absent if we look at the Asian guy calling himself Black. Actually, this was also dramatic as he was really scared these savages could burn his existence down too. In this last third, the tone is oh so different from all that happens before that. I will not go into detail, but I would say that I kinda liked this part as well, even if I preferred everything before that. The random killing of one character through the hands of the police was not among the film’s biggest strengths dramatically as it felt very much for the sake of it. Lee is known to be a radical director who most likely also does not oppose violence in certain situations (hence the Malcolm X biopic and the fact that Lee depicted the latter here as also some freedom fighter who needs to be appreciated and puts him in the same league like Martin Luther King while Malcolm X so does not belong on this wall), so it was very telling that it was his character there who picks up the garbage bin and throws it through the window of Sal’s pizzeria. This did come a bit surprising initially because before that Sal showed all his loyalty and told Lee’s character that he will always have a place to stay in the pizzeria if he wants to. This escalation by the way happens after a scene of sensuality, so huge twist indeed afterwards. I still felt a bit sorry for this breast model there whoever it was because clearly it was not the actress herself in this shot showing her breasts.

Oh and the film had some nice music too for sure. The „Fight the Power“ tune by Public Enemy may be pretty simple, but is still so catchy, even if you hear it 100 times and I also liked the instrumental tune we heard during the scene in which the two old people are seen together at night and she praises him (more than criticizes) for what he did to save the boy. This scene by the way also gave a nice and accurate depiction of the situation there and how people treat and talk to each other. The mother is surely happy that the old man saved her kid, but she did not accept his words that she should not beat her boy or that his father should not beat him and she alone decides how the raise the kid and which measures she uses. But back to the scenes at the very end then. You can of course discuss to what extent Sal is at least partially guilty of the escalation too as he destroyed Radio Raheem’s most precious, but let’s be honest here: The boy did not turn it off. He did not leave the pizzeria. He knew exactly what he was doing and that it would not be appreciated because he was there the very same day earlier and did the same thing, so I can kinda see why Sal does what he does in this situation. And the most crucial thing is that he did not hurt the kid. That was all the police. So why does his pizzeria have to burn? I am not a fan of the rioting depicted here and definitely do not support Lee’s violent approach.

At least you can say that Lee back then was still willing to have a slightly critical look at how Blacks behave as well (fact is the vast majority of Black people being killed in America is through other Blacks, also was back then, which this film does not reflect either), but yeah as Lee grew older, definitely fueled by very one-sided media coverage in recent years especially, his perception and messages got also more and more biased and now he lacks neutrality completely. Which is sad because I believe he does have solid writing and filmmaking talent, but yeah it is not the first time that mainstream agenda ruins everything and costs people almost all their creativity. There’s more that deserves mentioning here: I forgot the young Martin Lawrence, but he does not have a lot of impact story-wise anyway and Roger Guenveur Smith is an actor that maybe not too many are aware of in 2023, but he played an interesting character here and added a lot. As I stated earlier, only the moment when he puts a certain photo at a wall was horrible. Of course, you can also wonder to what extent it is funny, as it was supposed to be seen here, when people who clearly lack authority use a water hose or so to damage an antique car. The owner’s rage was not a riot in fact, but accurate. Imagine you are in the same situation yourself. The police involvement there was a joke too. But yeah, there is a lot more that could be discussed here, but I am getting close to the end of my review now, so we shall leave it at that mostly. To sum it all up, let me add another snippet of information that you will not only find more than one Aiello in here, but also several Turturros. I think that „Do the Right Thing“ is a film worth seeing overall, but the ratings on imdb and other sites as well as the awards attention are a bit exaggerated. Also not a huge fan of the title. The thing done here was not right.