Do the Right Thing

“Fight the power.”  It should be as simple as that.  All will be right in the world if one simply stands up and fights the power.  This idea has one big problem; it does not specify by violent or nonviolent means.  That is a choice to be made from situation to situation and person to person, as shown in the differing quotes at the end of Do the Right Thing.  The film lives out the conflict of integrating races and the reality of living in a multiracial community.  The common misconception that integration of all blacks will stop all rioting or opposition because it will put them in the same lifestyles therefore at the same levels of the white people is lived out in this film.  Despite adaptations and mixtures, one problem still stands: white is white and black is black.

While it seems as if this is a very blatant binary, the film does a good job of blurring the oppositions, which makes it both more realistic and more relatable.  When in comparison with other films dealing with race that we have watched for the class, this film does not have an untouchable, angelic good character fighting against an almost inhuman evil character.  In fact, there is no distinct fight involving the police.  It isn’t a one case situation, but rather an ongoing struggle void of explicit battles.  This struggle is only in its developing stages; it is building up, even if it cannot be detected quite yet.  Sal, the Italian-American owner of the local pizzeria located in a black neighborhood, talks of how he has been there for 25 years and watched the kids grow up.  He tells his son that they are good people and have never done anything to them.  In Sal’s eyes, this is reason enough to trust them.

There seems to be a generally civil understanding amongst them.  Sal’s two sons provide a good example.  Pino hates living in the black community and compares going to work every day with living in the film Planet of the Apes.  On the other hand, his brother Vito almost seems to be a “brother,” as he relates to Mookie, his black co-worker turned friend and confidant.  Mookie actually listens to him, which is a foreign concept, and even suggests he stands up for himself and fights Pino if necessary.  At first glance, this seems to be a genuine move.  Mookie appears to be looking out for Vito and convincing him of his self worth, something his father and brother fail to do.  I can’t help but wonder if Mookie had ulterior motives and wanted to spark a tension amongst the family.  After all, it was the tree of them against the neighborhood.  They had to stick together to stand a fighting chance; a broken family for them was more dangerous than usual.

By creating characters that seem average and human to us, the binary oppositions are much more effective.  It appears as though Sal is the exception to the rule; the black community will accept him in the neighborhood.  They even take his side over Buggin’ Out’s when he tries to organize a boycott.  The differences don’t seem as blatant as usual.  It isn’t one race versus another.  Americans, Italians, African Americans, Koreans, and Hispanics are all represented, but in this movie, they all spend time as victims.  Roger Ebert says that “Spike Lee had done an almost impossible thing. He'd made a movie about race in America that empathized with all the participants. He didn't draw lines or take sides but simply looked with sadness at one racial flashpoint that stood for many others.”  Ironically, the film is called Do the Right Thing, but Lee never outlines what the right thing is.  I think that’s the beauty of it; there is not clear cut right and wrong.

Another point I would like to bring up is the elapse of time.  This all takes place within a 24 hour period, which I think is a very smart and relevant move.  In that time, we get a sense of the history of the community.  Lee makes it very realistic by incorporation events and cultural aspects of the time (Howard Beach, Tawana, Public Enemy) into the film as well.  Time isn’t wasted on describing the setting or plot, we dive right in, and it works.  This made it possible to limit the film to one day, which emphasizes how drastically and quickly things can change.  At the start of the movie, Sal isn’t worried at all about living in that community, even when the cops question it, relocating isn’t on his mind.  He views these people as his neighbors in a community he is both welcome in and very much a part of, but this all changes when Mookie is the first to destroy the pizzeria after the death of Radio Raheem.  It only took one event to completely change the dynamics of the community.  The final scene, however, made me wonder just how much things had changed, and for how long.  After Mookie gets his money, he has an awkward yet casual conversation with Sal.  Small talk, they talk about the weather and the never ending heat wave.  It almost seems as though it is the first step toward moving on because despite what they do, black is black and white is white.