DO THE RIGHT THING
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: With one film Spike Lee goes from being
a one-film director to being a major Hollywood talent. This
is a realistic film of insight, intelligence, and even some
wit, but no easy answers. [Minor spoiler follows.] A
likable "street film" turns into ANATOMY OF A RACE RIOT.
Rating: high +2.
Spike Lee, who charmed the critics and audiences with the low-budget SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, then disappointed people--at least me--with SCHOOL DAZE, has made his third film and this time his work is both entertaining and important. Lee clearly did the right thing when he made DO THE RIGHT THING. This film is really the anatomy of a race riot. And it is a film in three dimensions. When it was over the kids from a black family sitting in front of me were disagreeing whether the blacks were at fault or the whites. I found myself thinking how wonderful to have a film with conflict and without having the good guys and bad guys spelled out for me. In fact, nobody is entirely right and nobody entirely wrong. That is what life is like. Lee is a good enough director that he makes some blacks and some whites likable, and some of each not likable.
DO THE RIGHT THING follows about 26 hours in the life of a neighborhood in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Most of the action centers around Sal's Famous Pizzeria. Sal himself (played by Danny Aiello) does not seem at all like the sort of person who would be the center of a race riot. He has a genuine affection for the people in the nearly all-black neighborhood. He takes pride that the local kids grew up on his pizza. Yet in the space of a few short hours on a hot summer day, small irritations would boil over into violence. Tantalizingly slowly, Lee shows us how that happens. We get to know the neighborhood and particularly an old drunkard nicknamed Da Mayor (beautifully played by Ossie Davis). But this film has many major characters and several stories being told at one time. Lee has given himself a major role as a black man working out his problems and frustrations. He has resisted the temptation to make himself either a good guy or a bad guy. He plays just one more person in the neighborhood.
One of the more interesting subplots concerns the mini-grocery run a Korean couple. The locals wonder why this little grocery has proved so profitable when black businesses so often fail in the same neighborhood. Some of the locals are unsure just what their attitude is toward the Koreans. Do they resent them, admire them, or what? And the question will become even more pointed when the night brings violence.
Issues of attitude come up through the day as groups in the neighborhood come in contact with each other in numerous permutations. The issues are not just black versus white, but also whether violence is ever right. The film even concludes with contradictory quotes from Martin Luther King and Malcolm X on the justification of violence. This may not be the best film of the summer, but it is the most ambitious. It is this year's MATEWAN, low-budget but satisfying like few high-budget films. This is an R-rated, perhaps a little strong for the children in the audience, but they seemed to have gotten a lot out of it and the adults even more. I rate it a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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leeper@mtgzx.att.com
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