Film Review of Do the Right Thing

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

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The Reality of the Melting Pot Tempers explode, emotions take charge, and a Italian-run pizzeria in a black Brooklyn neighborhood becomes the center of a violent conflict on a hot summer day in Spike Lee?s Do the Right Thing.

The film is a day-in-the-life of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community and it is one of the hottest days of the summer. Much of the action takes place around or inside the Sal?s Famous Pizzeria, owned and operated by Sal (Danny Aiello) and his sons Vito (Richard Edson) and Pino (John Turturro). The restaurant has been in the neighborhood for years and many of the kids have grown up on his pizza. Sal remained in the neighborhood as it became predominately black as he showed pride and a love for the neighborhood. And over the years he has built a tradition of good relationships with his black customers. The story follows Mookie, the delivery boy for the pizza parlor, as he struggles to ?do the right thing? throughout the day.

The events are set in motion when violence that breaks out is between two neighborhood black teens, Buggin? Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Reheem (Bill Nunn), and Sal. They are upset that there are no black photos displayed on the wall of the pizzeria. Radio Reheem ends up being murdered at the hands of the police. The community turns against Sal and the pizzeria and a riot breaks out, in which his pizzeria is destroyed.

In Do the Right Thing, the subject is not just a struggle between races, but racial tension and miscommunication. Lee?s point is to show the way race affects the lives of those in America. He has focused his story on African-American characters, and how they relate to each other. Its central main character is Mookie, played...