Is it time to anoint ‘Do the Right Thing’ among America’s greatest films?

Paul Benjamin (sitting from left), Robin Harris, and Frankie Faison hold down the street in 1989’s “Do the Right Thing.” (Universal Pictures/MovieStillsDB.com)

Ultimate Movie Year finds the best films from weekends past to build an all-star lineup of cinema.

"Do the Right Thing"
Released June 30, 1989
Directed by Spike Lee
Where to Watch

Raw, uncomfortable, and uncompromising, Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" was controversial when it was released in 1989 (and famously snubbed at that year's Oscars), but has since earned acclaim and respect among many. However, when film critics and historians rank the greatest movies of all time, it rarely makes the cut.

Watching "Do the Right Thing" in 2020 makes it more evident than ever that those decisions are in error. Lee's groundbreaking drama about community and racism has earned its place among the medium's elite works.

"Do the Right Thing" chronicles a day in the life of one block in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood. Lee himself stars as Mookie, a young man who delivers for Sal's Pizzeria, a longtime local establishment owned by Danny Aiello's character and staffed by his two sons, Pino (John Turturro) and Vito (Richard Edson). Many of the other characters are introduced into this drama by either eating at Sal's, or interacting with Mookie on his deliveries, including Da Mayor (Ozzie Davis), Mother Sister (Ruby Dee), Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), and Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith). This Bed-Stuy block may not be affluent, but it's a real community, where almost everybody knows each other and looks out for their people. 

During the day, Buggin' Out stops in for a slice at Sal's. As he sits down to eat, he notices the restaurant's wall only features pictures of famous Italians and Italian-Americans. Buggin' Out tells Sal to put some images of Black figures and entertainers since their African-American communities are the primary customers of his place. Sal responds that if Buggin' Out wants to put those pictures up, he should run his own business. There are two reasonable and understandable positions to take, but both are inflexible in their opinions, and the day is only getting hotter.

Meanwhile, Radio Raheem is roaming the street, lugging around a boom box that is nearly as big as he is, blaring Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" non-stop. Through his journey in the movie, Radio becomes an avatar for Black Pride through his music tastes, and his refusal to turn down the volume for anybody who challenges him. It's because of Radio's pride that he has his own run-in with Sal, and joins Buggin' Out in an impromptu boycott of the pizzeria. Along with his boom box, Radio also has two trademark knuckle rings, one carved in LOVE and the other with HATE. 

"It's a tale of good and evil," Radio tells Mookie. "One hand is always fighting the other hand, and the left hand is kicking much ass. I mean, it looks like the right hand, LOVE, is finished. But hold on, stop the presses, the right hand is coming back. Ooh, it's a devastating right and HATE is hurt, he's down. Left hand HATE KO'd by LOVE." 

Meanwhile, Sal and his sons are struggling with their own relationship with this Bed-Stuy community. Mookie pulls Pino aside and tries to engage him about his racism, noting his favorite athletes and performers are all Black. Pino deflects and denies, continuing the hostility and the insults. If anybody was still sympathetic to Pino's viewpoint, Lee then transitions to a series of moments with various characters, all of whom unleashing the worst racial slurs imaginable. They all look directly at the camera, slinging hatred and spite straight at the audience. 

The temperature throughout this small community continues to rise, as does the tension between the various cultures here. In this Bed-Stuy block, we are introduced to a large cast but can still know and observe all of them. In Lee's world, everybody is capable of empathy and goodness, but are also driven and haunted by our flaws - even Da Mayor, who is considered the nicest person on the block. Each person is wrestling with their own problems, thoughts, and decisions – one hand always fighting the other hand – and as our story races to its conclusions, it's even money which side of ourselves will win out.

As the drama races to a tragic conclusion, Lee offers not a sermon but a litmus test on which form of violence is more offensive to our sensibilities and experience. When HATE has LOVE on the ropes, how would we react, and how do we live together the following day?

As Lee was developing the film, he kept a personal journal about his process. Several incidents of racial violence in New York City convinced the director to evolve the script to make race relations the central theme of "Do the Right Thing," coming as a surprise for audiences expecting a comedy.

"New York City is filled with racial hatred," Lee wrote. "I'd be a fool not to work the subject of racism into 'Do the Right Thing.' This is America's biggest problem, always has been (since we got off the boat), always will be. I've touched upon it in my earlier works, but haven't yet dealt with it head-on as a primary subject. 

"Any approach I take must be done carefully and realistically. I won't be making any apologies. Truth and righteousness is on our side. Black folks are tired of being killed."

Lee recruited the rap group Public Enemy to record an original song for the film. They came back with "Fight the Power," an anthem to Black pride and ambition. The song is a significant element of "Do the Right Thing," opening the movie with Rosie Perez dancing through the credits, but with the regular presence of Radio Raheem. The song was an enormous success and helped elevate the growing rap genre. Lee directed two videos for Public Enemy's song, one of which doesn't seem far off from the images of 2020 outside of the fashion.

In his original review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert agreed that "Do the Right Thing" offers no answers. Still, anybody feels less empathy after seeing it didn't pay attention.

"'Do the Right Thing' is not filled with brotherly love, but it is not filled with hate, either," Ebert wrote. "It comes out a weary, urban cynicism that has settled down around us in recent years. The good feelings and many of the hopes of the 1960s have evaporated, and today it no longer would be accurate to make a movie about how the races in American are all going to love one another. I wish we could see such love, but instead we have deepening class divisions in which the middle classes of all races flee from what's happening in the inner city, while a series of national admissions provides no hope for the poor. 'Do the Right Thing' tells an honest, unsentimental story about those who are left behind."

Decades later, little has changed. Systemic racism and economic inequality remain present, and anger is now revealed. However, there is a significant amount of the United States population with little appetite for acknowledging racism. How can we recognize and accept this pain that has impacted so many? I'd like to think that the invitation comes through art. In "Do the Right Thing," the racial violence and injustice of the past are personified in Radio Raheem, but now Radio has come to represent George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Kieth Childress, Jr., Jamal Floyd, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Greg Gunn, Trayvon Martin, Sean Monterrosa, Dreasjon Reed, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, and so, so many more. Their circumstances are unique but have the same ending. Every new tragedy makes Lee's masterpiece more and more relevant.

Sight and Sound, Britain's leading authority on film analysis, conduct a worldwide survey of critics every 10 years to publish a new list ("Vertigo" by Alfred Hitchcock has surpassed "Citizen Kane" in the last two polls). In the most recent list published in 2020, "Do the Right Thing" doesn't even crack the top 100. For that matter, very few Black films do. The lists of the American Film Institute are not much better, as "Do the Right Thing" just snuck in at the bottom of the most recent ranking. The users of the Internet Movie Database don't rate "Do the Right Thing" good enough to make its Top 250 Films — another 1989 movie, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," clocks in at #120.

In my opinion, that is a severe oversight, a mistake more egregious than the famous snub from the 1989 Academy Awards. The Academy gave Best Picture to the milquetoast race relations movie, "Driving Miss Daisy," and didn't even nominate "Do the Right Thing." While many circles recognize the latter as a slight and regard Lee's film as great, it ultimately still remains shut out of the so-called canon of cinematic achievements, as do so many minority filmmakers. Lee's masterpiece is as artfully crafted and culturally significant as any of these top tier canon films. If it isn't, I'd like to see somebody explain why "Do the Right Thing" deserves exclusion over the multiple Charlie Chaplin, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock, and Billy Wilder films that are included, as great as many of them are.

Does "Do the Right Thing" match up with "Vertigo," "Citizen Kane," or "2001: A Space Odyssey?" Maybe. Is it at least as strong, meaningful, and influential as "Tokyo Story" and "The Rules of the Game," two films often considered to be the best of a specific nationality or culture? Most definitely, and notably, those two movies are ranked #3 and #4 in the latest Sight and Sound poll. "Do the Right Thing" must be in the conversation, because so many young creators and fans turn to these lists as an entry point into film history. To exclude the works of minority filmmakers in these cinematic "canon" ventures perpetuates the systematic inequalities the film industry (and many other professions) operate under. To challenge the conventional wisdom of film canon is a small step that film critics and scholars who usually decide such things can take, but it's an important one.

It's been clear for the last decade that racism issues continue to be ignored by the leading authorities, and blindingly evident in 2020. Few filmmakers are as adept, empathic, and engaging as Lee when dealing with race, although to corner him as that kind of director is like pinning Scorsese to mob movies. It diminishes the beautiful diversity of his work. "Do the Right Thing" is of its time, but also ahead of it. Because of Lee's filmography, many people were able to experience, understand, and empathize with Black history and Black lives, while also enjoying the craft one of the best filmmakers of the modern era. That is a breakthrough that not many others can claim, especially not in film and popular culture. 

Da Mayor says, "Always do the right thing." It's been long overdue to elevate Lee, but now is the time.

The Weekend: Like the week after Memorial Day, the last weekend of June tends to be a chaser to the shots of mid-June's seismic hits. There are certainly some gems to be found here, but it feels like a slight break in the action, just before the mega releases of Independence Day weekend launch.

Charlie Chaplin is remembered as one of the first great movie stars and is still recognized today, thanks to his Little Tramp persona. But if you've never seen one of his movies, be sure to check out "The Gold Rush," premiering this weekend in 1925. The film sees the Tramp head up to Alaska in search of fortune. With Chaplin serving as writer, producer, director, and star, you can begin to understand his historical place in both filmmaking and comedy.

1982 was a dream summer for fans of science fiction, and on Week 26, they saw the release of both Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and John Carpenter's "The Thing" on the same weekend. Coming off the success of "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Harrison Ford continued his run as the hottest leading man of his era in "Blade Runner," where he plays a cop hunting down Replicants in Scott's neo-noir vision of the future. Kurt Russell stars in "The Thing" as the head of an Antarctica research lab that encounters an alien creature who can imitate other humans, thus making everybody a potential foe. Neither film was successful during its initial run in theaters but found an audience and critical acclaim afterward. Imagine catching these two movies as a first-run double feature in 1982.

The weekend also brings in a couple of comedy classics. Bill Murray was just becoming a star, but it's clear that 1979's "Meatballs" and 1981's "Stripes" made an impression. Once upon a time, Tom Hanks was considered a comedic actor, thanks to movies like 1984's "Bachelor Party." Meanwhile, Mel Brooks was an institution onto himself as he aimed his satirical riffs at the Star Wars movies in 1987's "Spaceballs."

Americans were still dealing with the complicated legacy of the Vietnam War, especially in the cinema. Director Stanley Kubrick offered his point-of-view on the dehumanization of war in "Full Metal Jacket," released this weekend in 1987. Most people remember the first half of the movie more than the second, dramatizing Marine Corps training with R. Lee Emery as an abusive drill sergeant and Vincent D'Onofrio as the hapless recruit.

Director Robert Zemeckis signed on to make an impossible movie, one in which cartoons wholly and believably interact with real-life people and objects, without the use of CGI. That he was able to successfully create that illusion in 1988's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is worthy of praise enough, but the movie is also a fantastic tribute to film noir. Considering all that, getting the corporations to agree to put Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse in the same scene doesn't seem that hard.

After the release of "When Harry Met Sally …" (coming up soon in this column) in 1989, both the careers of actor Meg Ryan and writer Nora Ephron grew exponentially. Ephron turned her attention to directing and recruited Ryan to star in "Sleepless in Seattle," released this weekend in 1992. Ryan's romantic comedy partner this time was Tom Hanks, and the collaboration was so successful with audiences, all three reteamed for 1998's "You Got Mail." 

A generation ago, a movie like "Apollo 13" could be a massive, crowd-pleasing hit, and that's precisely what it was when it was released in 1995. Tom Hanks starred ahead of a terrific cast in this film by director Ron Howard about a real-life space flight gone wrong, and the lengths it took to return the crew. "Apollo 13" is one of those movies that make you want to rewatch it anytime anybody brings it up (like me, right now!).

On paper, the plot of 1997's "Face/Off" is ludicrous. They brought in scenery-chewing stars Nicolas Cage and John Travolta to play each other and got John Woo to direct. The result is one of the most fun and watchable action movies of the decade. Another fun cops-and-capers movie was released a year later in 1998, as Steven Soderbergh directed the stylishly sexy and witty "Out of Sight" with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.

The weekend also produced a couple more great date night movies that skipped the bullets and explosions that define many of the films previously mentioned. Weeks after her star turn in "Mean Girls," Rachel McAdams solidified her status alongside Ryan Gosling in the 2004 romantic drama, "The Notebook." Another young star, Anne Hathaway, faced off against Meryl Streep's iconic Miranda Priestly in 2006's "The Devil Wears Prada."

Pixar was in the midst of its critically beloved run in the 2000s with its two releases in Week 26. Patton Oswalt gave voice to a French rat who dreamed of becoming a brilliant chef in Brad Bird's "Ratatouille" from 2007. Director Andrew Stanton stunned audiences with 2008's science-fiction comedy "Wall-E."

Other notable films include a trio of James Bond movies ("Live and Let Die" in 1973, "Moonraker" in 1979, and "For Your Eyes Only" in 1981), "The Omen" in 1976, "The Great Muppet Caper" in 1981, "St. Elmo's Fire" in 1985, "Labyrinth" in 1986, "The Nutty Professor" remake in 1996, "Buffalo 66" in 1998, "Doctor Dolittle" in 1998, "Big Daddy" in 1999, "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" in 2001, "Fahrenheit 9/11" in 2004, "The Hurt Locker" in 2008, "Ted" in 2012, and "The Neon Demon" in 2016.

Next Week: "Back to the Future"

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