Analysis of do the right thing, spike lee (1989)

Résumé du document

Do the Right Thing was released in May 1989 in Cannes. Spike Lee directed, produced and wrote the screenplay for the film. It tackles the subject of race relations by depicting the ethnic communities of the Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where Spike Lee grew up. Spike Lee plays the role of the main character Mookie, who works at Sal's pizzeria and has a son with Tina. Although Lee wanted Robert De Niro, the role of Sal went to Danny Aiello. Do the Right Thing is a family and friends affair: he hired his girlfriend Rosie Perez (Tina), his sister Joie Lee (Jade), and his father Bill Lee, a jazz musician, who composed the film music. He also kept most of the actors from his previous film School Daze . He wrote the role of Smiley, a man with a mental handicap, for Roger G. Smith who absolutely wanted to star in the film. Spike Lee was nominated for Best Writing at the 1990 Academy Awards for this movie.

Extraits

[...] The in Radio Raheem's broadcast battle-cry appropriately reflects the moral polarity within which he perceives his own life, the life of his community, and the life of culture at large. In this context we have to add the importance of music in the movie. For example, the song stand is supposed to illustrate both the unbearable heat the neighborhood is trying to endure and the dangerous tension it is going through. The residents are unable to communicate honestly but they are honest once they are alone. [...]

[...] To conclude the movie as a classical Greek tragedy, the crowd at the end can be seen as the choirs representing the city people. One of the main themes of Do the Right Things with its manifold characters and their failure of communication is the clash of communities. The film is populated with many different characters each one a representative of a certain belief or state of mind - on different sides of the conflict. On the one side there is the uninhibited anger of Buggin Out and Radio Raheem. [...]

[...] The main issue and mystery of the film is its title, coming from Da Mayor: “Always do the right thing.” During the final riot, everyone wonders whether Mookie actually did the right thing by throwing the garbage can through the window of Sal's Famous Pizzeria and yelling Unlike Buggin' Out, Mookie is no troublemaker. He seemed to be a plain man, willing to earn some money without any fuss. Even though Radio Raheem has just been killed in front of him, Sal is not the murderer: so why does Mookie turn against his boss? Mookie's gesture gave rise to controversy. Spike Lee did not provide a clear answer to the script. [...]

[...] Three years after Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee directed Malcolm X (1992), starring Denzel Washington in the role of the Black Nationalist. Malcolm X was much more violent in his words than Martin Luther King. While the leader of the American civil rights movement was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as a peacemaker, promoting non-violence and equal treatment for different races, Malcolm X declared that non-violence was philosophy of the fool.” In Spike Lee's biopic, we see him rejecting a white woman who wants to join his movement. [...]

[...] Are we gonna live together, together are we gonna The movie starts with a short extract of the song Lift every voice and sing, which is often called the “Black national anthem.” It was written by the brothers Johnsons in order to celebrate Lincoln's birthday on February African Americans then sang it in churches to express their patriotism. The African Americans Civil Rights Movement was born after the Second World War. Thanks to intensive lobbying by the Black community, the “separate but equal” theory was abandoned with the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954. [...]