Do The Right Thing Essay

Keywords: do the right thing analysis essay

‘Do the right thing’ is one of the best films made by Writer, Director, producer, and star Spike Lee in 1989, which explored the issue of biasness and discrimination of the African-American area of New York city called Brooklyn. This movie was nominated for 2 Oscars Awards and other and it won 11 other awards in that time. The movie was released at the same time when hip-hop culture like songs, music video, fashion and etc was hit.

Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Osie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edison, Giancarlo Esposito, and John Turturro make the character alive in the movie. This film is successful to present the gap between the regular life of various African-American peoples and community that are opposed. The several artiest of the movie represent various ethnicities of African-Americans mentioned serious personal, social, economical and controversial issues about the residents and other businessmen like Sal and Korean Shop Owner as neighbourhood characters.

Producer, Director Spike Lee plays as a Mookie, a Pizza Delivery Boy, who keeps going back and onwards between Sal’s pizza and the neighbourhood area, eventually finding him in the focus of a problem in the film. He is lazy and irresponsible person. Sal, the Italian-American man, who owned Sal’s Famous Pizzeria in the center of the same place for 25 years. Sal has two sons, Pino and Vito. Pino is an angry young boy who has narrow minded feelings for the customers and next son Vito, who’s friends with the irresponsible delivery man of Pizzeria, Mookie in the movie.

There are lots of important characters in the movie ‘Do the right things’ who made movie better. One of this is ‘The Mayor’, who is an alcoholic elder. Mother Sister, who always sits in her window whole day and watches outside; Radio Raheem, a very big man who walks up and down on the street with his big Sound system that look like extra-large even for him. He wears a metal finger ring on his 4 finger for both sides that says LOVE on one hand and HATE on the other hand. The first dialogue of the movie starts with ‘Wake up, wake up, wake up …..” this was telling on microphone by a Radio worker and DJ Mr. Senor Love Daddy.

Likewise there is a Korean shopkeeper; Smiley, looks like a dementia and who always sells hand-made postcards of the only photo of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X together.

In the movie, there is no any strong character of female artist in comparison of the male artist even though its starting from the strong dance of female character on Fight the Power.

There is a Mookie’s sister Jade, who is always trying to get her brother Mookie to face up to his responsibilities, and Tina, Mookie’s girlfriend and mother of his infant son.

There is a place in the Sal’s Pizza Shop called ‘Wall of Fame’; Lots of pictures of different people are placed there, where no African American peoples are included. That make angered for African American people although Sal himself think about his shop as the center of the neighbourhood and feels pleasure for having food place for the African-American neighbourhood. In that area it is very hard to find the business owned by African-American, only Sal and the Korean Grocery shop owner, who take the big money from the community.

According to the main plot of the story, There is a boy whose name is Buggin Out, who always wants Sal to put up some pictures of black people at the side of the Sal’s pizzeria’s Wall of Fame, in the end of the movie that boy becomes the cause for the movie’s climax with violence blasts in and around the Sal’s Famous Pizzeria over the same issue of Wall of Fame. At the night time, A big group of African-American People with Radio Raheem is enter into the pizzeria, while pizzeria was already closed but Sal opens to them because he wants for more business. Radio Raheem always make louder sound on his sound system, Here in pizzeria, he makes its sound louder as well. They are doing force to put the picture of black people in wall of fame, but Sal’s refusing to put the picture of black. Sal telling to make the sound lower inside the pizzeria but Radio Raheem is not doing like that. All the black people are being aggressive. In the same situation, Sal became anger with his Music System and he broke that sound system of Radio Raheem then after Radio Raheem and other black people been aggressive. They did attack to the Sal, ­Police came and they arrest that black people who are doing attack and crucially hitting them as a result Radio Raheem killed. Big crowed of black people are giving pressure and telling Mokie to Stay Black. Then Mookie throws a trash on the Sal’s Famous Pizzeria towards the front glass and break all then that crowd of the black people make damage everything in Sal’s Pizzeria and it’s burned down.

The movie was shotted on one of the hottest and longest day of the summer, which is start with the energetic and dazzling dance on the song of ‘Fight the Power’ on the very hot bright and colourful background. But in the later this song ‘Fight the Power’ only played when the Radio Raheem appears.

From the viewers eye Do the Right Thing raises some questions like what is the appropriate way for society to deal the ethnic discrimination in that area (America) which is shown in the movie? Is that the right thing which has been done by Mookie in the film? Should it be done by the dialogue, understanding and positive way without any violence or only violence is only the right thing. There are the people with only one aspect. In the movie the African American People think they can do everything because they are more in numbers. I think it’s the quite poor things in the movie.

In the summary, this movie comes closer to reflecting the current state of racial relations in America than any other movie of that time. There is no doubt about the originality and power of the movie. This movie must be watched by all. I think, it is still appropriate in the world today.