"My people, my people, what can I say, say what I can. I saw it but didn't believe it, I didn't believe what I saw. Are we gonna live together, together are we gonna live?" — Mister Señor Love Daddy, “Do the Right Thing”
Spike Lee's “Do The Right Thing” celebrates its 30th anniversary this weekend and it still packs a wallop. The writer-director’s examination of the racial divide in America is as relevant today as its ever been before. The first time I saw it I felt something I hadn't felt in years, a movie of such relevance, poignancy and incendiary truth - I was stunned, scared, shaken to my core. Radio Raheem still lingers in my head, so does Mookie throwing a garbage can at Sal's Pizzeria, Buggin Out with his infamous boycott and Pino's toxic in your-face-racism
When it first came out, people were expecting riots and anarchy all over the country, but what we got instead was conversation — the essence of what art can accomplish. It's still, alongside David Lynch's “Blue Velvet” and Martin Scorsese's “Raging Bull,” one of the most important American movies of the 1980’s.
And yet, despite all the praise it has gotten over the years, the countless film schools it has been taught at, “Do The Right Thing” did not even get nominated for Best Picture back in 1990. Ironically, the winner that year was a safe, watered-down portrait of racism, one which America and Hollywood wanted us to believe in: “Driving Miss Daisy.” The Academy’s failure to recognize the greatness of Lee’s second feature constituted its own form of injustice. The movie has become Lee’s most fondly remembered work. To this day, Lee argues that the Academy snubbed his film because of racial bias. He claims that the predominantly white Academy members were unwilling to seriously consider a film that told its story from a non-white perspective and focused on uncomfortable themes regarding race.
Lee, who was given an honorary Oscar in 2015, has been vocal in his outrage for the Academy failing to honor his masterpiece. Speaking to GQ, and doubling down on the historic snub, he elaborated: “To be honest, after ‘Do the Right Thing,’ I said, ‘That’s it.’ You know?” Lee said. “That’s not to say I wasn’t happy to get the honorary award, but as far as Oscars, my thing has always been my body of work. What film won best film of 1989? ‘Driving Miss Daisy.’ Driving Miss motherfucking Daisy. Who’s watching that film now?”
At the 1990 Academy Awards ceremony, actress Kim Basinger caused a stir when she used her brief moment on camera to criticize the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its failure to nominate what she believed to be the best film of the year. Before fulfilling her original duty of introducing "Dead Poets Society" as one of the nominees for the top prize, Basinger declared to the audience: “We’ve got five great films here, and they’re great for one reason: because they tell the truth. But there is one film missing from this list that deserves to be on it because, ironically, it might tell the biggest truth of all. And that’s "Do the Right Thing.”
“Do the Right Thing” starts off with Public Enemy's “Fight The Power” playing as Rosie Perez's Tina breakdances through the opening credits. We are then thrust into the NYC neighborhood of Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. It also happens to be the hottest day in the year — the heat no doubt plays a role in thrusting out the racism, confusion and corruption of the on-screen characters. This confusion is manifested in Radio Raheem having one hand tattooed with the word “Love” and the other with the word “Hate” — which side will prevail? Lee knew very well of the struggles that America was going through with racial attitudes (and still does). He explored it through characters in that “Bedstuy” neighborhood, Latinos, Jews, Chinese, Blacks, Whites, that all had in-bred resentment for each other, even though they couldn’t even explain the reasonings behind the hate, it was just there, manifesting itself like a cancer.
Lee created more than a dozen memorable characters in “Do The Right Thing”, all well sketched-out and imperfect with their own actions and thoughts. There isn’t a single heroic figure in the bunch. Mookie, the character that we think is heroic, ends up starting the climactic riot, in the film’s blistering finale, by throwing a garbage can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria. Did he do the right thing? It’s left for interpretation and after close to 2 decades, and hundreds upon hundreds of riots caused by police brutality in America, people are still debating Mookie’s actions. As the years have gone by, I realize that maybe Lee didn’t have the answer all this time and that, not only did he want to create conversation within his own audience, but he, himself, wanted to be part of it.
In fact, if we can learn anything about America at the time, it’s the hysteria of journalists, politicians, activists, all fearing that Lee’s film would incite black audiences to riot. No such riots occurred and Lee criticized “white reviewers for implying that black audiences were incapable of restraining themselves while watching a fictional motion picture.” He had a point. The fact that Americans thoughtthe African-American population would riot is the exact reason why Lee made the film in the first place, to show the divide and confusion that reigned in the country. How Americans misunderstood each other, had fear of one another. In a way, the little multicultural neighborhood depicted in the film seemed to represent America as a whole.
To call Lee’s film a game changer wouldn’t do it much justice. It brought the kind of impact to American society that felt almost wordlessly powerful — people were shaken, they started asking questions about themselves and their own inherent ideals. Lee’s masterpiece reminds us of the power that art can have on society and the enlightening whiplash that comes in watching such a visionary and powerful creation. Lee never made a better movie than "Do The Right Thing", only his second film at that time, not many have since.
Marvel's "Ghost Rider" just hired one of the best cinematographers working today. Linus Sandgren will serve as DP on Shawn Levy's MCU flick, and, most notably, the project will be shot on film.