Spike Lee's celebrated magnum opus, Do the Right Thing, is too interesting and too thought-provoking to be bad. It's also too muddled, confused, and hateful to be worthy of my praise.

The story of boiling racial tension on a hot summer day in New York is exceptional in the way it visualizes how a normal day can turn explosive when hidden prejudices bubble to the surface, and a perfect storm of grievances click in at once. The structure, the writing, the deft direction (for most of the runtime) is as expertly done as you've heard. So much so that I can clearly see how this film can be considered one of the very best of the 1980s. A film so provocative and unique (in its visual style and hip-hop rhythm) can't be dismissed entirely. Yet, I can't bring myself to champion Do the Right Thing.

It's a movie that forces you to chew on its ideas. However, what to make of the movie when those ideas are kind of stupid? First, let's clear up what Do the Right Thing is trying to say about race relations. The plot goes: several ethnic groups peacefully cohabitate a lower-class New York neighborhood until a small perceived grievance (No black people's pictures hanging on the wall of the Italian Pizzeria) grows and grows into an eventual race riot, perpetrated by the film's protagonist (Spike Lee himself as Mookie). Then, in a final title card, Spike Lee shows quotes from both Martin Luthor King Jr. and Malcom X. Peace vs righteous violence. The last image is meant, I believe, to force us to confront whether Mookie did... the Right Thing. Here is where my problems with Do the Right Thing begin. The way Spike Lee sets up this conflict, he makes it too clear that, no, Mookie did NOT do the right thing by throwing a trash can through the window of an innocent pizza shop owner. His Italian characters, the supposed instigators, are innocent of everything but being fed up with black people in general because they are fed up with the individual black people harassing them at work. But Sal, played by Danny Aiello in the movie's best performance, is actually a friend to the community, a helper, a mentor. And yet, we're supposed the question whether burning his shop down was okay by the end? The black characters, however, are just kind of bums overall; making demands about how Sal decorates his shop, sitting at home ignoring a girlfriend while on the clock at work. and getting violent once their precious boombox is destroyed. There is nothing wrong with these characterizations, but they run contrary to the message we are supposed to get in the final 15 minutes.

Once the tensions actually do explode, I find it difficult to believe that anyone, black, white, or other, can be on the side of Mookie and his pals. They are portrayed so unsympathetically that it completely muddles Lee's own message. If not for the sudden deus ex machina death of Radio Raheem at the hands of police, there would not be a single counterpoint to balance the obvious moral high ground of Sal. So, ultimately, the movie doesn't work. Mookie was in the wrong. I don't feel bad for him and I don't feel bad for the other rioters. Spike Lee fails. The message does not register.

Because, you see, the whole argument, if you can call a shrugging, "I guess we're all just hateful and will always be hateful" an argument, only works if we believe Malcolm X had a point; if we question whether Mookie was justified in starting a riot. If that were the case, we would look at that final title card and question whether we should stand stoically against hatred or fight back. But Mookie is an chump. He's a lazy bum who destroys the livelihood of his community's strongest father figure. Spike, what on earth were you thinking with this character? Those last 15 minutes don't make me question whether Malcolm X was right, they confirmed to me that he was wrong.

56/100

"Do the Right Thing" is a film about race and race relations that you simply wouldn't see made today in Hollywood. Why? Because the film is brutally honest about race...and would make the heads of many politically correct folks explode by the dialog! No, the film is not a sanitized view of race....the language is raw and vile...but also realistic. And, talking about race WITHOUT racial epithets and the ugliness of racism would have neutered this film....and I like how the film is in your face about the topic.

The story is set in an ethnic neighborhood where mostly Black and Hispanic folks live. There also are shop keepers who are Italian and Korean. And, in many ways this is typical of many inner city neighborhoods...and not just in New York. Everything occurs during very, very hot summer day....and the heat clearly put everyone on edge. Add to that a lot of hatred, a lot of folks talking AT each other and not TO each other....and you have a recipe for a horrible tragedy. But it's best you just see it all for yourself.

I appreciate the story not only because it does not sanitize racism but because it provides a lot to think about but doesn't spoon feed you answers....other than folks just need to listen to each other more than we often do. Many incidents are up to the interpretation of the viewers and the story, though horribly sad, seems very relevant today...not just 1989.

By the way, if you are worried that the film might be some sort of attack on any ethnic group, I don't think it was the film's intention at all. See it and see for yourself.

Also by the way, I am surprised the film wasn't nominated for Best Picture. I am not necessarily saying it was the best film of the year, but clearly it was better than several of the actual nominees.

It's a hot day in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn and it's getting on everybody's nerves. Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) is the radio DJ. Sal Fragione (Danny Aiello) owns the local Italian pizzeria where his sons Vito (Richard Edson) and Pino (John Turturro) work. Mookie (Spike Lee) is Sal's delivery boy and finds himself in the center of the boiling racial tension. Tina (Rosie Perez) is his girlfriend. Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) is Mookie's friend who is railing against everything. Mother Sister (Ruby Dee) watches over the neighborhood. Drunk Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) sweeps the sidewalk for a dollar everyday and tells Mookie "To always do the Right Thing." Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) carries around his loud boom box.

This movie is most notable for bringing everyday race relations to the screen. Buggin' Out demanding to have black pictures in the pizzeria is one of those great scenes in American cinema. The biggest complaint is the lack of drugs. In the end, this is not suppose to be a hard gritty realistic portrait. It's a racial struggle where the characters are everyday people. There are no easy villains. Spike Lee taps into something more powerful than just a bunch of stereotypes. It's the Korean grocery story, the yuppie moving in, the old black resentments, the Italian holdouts, the Puerto Ricans, the young punks, the police, and the heat.