Do The Right Thing (1989) Context
- US Modern Film - Spike Lee
Written, produced, and directed by Spike Lee. He has a consistency of making films centred around race, US history surrounding race, and the African American experience, shown among most of his other films such as BlacKkKlansman, Malcolm X, da 5 Bloods, and Jungle Fever. His work is highly reflective as he explores controversial subjects, with stylised mise-en-scene, dolly tracking shots, and lighting. The film's score was composed and partially performed by jazz musician Bill Lee who is the father of Spike Lee.
Do the Right Thing was nominated for best original screenplay and best supporting actor at the 1990 academy awards; best motion picture, best supporting actor, best director, and best screenplay at the 1990 golden globes; best picture, best supporting actor, and best original screenplay at the 2010 20/20 awards. The film won best supporting actor at 1990's Boston Society of Film Critics; best picture, best director, best supporting actor at 1990's Chicago Films Critics Association; best film, best supporting actor, best director, best music, and 2nd place best screenplay at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association; Silver Bucket of Excellence at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards; outstanding actress, and outstanding supporting actor at the 1989 NAACP Image Awards; Best cinematography, 4th place best screenplay, and 5th place best film at the 1990 New York Film Critics Circle; best director, best film editing, and best original song at the 2010 20/20 Awards.
Do the Right Thing addresses police brutality, racism, societal morals, and the morals of ourselves. Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-times wrote: "I believe that any good-hearted person, white or black, will come out of this movie with sympathy for all of the characters. Lee does not ask us to forgive them, or even to understand everything they do, but he wants us to identify with their fears and frustrations...it is scrupulously fair to both sides, in a story where it is our society itself that is not fair”. However, despite the film having a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, there were many critics that found the choice of Lee's messaging controversial, divisive, and riotous. Joe Klein and David Denby from the New York Magazine wrote this review when the film first premiered: "All these subtleties are likely to leave white (especially white liberal) audiences debating the meaning of Spike Lee’s message. Black teenagers won’t find it so hard, though. For them, the message is clear from the opening credits... White people are your enemy, even if they appear to be sympathetic"... "Lee wants to rouse people, to ‘wake them up.’ But to do what?... My guess is that Spike Lee thinks that violence solves nothing, but he’d like to be counted in the black community as an angry man, a man ready, despite his success, to smash things. The end of the movie is an open embrace of futility”. A more recent review in 2020, published on the Sight & Sound film magazine by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith wrote similarly: "For all its apparent roughness, Do the Right Thing is aesthetically very sophisticated, particularly in the first half. But at the end, it collapses both aesthetically and politically".
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/57249/little-known-story-behind-do-right-thing
Spike Lee started on the script for Do the Right Thing, aiming to show racism, immigration, gentrification, and police brutality to ultimately 'make America look in the mirror'. This was a huge risk after the success of his first film 'She's Gotta Have It'. During this time, outraged by the death of a young black man named Michael Griffith, over a thousand people protested on the Italian-American enclave of Howard Beach in Queens. Inspired by this story, Lee wanted to start the film with a Malcolm X quote and Mookie (played by Lee) shouting 'Howard Beach!' as he threw a garbage can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria.
According to Lee’s published diary: "How would audiences feel leaving the theatre? Will blacks want to go on a rampage? Will whites feel uncomfortable? Am I advocating violence? No, but goddamn, the days of 25,000,000 blacks being silent while our fellow brothers and sisters are exploited, oppressed, and murdered have to come to an end"
'Rap, then still fighting for air time on radio and MTV. By the mid-1980s, artists like Run-DMC and Public Enemy were bringing a distinctly urban sound - they wrote the song 'Fight the Power' for the film.'
Lee, Dickerson (cinematography), production designer Wynn Thomas, and their crew worked hard to create a vibrant aesthetic. For example, Lee wanted every shot to heighten the narrative's tension; the colour palette was limited to warm tones to reflect the summer heat of the environment. They burned sterno cans next to the camera to create the illusion of heatwaves. Dutch angles were used to destabilise the viewers and reflect the agitation of the characters - "We’d looked at The Third Man and saw the use of Dutch angles, how it created tension"... Dickerson... "It’s kind of a world going out of balance. We had it more tilted as things got rougher, especially before the riot"
Joie Lee, Spike's sister, played Mookie’s sister Jade: "These are not stereotypical black characters..."Now, we may not think that so much because it’s not so out of the ordinary anymore—but then, my god!"
'Lee portrayed street corner provocateurs that bordered on parody with tender scenes of family and community', bordering comedy with melodrama.
'We hear each point of view (sometimes spoken directly to the camera in long streams of racial epithets'
Lee allows the audience to decide what 'Do the Right Thing' means, painting each character uniquely without defined character archetypes; the film ends with two competing quotes. One, from Martin Luther King Jr., denouncing violence, the other, from Malcolm X, advocating for self-defence.
'When Do the Right Thing debuted in May 1989 at the Cannes International Film Festival, Lee was dressed in a Malcolm X T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan 'no sellout'.'
"This film is not about just New York City, it’s about the world. Racism is all over the world." -Lee
'The film is an undisputed milestone, not just in Lee’s career, but in the evolution of African-American film and art. John Singleton - the first black filmmaker to win a Best Director Oscar nomination - said "Spike opened the door to make more serious pictures".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossie_Davis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Dee
Ossie Davis (played Da Mayor) and Ruby Dee (Played Mother Sister)
"Davis and Dee were well known as civil rights activists during the Civil Rights Movement and were close friends of Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr. and other icons of the era. They were involved in organizing the 1963 civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and served as its emcees. Davis, alongside Ahmed Osman, delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X. He re-read part of this eulogy at the end of Spike Lee's film Malcolm X."
"In 1999, Dee and Davis were arrested at 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York Police Department, protesting the police shooting of Amadou Diallo"
https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/read-how-critics-responded-to-do-the-right-thing-in-1989.html
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_the_right_thing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_the_Right_Thing
- US Modern Film - Spike Lee
Do the Right Thing was nominated for best original screenplay and best supporting actor at the 1990 academy awards; best motion picture, best supporting actor, best director, and best screenplay at the 1990 golden globes; best picture, best supporting actor, and best original screenplay at the 2010 20/20 awards. The film won best supporting actor at 1990's Boston Society of Film Critics; best picture, best director, best supporting actor at 1990's Chicago Films Critics Association; best film, best supporting actor, best director, best music, and 2nd place best screenplay at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association; Silver Bucket of Excellence at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards; outstanding actress, and outstanding supporting actor at the 1989 NAACP Image Awards; Best cinematography, 4th place best screenplay, and 5th place best film at the 1990 New York Film Critics Circle; best director, best film editing, and best original song at the 2010 20/20 Awards.
Do the Right Thing addresses police brutality, racism, societal morals, and the morals of ourselves. Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-times wrote: "I believe that any good-hearted person, white or black, will come out of this movie with sympathy for all of the characters. Lee does not ask us to forgive them, or even to understand everything they do, but he wants us to identify with their fears and frustrations...it is scrupulously fair to both sides, in a story where it is our society itself that is not fair”. However, despite the film having a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, there were many critics that found the choice of Lee's messaging controversial, divisive, and riotous. Joe Klein and David Denby from the New York Magazine wrote this review when the film first premiered: "All these subtleties are likely to leave white (especially white liberal) audiences debating the meaning of Spike Lee’s message. Black teenagers won’t find it so hard, though. For them, the message is clear from the opening credits... White people are your enemy, even if they appear to be sympathetic"... "Lee wants to rouse people, to ‘wake them up.’ But to do what?... My guess is that Spike Lee thinks that violence solves nothing, but he’d like to be counted in the black community as an angry man, a man ready, despite his success, to smash things. The end of the movie is an open embrace of futility”. A more recent review in 2020, published on the Sight & Sound film magazine by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith wrote similarly: "For all its apparent roughness, Do the Right Thing is aesthetically very sophisticated, particularly in the first half. But at the end, it collapses both aesthetically and politically".
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/57249/little-known-story-behind-do-right-thing
Spike Lee started on the script for Do the Right Thing, aiming to show racism, immigration, gentrification, and police brutality to ultimately 'make America look in the mirror'. This was a huge risk after the success of his first film 'She's Gotta Have It'. During this time, outraged by the death of a young black man named Michael Griffith, over a thousand people protested on the Italian-American enclave of Howard Beach in Queens. Inspired by this story, Lee wanted to start the film with a Malcolm X quote and Mookie (played by Lee) shouting 'Howard Beach!' as he threw a garbage can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria.
According to Lee’s published diary: "How would audiences feel leaving the theatre? Will blacks want to go on a rampage? Will whites feel uncomfortable? Am I advocating violence? No, but goddamn, the days of 25,000,000 blacks being silent while our fellow brothers and sisters are exploited, oppressed, and murdered have to come to an end"
'Rap, then still fighting for air time on radio and MTV. By the mid-1980s, artists like Run-DMC and Public Enemy were bringing a distinctly urban sound - they wrote the song 'Fight the Power' for the film.'
Lee, Dickerson (cinematography), production designer Wynn Thomas, and their crew worked hard to create a vibrant aesthetic. For example, Lee wanted every shot to heighten the narrative's tension; the colour palette was limited to warm tones to reflect the summer heat of the environment. They burned sterno cans next to the camera to create the illusion of heatwaves. Dutch angles were used to destabilise the viewers and reflect the agitation of the characters - "We’d looked at The Third Man and saw the use of Dutch angles, how it created tension"... Dickerson... "It’s kind of a world going out of balance. We had it more tilted as things got rougher, especially before the riot"
Joie Lee, Spike's sister, played Mookie’s sister Jade: "These are not stereotypical black characters..."Now, we may not think that so much because it’s not so out of the ordinary anymore—but then, my god!"
'Lee portrayed street corner provocateurs that bordered on parody with tender scenes of family and community', bordering comedy with melodrama.
'We hear each point of view (sometimes spoken directly to the camera in long streams of racial epithets'
Lee allows the audience to decide what 'Do the Right Thing' means, painting each character uniquely without defined character archetypes; the film ends with two competing quotes. One, from Martin Luther King Jr., denouncing violence, the other, from Malcolm X, advocating for self-defence.
'When Do the Right Thing debuted in May 1989 at the Cannes International Film Festival, Lee was dressed in a Malcolm X T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan 'no sellout'.'
"This film is not about just New York City, it’s about the world. Racism is all over the world." -Lee
'The film is an undisputed milestone, not just in Lee’s career, but in the evolution of African-American film and art. John Singleton - the first black filmmaker to win a Best Director Oscar nomination - said "Spike opened the door to make more serious pictures".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossie_Davis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Dee
Ossie Davis (played Da Mayor) and Ruby Dee (Played Mother Sister)
"Davis and Dee were well known as civil rights activists during the Civil Rights Movement and were close friends of Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr. and other icons of the era. They were involved in organizing the 1963 civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and served as its emcees. Davis, alongside Ahmed Osman, delivered the eulogy at the funeral of Malcolm X. He re-read part of this eulogy at the end of Spike Lee's film Malcolm X."
"In 1999, Dee and Davis were arrested at 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York Police Department, protesting the police shooting of Amadou Diallo"
https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/read-how-critics-responded-to-do-the-right-thing-in-1989.html
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/do_the_right_thing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_the_Right_Thing
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