Do the Right Thing- Film Review

This film was extremely ironic. Director Spike Lee starred himself as the main character Mookie. Samuel L. Jackson also stars in this film as the town DJ whom they call “Mister Senor Love Daddy.” Samuel Jackson is one of my favorite actors and right when I saw him in this motion picture I knew it was going to be a phenomenal and well designed film. Do the Right Thing is based on a 24-hour period on the hottest day of summer in Brooklyn, NY. Throughout the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the town locals (all of them played a pretty important role) and watch them go about their daily lives.
There’s the Italian father Sal (Danny Aiello) and his two sons Vito (Richard Edson) and Pino (John Turturro) who own Sal’s Famous Pizzeria, a very popular and delicious pizza place in town. Mookie (Spike Lee) works for Sal and a friend of Mookie’s, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), causes a dispute about Sal’s business. In the tiny restaurant there is a “Wall of Fame” that is filled with all Italian and white folks; Buggin’ Out complains that there should be some “black brothers” up on that wall. Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), a towering black man who spends the day wandering around the neighborhood blasting the same song on his boom box, gets involved with this controversy and tries to do something about this issue with Buggin’ Out. The results are not pleasant, especially for Radio Raheem. Da Mayor (Ossie Davis), the town drunk, always seems to give the best advice and even tells Mookie in the beginning of the movie to just “do the right thing.” Unfortunately, this movie was the exact opposite of its title.
The movie confronts racism to its fullest, with each race present in this film being discriminated against. Lee’s set up of this film just creates a situation, then allows the events to play out. At first I was getting a little bored because I didn’t think there was a main plot, but then it all came together in the end. Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem tried to force Sal to put important African-American people on the wall, like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. The irony was the way they went about doing it: in violence and destruction. Malcolm X and Martin Luther were speakers of peace and diversity. It is not a good way to be put on a wall of fame through the exact opposite of what these political leaders stood for. I enjoyed watching this movie I was so scatter brained and distorted because so many controversial issues arose all in one scene in the end with the huge riot and fire. It kept me thinking about how race is such an issue and it really shouldn’t be!