Spike Lee's “Do The Right Thing” celebrated its 30th-anniversary last year 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 boycott of the pizza joint 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 a 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 1980s.
Ever since that landmark film, Lee has made dozens of politically fervent statements, the latest, a new short film he just premiered amid the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, is titled “3 Brothers — Radio Raheem, Eric Garner, and George Floyd.” Cutting together the climactic riot from Lee’s 1989 masterpiece with real-life viral footage capturing the deaths of Eric Garner and George Floyd, this latest Spike joint is powerful as hell. Lee uses the scene from “Do the Right Thing” in which Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) is strangled to death by white police officers to parallel Garner and Floyd’s deaths.
Lee’s upcoming feature-length film, “Da 5 Bloods,” is being released on Netflix June 12th. The film is about four African American veterans who return to Vietnam decades after the war to find a stash of buried gold. I have seen it, but I am in a strict embargo not to spill any of my thoughts just yet. You can watch Lee’s new short film “3 Brothers — Radio Raheem, Eric Garner And George Floyd” in the video below.
The man doesn't stop. James Gunn has confirmed he's already hard at work writing his next film, even as ‘Man of Tomorrow’ makes its way toward theaters next summer.