Do the Right Thing (1989)

In African-American writer/director Spike Lee's third (and breakout) independent feature film - it was about racial and social strife on a hot summer day on one block of Brooklyn, NY - forecasting a tense time bomb waiting to go off. It was an even-handed, complex, disturbing, angry and unapologetic social protest film about racism, racial pride, intolerance and oppression, class struggle and violence. Spike Lee's (who also starred as the pizzeria's delivery boy Mookie) resume already included: She's Gotta Have It (1986), and School Daze (1988).

Although it was feared by film critics that the film would cause and incite similar responses from black urban-dwellers, this proved to be a misrepresentation of the facts by the film's detractors, that dubbed the film "irresponsible."

The film told about racial tensions that eventually erupted into a riot on a sweltering summer day in the multi-ethnic Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. It was presented with vibrantly bright colors, realistic and goofily-named characters and dialogue, a multi-ethnic cast, a supplementary "Greek chorus" of black men on the corner commenting on the day's events, and energetic editing and quasi-documentary, cocked camera angles. Its tagline was: "It's the hottest day of the summer. You can do nothing, you can do something, or you can..."

• during the opening credits, Public Enemy performed the film's hard-edged anthem and title rap song Fight the Power, accompanied by a heavily-stylized dance sequence; one of the characters, Tina (Rosie Perez) danced in front of apartment steps (in a reddish hue)

1989 - the number another summer Sound of the funky drummer Music hittin' your heart cause I know you got soul Listen if you're missin' y'all Swingin' while I'm singin' Givin' whatcha gettin' Knowin' what I know While the Black bands sweatin' And the rhythm rhymes rollin' Got to give us what we want Gotta give us what we need Our freedom of speech is freedom or death We got to fight the powers that be. Lemme hear you say Fight the power Lemme hear you say Fight the power.

• in the opening scene, velvet-voiced DJ Mister Senor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) vehemently waking up the Bed-Stuy neighborhood with his "We Love Radio" sounds provided with the day's forecast: ("This is Mister Senor Love Daddy, your voice of choice. The world's only 12-hour strongman on the air, here on We Love Radio, 108 FM, the last on your dial, but first in your hearts, and that's the truth, Ruth...I have today's forecast for you. Hot! The color for today is black. That's right, black. So you can absorb some of these rays and save that heat for winter. So you wanna get on out there and wear that black and be involved! Also, today's temperature's gonna rise up over 100 degrees. So that's a Jheri curl alert")
• the tension began to escalate in this slice-of-life film because of a complaint by a militant activist neighborhood patron named Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) that there were no pictures of 'brothers' on the "Wall of Fame" - "Hey, Sal, how come they ain't no brothas on the wall?" - there were only photos of famous white Italian-Americans in the white-operated and owned Italian "Famous Pizzeria" restaurant run by Salvatore "Sal" Frangione (Oscar-nominated Danny Aiello)
• this was followed by his demanding attempt to stage a neighborhood boycott of "[Sal's] fat pasta ass"; Sal yelled back: "You're gonna boycott me? You haven't got the balls to boycott me. Here, here's your boycott, up your ass. You've got a boycott"
• one of the neighbor residents, Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) was always accompanied by his gigantic boom box playing Public Enemy and the hip-hop anthem Fight the Power; his story of LOVE and HATE was illustrated by his two giant-sized gold rings (referencing the film The Night of the Hunter (1950)): ("Let me tell you the story of right hand, left hand. It's a tale of good and evil. HATE! It was with this hand that Cain iced his brother. LOVE! These five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man. The right hand, the hand of LOVE. The story of life is this - Static. 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's comin' back. Yeah. He got the left hand on the ropes now. That's right. Yeah. Ooh, it's a devastating right and HATE is hurt. He's down! Ooh, ooh. Left hand, HATE, KO'd by LOVE")
• a montage sequence was composed of a profane stream of ethnic and racial slur-expletives and insults - with each of the individuals speaking directly to the camera and breaking the 4th wall --
  • Mookie (Spike Lee): "You dago, wop, guinea, garlic-breath, pizza-slingin', spaghetti-bendin', Vic Damone, Perry Como, Luciano Pavarotti, solo mio, non-singin' motherf--ker."
  • Pino (John Turturro): "You gold-teeth, gold-chain-wearin', fried-chicken-and-biscuit-eatin' monkey, ape, baboon, big thigh, fast-runnin', high-jumpin', spear-chuckin', 360-degree-basketball-dunkin', tit, soon, spade, moulan, yan. Take your f--kin' pizza-piece, and go the f--k back to Africa"
  • Stevie (Luis Ramos): "You little slanty-eyed, me-no-speaky-American, own-every-fruit-and-vegetable-stand-in-New-York, bulls--t, Reverend Sun Yung Moon, Summer Olympic '88, Korean kick-boxing son of a bitch"
  • Officer Long (Rick Aiello): "You Goya-bean-eating, 15-in-a-car, 30-in-an-apartment, pointy shoes, red-wearin', menudo, mira-mira, Puerto Rican cocksucker. Yeah, you!"
  • Sonny (Steve Park): "It's cheap, I got good price for you, Mayor Kochie, 'How I'm doin'?', Chocolate-egg-cream-drinking, bagel-and-lox, B'nai B'rith Jew asshole"
• an open convertible was doused with water from by an open fire hydrant, after the Italian-American driver had specifically shouted and threatened at the blacks not to spray him
• one of the multi-ethnic relationships in the film was between: Mookie (director Spike Lee), Sal's 25 year-old Pizzeria delivery boy, and Tina (Rosie Perez in her feature film debut), a feisty and demanding single mother, and the Hispanic girlfriend of Mookie; Mookie and Tina had a young son named Hector; during a visit with Tina on this sweltering day of one hundred degree heat, he was frustrating her by wanting to have quickie sex (the "nasty") in her hot apartment bedroom, and then wishing to quickly leave afterwards. She complained: "If you think I'm gonna let you get some, put your clothes on, and leave here, and I won't see your black ass for another week, you must be bluffin'?" He proposed instead: "Let's do somethin' else." He had her stand on the bed and strip naked ("Take your clothes off"), while he went to the refrigerator to retrieve two trays of ice cubes

The Infamous Ice Cube Melting Scene Between Mookie and Tina

• with the ice-cubes from the trays, he methodically rubbed them over her naked body (forehead, lips, neck, kneecaps, elbows, thighs, and breasts) in full-closeup view, while espousing: "Thank god for the lips...Thank god for the neck...Thank god for kneecaps...Thank god for elbows...Thank god for thighs...Thank god for the right nipple. Thank god for the left nipple. Ah, she likes, she likes, she likes"; Tina responded: "Feels good" before he left her, promising to return later
• tense scenes followed after Sal's baseball-bat destruction of Raheem's boom box (playing "jungle music") when he wouldn't turn down the volume, and a fight broke out, leading to a massive altercation at the pizzeria; the brutal choke-hold police murder of Radio Raheem, the apprehension of Buggin' Out, Mookie's incitement of a riot by hurling a trashcan through Sal's storefront window, causing further racial divide and police brutality, and the burning down of the pizzeria (with fiery flames licking the 'Wall of Fame')
• the film ended with two contradictory quotations about violence and non-violence (from Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X) that ended the film, reflecting the two doctrinal strains of belief: peaceful civil disobedience or militancy