WHAT IS THE RIGHT THING ?

A Critical Symposium on Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing

Author(s): Robert Sklar, Jacqule Jones, Sallm Muwakkil, Zelnabu Irene Davis, Charles
Musser and Lisa Kennedy
Source: Cinéaste , 1990, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1990), pp. 32-39
Published by: Cineaste Publishers, Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41692596

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WHAT
and much nonsense that
Of and has all beenhas
much the spoken
been occasional nonsense
spoken about sense Spikeabout
that Spike
Lee's Do the Right Thing, the one
remark that feels most true about
the film is one that cannot yet be
documented, only asserted: in ten

IS years time , in the twenty-first cen-

THE
RIGHT
THING ?
A Critical

Symposium
on

Spike Lee's
Do the

Right Thing

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tury, the Hollywood film from 1 989 whatever standard of esthetic moral Spike Lee's emergence into the com-
most likely still to be screened , dis- or ideological judgment one brings mercial mainstream during the
cussed, argued over, is Do the Right to it, much of its is certain to be 1 980s and what that has meant for
Thing. about larger institutional questions black filmmakers and for American
While some of the argument, per- - about conflicts within and be- film as a whole .
haps then as now, may be about tween ethnic and racial communi- Do the Right Thing is also a
whether it's a 4 good ' film or not, ties, about Hollywood's capacity to challenge to film criticism . It forces
whether it 4 succeeds ' or fails' by represent these struggles, about critics to consider their views on
politics, race, and gender, in all
their permutations - or uncon-
sciously reveal ' them. Outrageous
things have been said about the
film by critics white and black.
Cineaste has asked five critics and
film practitioners to begin formu-
lating the longer view on Do the
Right Thing. We were particularly
concerned with getting the perspec-
tives of African-American writers
on aspects of the film that may have
been neglected by the first responses
on the film's release. Gender, and
the representation of African-Amer-
ican women, remain controversial
subjects not only in Spike Lee's
films but in American movies in
general, as is made clear by the re-
flective and personal responses from
women critics. Some may feel it's in-
appropriate to foreground film criti-
cism by race or gender- that a 4 uni-
versal ' critical method exists, and
the critic can learn to put aside per-
sonal history and experience- but
Do the Right Thing has exploded
that myth, along with a few others.
-Robert Sklar

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 we don't see, but know, is that at the
same time someone's being moved
IN SAL'S COUNTRY out. A tight space is becoming even
tighter. A hot situation, hotter.
Jacquie Jones As we know, the Mookies are few
is the editor of and far between, and even they have
their limits. For the most part, young
Black Film Review. black kids born and bred on Dynasty
and Miami Vice are less and less will-
ing to work within the system, to
scrape off the fat from a society that,
lege, Michael Stewart was time after time, refuses them the
When strangled lege, strangled
I was Michael a to freshman
todeath Stewart byby
death in was the
meat. They're pissed off. Watch the col- the
police. I didn't know Michael news ... or Do the Right Thing.
Stewart. If my then-boyfriend There
had is no mystery to this film. It
not been a witness and, subsequent-
is no study in character develop-
ly, been embroiled in a court case ment. Much as in Lee's earlier fea-
that lasted throughout our college ture work (She's Gotta Have It,
years and beyond, Michael Stewart School Daze), the participants are
would have long since disappeared more like types of people than peo-
into my unconscious. His life and ple. Only, here, maybe there's some
death, a headline - not unlike those point to it. From the opening scenes,
inspired by the others listed in the we see that life is quick and dis-
closing credits of Spike Lee's Do the jointed on Stuyvesant Ave. People
Right Thing. come and go so quickly across cine-
I did not know Radio Raheem. matographer Ernest Dickerson's bril-
And what I knew of him I didn't par-
liant red canvas that we could never
ticularly like. Quite frankly, even he gotto know who they are.
hope
on my nerves. Like Michael Stewart, Aided by the humor, which holds
he lived on what most of us would the characters together and discour-
consider the fringe of society. ages a political too-seriousness that
Stewart was a graffiti artist; Raheem could have ruined the impact of this
was an obnoxious, boom-box-toting film, Do the Right Thing is a well or-
bully. If we ever stopped to wonderchestrated look at the reality, the
where Raheem got the money for humanity of racism. The audience is
batteries, I'm sure a paycheck wouldbound by the laughs, the hilarity that
not be on the list of possibilities. We makes heat and even racism bear-
would not be the least bit surprised able and even funny, at least for a
if either hadn't finished school, while. But it also shows us how every-
didn't pay their rent on time or day at all,
events (a white guy stepping on
had illegitimate children. But would a black guy's shoe; a too loud radio)
that matter? Would that make either can combine to explode the latent
one of them expendable? Isn't that hostility bred in a society that is in- is probably more like it. After a
the point? herently racist, persistently unequal. what kind of a person goes aroun
Many accusations have been lev- Sal and his Cain and Abel off- listening to the same song, at out-
elled against Spike Lee and his Do spring demonstrate the factrageous that decibels,
it all day long? What
the Right Thing. Chief among those isn't always the rednecks in pickup kind of person?
things is the film's failure to produce trucks sporting Confederate flags. It What is ultimately at stake in Do
well-rounded and complex - not to isn't always Southerners drawling the Right Thing is a kind of person, a
mention positive - black characters. "nigger." It isn't always Republi- young black made kind, a kind who is
"We don't even know Radio Ra- cans. Yet, somehow, we're more not offered protection froni the law, a
heem," one reviewer contended. comfortable with Raheem being a kind instead whom others (read:
"Our sympathies are with Sal." (As if
nuisance than Sad being a bigot, be- white people) feel they need protec-
familiarity is ever a reasonable causeex-
we know Sal. But then, we tion from. As Spike Lee has said,
cuse for valuing property above knew life.
him to begin with; we live Mookie's
in initiation of the destruction
Sal, let's not forget, walks away.) his country. of Sal's is not just Mookie's: "It's that
Sure, Sal is OK. He's a regular It may be true the film does fail whole to community. The horror of see-
guy. He's somewhat racist; who produce black characters that are ing Radio Raheem murdered before
isn't? Sal's Famous is an institution well-rounded and positive. Much like their own eyes. The horror of know-
on Stuyvesant Avenue. "These kids any kid that appears in our news- ing this isn't the first time something
grew up on my food," he tells his papers, we never really know where like this has happened, that this
son. "I'm proud of that." It's corny; these characters are coming from, won't be the last time. It's a complete
it's sincere. and that's the scary part. Even frustration with justice never being
But these pizza-fed kids have worse, we are apt to believe that attained."
changed. They're mean and loud. some part of who they are- poor, Alas, the other favorite peeve of
They're disrespectful. They don't black, unemployed, trifling - has the critics - Lee's irresponsible sug-
have jobs. And the neighborhood's something to do with their fate. gestion that Mookie did the right
changed right along with them. With "Raheem died because he had a thing (vis-à-vis Malcolm X's in-
the help of Lee's street corner radio." Raise your hand iffamous you self-defense
really quote scrolled
chorus, we learn that the Koreans bought that, deep down inside. across the screen after the action). I
are moving in; in an earlier scene, we "Well, if he hadn't gonemissed into something.
that
see a yuppie with a ten-speed. What pizza parlor blasting that radio. In the finad analysis, we, the audi-

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 Because of this focus, Lee has
been publicly cast as a militant
raceman and Do the Right Thing a
kind of racial agitprop - brilliant
perhaps, but agitprop nonetheless.
Lee has done little to discourage
those misconceptions. In fact, he
seems to enjoy provoking them.
That makes sense. By directing criti-
cal attention toward the film's treat-
ment of white racism, the canny
Brooklynite has escaped the wrath of
those zealous black Americans who
still pay obeisance to the taboo- the
'image police.'
These de facto cultural commis-
sars - a curious mix of ideologues,
religionists, and wannabe bourgeoi-
sie - exert extraordinary influence
on the critical reception accorded
works about African-Americans.
They earned their culturad currency
through years of valiant service
standing guard against racist stereo-
. typing. The task has been a daunting
one; from The Birth of a Nation to
Mississippi Burning, from Stepin
Fetchit to Eddie Murphy, American
cinema has effectively showcased so-
ciety's racial biases.
Unfortunately, the value of the
image police's role as cultural watch-
dogs has insulated them from much-
needed criticism. Evaluating a work
solely on its positive image count
may be serving a noble historical
purpose, but it has also constricted
the imaginations of uncounted artists
influenced by the image police's es-
thetic reductionism. The dilemma
endures; racism is such a deeply in-
grained feature of American culture
enee, are supposed to decide if the that any relaxation of image police
destruction of Sal's is a reasonable SPIKE LEE AND vigilance is likely to result in a new
reaction to this loss of life, a reason- proliferation of racist stereotyping.
able reaction to unreasonable cir- THE IMAGE POLICE Still, the more enduring value of
cumstances. We are challenged to Salim Muwakkll Do the Right Thing is its skillful
place blame and to decide who, if subversion of the taboo. Lee doesn't
anyone, did the right thing. is a senior editor of avert his gaze from the pathologies
In fact, the beauty in this film is In These Times. in the community, but neither does
the frustration of never being sure he judge them. His depiction of life
who did do the right thing. Through- on a block in Brooklyn is empathetic
out the film, this same tension in- and lovingly rendered. However, he's
forms every character and every re- Right Thing exploded into not concerned with the glaze of ro-
lationship. It is at the core of this When Right nationalnational
Spike Thing prominence Lee's exploded Do into last
prominence last the manticism. Lee's flesh-toned por-
movie, and we feel it. Marvel at it, summer, I was struck by how little trayals of African-Americans in ail
really. This whole agitated seriesattention
of most critics paid to the their complexity and self-deceptive
tiny events that produce an enor- film's frank portrayal of the black guises lend to his film an almost an-
mous event, this chain of stimulus community's foibles. Lee's unflinch- thropological authenticity, and his
and response that is behind every ing depictions of the traits- the malecandor bespeaks a growing cultural
headline from Howard Beach to irresponsibility, the brutal child- confidence. It also continues the di-
Virginia Beach. rearing, the entrepreneurial apathy, rection Lee began in She's Gotta
Long before this film opened, among other things- that character- Have It, his first feature. The 33-
Spike Lee proclaimed Public ize too many African-American com- year-old filmmaker shares that direc-
Enemy's "Fight the Power" theme munities violated a once-sacrosanct tion with a number of younger black
song of the summer. Several sum- taboo against the portrayal of artists,'nega- who, though they feel no ex-
mers ago, Grand Master Flash and tive' images. But Lee's bold icono- cessive reverence for the cultural
The Furious Five issued a similar clasm was barely noted. Instead, icons of black American tradition,
musical decree with their "Don't critics focused almost exclusively are
on very conscious of their blackness
Push Me Cause I'm Close to the the film's depiction of racial issues
and serious about rendering the par-
Edge." ticularity of the African-American
and, especially, on the social implica-
We didn't listen then either. tions of its cataclysmic conclusion. experience. Some critics have dubbed

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 this trend the New Black Aesthetic lowing a comprehensive investiga-
(NBA) and the term has stuck. tion. Was Lee endorsing Brawley's
Trey Ellis, a young African-Ameri-charge? Was he illuminating Moo-
can novelist who penned the nearestkie' s irrational fears by recalling the
thing to an NBA manifesto, wrote in Brawley fraud? Just what, we want
the May 1989 edition of the Beforeto know, is this brash young film-
Columbus Review that NBA artists maker trying to say? Some, like New
York Magazine's Joe Klein, think
4 4 no longer need to deny or suppress
any part of our complicated and he's urging cataclysm. In a now infa-
sometimes contradictory cultural mous article, Klein predicted wide-
baggage to please either white people spread racial conflagrations in the
or black." NBA artists "aren't afraid film's wake. Stanley Crouch, in an
extraordinarily petty piece in The
to publicly flout the official, positivist
black party line." Village Voice Village Voice , compared Lee to Nazi
writer Greg Tate is another major filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Crouch
theorist of this growing tendency, accused the diminutive Lee of "black
this incipient- dare I say- move- power thinking" and charged him
ment. In addition to Lee, filmmakers with producing propaganda that "re-
Keenan Wayans, Charles Burnette, duces the world to a shorthand."
Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, Like great art, Lee's work operates as
have all espoused NBA values. Play- a kind of Rorschach test, evoking
wrights George C. Wolfe - The Col- personal visions as disparate as each
ored Museum- and Wesly Brown- beholder. Is Lee preaching good or
Boogie Woogie and Booker T.- also bad news?
express this new sensibility. These The good news is we have to ask.
self-confident artists irreverently dis-
semble the somber poses of 1960s
black nationalism and adopt a more BLACK INDEPENDENT
inclusive 'afrocentricity' as their
guiding spirit. Cultural authenticity OR HOLLYWOOD
is another of their major concerns.
Lee's films gain much of their ICONOCLAST?
charm from his accurate depictions
of the subtleties and nuances of Zcinabu Irene Davis,
black Americana. But in Do the an independent filmmaker, er has created some confusion and
Right Thing , unlike either She's Got- personal turmoil among other black
ta Have It or School Daze , his second teaches at Antioch College. independents. Does Spike's infiltra-
commercial feature, Lee also por- tion mean we all may have a door
trays complex white characters. De- opened to us? Or is he the only one
spite the film's episodic structure, they'll let 'in' so that the illusion of
the major players are remarkably an opened door can persist?
full-bodied. Sal, the Italian- American Although
Although and labeled rightfully theand
labeled Spikerightfully
the "black"black so,Woody
so, Lee at rankled,atWoody
being
being The character who intrigues me
patriarch of the pizza parlor, is easily Allen," I don't think he would have the most in Do the Right Thing is
the film's most sympathetic charac- the same reaction being compared Smiley
to (Roger Guenveur Smith).
ter. The struggle faced by him and one of the earliest black independent Described by some as the "village
his sons is deftly drawn by Lee, and filmmakers, Oscar Micheaux. Like idiot," he is clearly the most political-
they are understood as victims of Lee, Micheaux directed and wrote ly conscious person in the film. He
socio-economic forces beyond their his own material, and had an uncan- puts the political and cultural icons
control. Yet their existence within ny knack for being his own best and of Malcolm X and Martin Luther
black Brooklyn is clearly anachronis- biggest promoter. Almost single- King together on a xerox postcard
tic. They aire both worthy and handedly,
un- Spike Lee has reawakened which he hand-colors and sells; in
worthy of the community's wrath. the Hollywood of the 1980s to the his solo introduction, he proclaims
Radio Raheem is killed for being black presence in cinema, created by that though Martin and Malcolm are
socially disruptive. While alive, the and for African-Americans, although dead, we must stop apartheid. At the
hulking homeboy lumbered through Lee's films have shown significant end it is Smiley, vocally challenged,
the streets blasting a Public Enemy appeal to other audiences as well. who takes the match and sets Sal's
tape x)n a massive boom-box. The As the Micheaux of our time, Lee Pizzeria on fire. But to the rest of the
scowling Raheem gained his status has successfully promoted himself people on the block, Smiley is simply
through obnoxiousness, the only and his work like no other contem- a nuisance. Although Mookie (Lee's
power America allowed him. Then it porary black filmmaker. He hascharacter) gone is rude to the ever persis-
killed him for it. from the classification of black in- tent Saturday morning Jehovah Wit-
Insights abound throughout this dependent to "Hollywood icono- nesses to whom he barks, "Hell no!",
torchbearing filmmaker's third fea- clast," or at least that's what the Smiley is not so easily written off.
ture. When Lee's Mookie rebukes his jacket of the Do The Right Thing Smiley's role in the film makes a
sister for excess familiarity with book Sal, states. Does this make him less sharp comment about leadership in
their conversation takes place along- threatening than being called a the black
black community. Though there
side a graffiti message that "Tawana independent? Lee is walking a fine are those who claim to be leaders,
Told the Truth." This, of course, re- line of personal definition, simultane- like Buggin' Out (read AI Sharpton),
ferred to Tawana Brawley, the black ously in and out of the Hollywood there are others like Da Mayor (read
teenage girl whose charge that shemachine while remaining indepen- Black Elders) and Smiley to whom
had been raped by a gang of white dent. His limbo status and/or recrea- little or no attention is paid because
men was rejected as fraudulent fol- tion of his own identity as a filmmak- they are not quite so glamorous in

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 country and to the prejudice and the to be very superficial as well. Mother
lack of dialog that exists between Sister emerges as the strong black
people of various cultures living in matriarch, and young black women,
the United States, as detailed by the namely Jade (Spike's sister, Joie)
racial slur montage. The film pro- and Tina (Rosie Perez), are not given
vokes an audience to discussion and much exposition or characterization.
not to rioting, as many members In fact, of
it now seems to me that the
the mainstream press thought it only people who draw realistic and
would. honest portrayals of black women on
In a classic sense, Spike is an film are black women filmmakers.
agent provocateur. He has an inter- On my first viewing, I found that
esting way of creating situations thein ending was too open for me. By
his film without making resolution. having two quotations of both Martin
When the 4 African griot trio' or group
Luther King and Malcolm X at the
of elders, or the "corner men," as end, I felt betrayed. I didn't know
Lee calls them, question Korean where Spike stood or what he was try-
business ownership in their com- ing to say with this film. Now, how-
munity, the discussion has no ever, I appreciate the ambiguity the
closure, which in fact reflects the film leaves me with, because I don't
status of contemporary urban cul- think people, especially black peo-
ture. Situations exist, but there is no ple, understand the depth these men
reason or analysis as to why things had in terms of their personal phi-
are the way they are. The elders have losophies. The black community has
their own hypotheses and answers locked Martin into "I have a dream"
but none of these can effect any real and Malcolm into " . . .by any means
change on their environment. necessary." The point is that both
Spike is brilliant in the way he can these great leaders had similar world
capture contemporary black culture visions by the end of their lives. Not
and put it on the screen. No doubt to look at their whole lives and their
about it, the man has a gift for dialog, broadening world vision is disre-
and in placing it in a wonderfully spectful to them and to ourselves as
juxtaposed manner that highlights members of the human race.
the complexities and parodies of our
society. The problerti for me as a
their approach. These characters, filmmaker is that sometimes the L-O-V-E AND H-A-T-E
who are types for countless other work doesn't quite hold together.
'real' people, give the black com- Even after several viewings I find it Charles Musser
munity its mouthpiece, but are not hard to understand why all the ac- teaches Film Studies at
always listened to or taken seriously.tion of Do the Right Thing was struc-
Smiley also appears at a pivotal tured to happen in a single day, "the NYU and Columbia.
point in the film when Sal and Pino hottest day of the year." Placing all
are in heavy discussion about the of the film's action in one day made
neighborhood where they work. things too disjointed. I would have
While Sal gloats about "these liked to have spent more time with justifiably criticized for its de-
people" being raised on his pizza, these characters, to explore their Do justifiably meaning
meaningthe Right criticized stereotypes
stereotypes Thing for can its de- of
be of
Pino complains that "these people" psyche and to know why they made women, its absence of class analysis,
are "animals." Just at this moment, certain choices in their lives or how and as a reflection of Spike Lee's own
Smiley appears, trying to hawkcertain one choices were made for them unproblematic embrace of black cap-
of his postcards. Pino, still young by the forces around them. The italism.
cuts But it is the film's achieve-
and hotheaded, yells at Smiley tofrom get scene to scene felt more like ments rather than its irritating fail-
away from the shop. This outburst vignettes rather than a coherent ings that have resonated with audi-
causes the corner men to rise vocally whole. ences. Do the Right Thing fuses its
in Smiley's defense. Sal, a more ex- When I first saw the film, I was ex- esthetics and politics into a brilliant,
perienced man in human relations, tremely upset by the beginning in masterfully constructed film about
knows that he has to keep peace in which Rosie Perez in a variety of cos- racial difference. Its lineage can be
order to survive. He goes out of histumes dances against very stylized traced through Sergei Eisenstein's
shop to give Smiley a couple of dol-street backdrops. After reading the October (1927), and Alain Tanner's
lars, not because he wants one of book of the film, I began to see that Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year
Smiley's postcards, but rather to Spike's
ap- vision was to capture the es- 2000 (1976) with their ensemble per-
pease the community and to show sence of black youth in their environ- formances, restricted locale, political
his concern and benevolence to- ments and to detail Brooklyn for his referencing, and syntheses of real-
wards them. The veil of thought audience. Unfortunately for me, as a ism and theatricality.
that
black people are animals or children black woman, once again I was of- Creative tensions operate on every
is much more subtly hidden fended in Sal,by Spike's lack of respect for level of Do the Right Thing. The
rather than in his angry son Pino, and stereotyping of women. It is film's dialectics work most perva-
but the underlying racist attitudes clear that Rosie Perez is a good sively and effectively in the very area
still exist. dancer, but the length of those open- where mainstream journalists have
One of the interesting things ing credits and her profiles (particu- accused it of being confused- poli-
about Do the Right Thing is that its larly towards the end of the sequence) tics. The two poles of political action
subject matter shocked and reawak-prove only to be another tits and ass are embodied by Martin Luther King
ned America to the fact that racism visual postcard. with his call for nonviolence and Mal-
inherent to the workings of thisOther roles held by women proved colm X with his assertion that vio-

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lence is sometimes necessary (or It is the constant confrontations test day of the year are cooled out by I
more precisely, when done in self-de- within the family as much as (or a shower, cold beer, a fire hydrant, I
fense should not be called violence). more than) the tensions between the and a sex scene involving ice cubes. I
These two political philosophies areFranzone family and youthful mili- An understanding of the film's
not choices to be made, but insightstants that explode outwards at the construction and politics permits a
to be embraced and synthesized. film's climax. more careful consideration of the 'ex-
This message is carried, ironically, One of the strongest tensions in plosive' Do ending culminating with
by the two most unlikely characters the Right Thing is between artifice Radio Raheem' s death and the pizza
in the film: Smiley (Roger Smith) and and realism. The film's theatrical parlor's destruction. The explosion
Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn). Their vein begins with the opening iscredit precipitated by the efforts of Bug-
names resonate with the visual and scene where Tina dances for the gin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) to put
the aural; it. is on these levels that camera on a stage-lit set. Lee also black faces in Sal's 'Hall of Fame'-
ap-
each respectively operates. propriates an antiquated theatrical photographs of Italian singers and
Smiley is enchanted by a portrait form, the minstrel show, that whites movie stars. This action misses the
of King and Malcolm X standing have
to-once used to stereotype Afri- essential point, at least according to
gether, smiling. Their comfort can-Americans
with as coons and darkies, Jade (Joie Lee) and perhaps the film-
each other and the very fact that and turns it to his own ends. During maker. The issue is not who is on the
they can coexist within the frame the course of the film, three middle- wall but who is behind the counter.
recur as a powerful icon over the aged blacks, never firmly situated inThe person behind the counter de-
course of the film. Radio Raheem, filmic space, form a mini-minstreltermines who is on the wall. And it is
who walks around with his boom show as they sit back and comment the person behind the counter (Sal)
box playing the song 4 4 Fight on the thepassing scene. Sweet Dick who loses his temper and destroys
Power," explains how they coexist Willie (Robin Harris) is the perfect in- Radio Raheem' s boom-box. Sal de-
when he breaks into unexpected elo- terlocutor, while the end men pro- stroys Raheem' s voice, which soon
quence. Displaying his brass knuck- vide suitable counterpoint. People leads to the policeman's choke hold
les which spell out the words L-O-V-E such as Señor Love Daddy, the DJ which silences him altogether. In
and H-A-T-E, he tells a story of the for Love Radio, directly address the this escalation, no one is completely '
right hand and the left. "When the camera. Tilted camera angles and un- innocent. The issue is not individual
left hand (hate) is kicking much ass usual camera placements disorient guilt or innocence but the structures
and it looks like right hand love is the viewer. Those who complained of power and the unspoken arrange-
finished . . . love comes roaring back. that the film is unrealistic because it ments of daily life under which this
Wham. Wham. KO'ed by love." excludes such pervasive realities as neighborhood lives. It has become
These forces may be opposed to each homelessness and drugs are right, intolerable. Da Mayor has told
other on one level but on another but they miss the point. The narrow- Mookie to "do the right thing." Even
they are forces for change. Bothness the- of subject and locale (a single Seil has told Mookie to "do what you
sis and antithesis are necessary in block in Bed-Stuy) is part of this gotta do." And so Mookie, bearing
the struggle for liberation and racial theatrical artifice. the responsibility of the local com-
equality. There is a strong realist counter- munity, shatters the window and de-
Mookie lives on the edge as he point, recalling some of the neo- stroys the pizzeria.
struggles not to choose but to realist films being made by black The film does not end with the
balance the conflicting demands of filmmakers Charles Burnette and violence and the smashing blows of
solidarity with fellow African- Billy Woodberry. Some scenes,hate. par- The next morning love has at
Americans and involvements with ticularly those with Tina, are shot least an even chance of roaring back.
nonblacks, of loving and fighting, with gritty
of lighting and framing. Sal cleans up the debris outside his
work and family. These tensions Language, quotidian street scenes, store and seems determined to stay.
saturate Mookie' s two most impor- and the rapidly mounting incidents Insurance money would make this
tant relationships (important by the leading up to Radio Raheem' s death possible. His sons, his future part-
very nature of their uncertainty): and the fire all anchor this film in the ners, have split. He is sadder, but is
with Sal (Danny Aiello), the Italian here and now. Lee intertwines the he wiser? Can he recognize that
who owns the local pizzeria where he styles or artifice and realism most Mookie, not his sons, is the key to his
is employed delivering pies, and forcefully in two privileged moments future? Sal pays Mookie his $250
Tina (Rosie Perez), his Hispanic girl- which twin all the principal opposi- weekly wage - and another $250.
friend and the mother of his child. tions around which the film is built. This extra could be severance pay of
Both demand his principal attention; In both cases realistic scenes are in- it could be the week's pay 'in ad-
keeping each happy enough so that terrupted by overlapping edits - vance' that Mookie has wanted, and
he does not lose either job or family Mookie' s embrace of Tina and his with which he insists he can be
is a trick. shattering of the pizzeria window trusted. Can he? If so, not within the
Sal is a likable romantic whose life with a trash can. One attached to same framework. The pizza parlor
is invested in his small business. At love, one attached to hate - one to could rise like a phoenix only in
one point he passionately declares, the private world of family, one some
to kind of partnership. Will Sal
4 'Sal's Famous Pizza is here to stay;" the public of work. It is at such and Mookie see that they need each
and, if we believe him, it has impor- moments that Lee's dialectics work other? Likewise, will Mookie get his
tant implications for the film's most end- effectively. act together and do the right thing
ing. Although he wants his two sons Tensions and oppositions multi- with Tina? The film's ending leaves
to join the business as partnersply and throughout the film, not only be- both area's of Mookie' s life wide
eventually take it over, this seems tween different ethnic groups but open. How we finish the story in our
unlikely. His older son Pino (John between generations. The black heads depends on a lot - our ex-
Turturro) hates the 4 'black animals" street kids confront Da Mayor (Ossie periences, our politics, our hopes,
who buy their food and wants to sell Davis). The rap song "Fight the and perhaps the nightly news.
the business. The younger son Vito Power" is juxtaposed to the jazz
I (Richard Edson) is inarticulate and track created by Spike Lee's father.
incapable of standing up for himself. The tensions produced by the hot-

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 women on the edge of male violence.
Not violence against women, mind
you, but the brutal clashes that take
place between men.
If this was Bambi, much of the
jostling between Pino and his
brother, Pino and Mookie, Buggin'
Out and the yuppie intruder in a
Celtics jersey (John Savage), would
fall under the category of young
bucks cutting their antlers, defining
territory. (In fact, the goofy portable
radio showdown of music between
Radio Raheem's rap and the Latino
neighbors' salsa, is an apt metaphor
for modern day cultural demarca-
tion.) Unfortunately, since the ter-
ritory is circumscribed by language
and signs- 'the wall of fame'- not
trees and meadows, there are a mul-
titude of boundaries to be checked
and transgressed. That race is one of
the most profound examples of
marking off limits is no surprise.
That Lee seems to uphold both its
existence and its hashing out as a
male prerogative is problematic.
Nowhere is this better underscored
then when Jade accompanies Moo-
kie to Sal's.
When Mookie drags Jade out of
geographies, and circumstances isand
Sal's a away from a conversation
WOMEN ON THE EDGE lingering one of the woman with
as sheSal, they wind up standing in
looks at Da Mayor, saddened and front of a wall covered with graffiti.
OF MALE VIOLENCE apologetic. Mookie insists that Jade not come
The second scene, even more hor- back to Sal's. Why? Because, he
Lisa Kennedy is a senior rifying than the first, occurs in Sal's says, "all he wants to do is hide the
editor of The Village Voice. Famous. It's late night, the pizzeria salami." There's real ugliness here,
has already closed but the gang of as Lee explores the familiar territory
four begs for that after-hours slice. of white men/black men and 'their'
Sal, feeling sentimental, tells Mookie women. Only in this case it's not
fought, sometimes coming (Spike Lee) to let them in, after all about a white man's anxiety over a
When to fought, blows,to
the sometimes
blows, men there
there in were were
my coming family
a cou- a cou- "they grew up on my pizza." Radio black man and white woman (in-
ple of things my mother and I could Raheem and Buggin' Out march in terestingly, there are no white
do: cry or walk away. When I was shortly thereafter, and all hell breaks women in Do the Right Thing ) but
very little, I would go to my room loose, with Public Enemy's "Fight the reverse. If that's Lee's bottom-
and press myself against the bed- the Power" as the score of the mo- line, it's one that would have been
room door to keep the storm out. ment. Once Sal says "nigger" and more compelling before feminism.
Very seldom did an effective in- bashes Raheem's boom-box to Men and their women is no longer a
tervention seem possible. smithereens, things get very ugly.
viable construction. When Jade and
In Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing Director Lee punctuates this Mookie all-out
walk away, we are left with
there are two scenes that bring thesebrawl with shots of the same girl the message "Tawana Told the
memories rushing forth. Both hap-helplessly screaming and stomping Truth."
pen to include the young woman and crying "stop" - to no avail. One of the astounding things
member of the nabe's gang of four The women in Do the Right Thing about Lee's film is its refusal to
friends. The first occurs when one of are sisters, stand-in mothers, answer the obvious question it forces
her friends unexpectedly confronts friends, and lovers of the men who us to ask: What is the right thing?
Da Mayor (Ossie Davis). As the act. It is rather endearing that Both the title and Da Mayor's injunc-
brother becomes more excited - dig- Mother Sister is the female counter- tion call on the interlocutor to decide
ging his heels into this oedipal mo- part to Sweet Dick Willie (Robin Har- what that action might possibly be.
ment, calling Da Mayor a "bum," ris) and his cohorts. Contrary to This moral ambiguity runs through-
sticking his finger up in the older one's expectations (Lee hasn't writ- out the film, and the recurring use of
man's face - the girl becomes ten particularly strong women char- the picture of Malcolm X and Martin
agitated. As the young guy's con- acters as of yet), the female charac- Luther King articulates it again and
tempt and cruelty intensifies, she is ters-Jade, Tina, and Mother Sister, again. If- and this is a big if- the
more pained; she paces, she tries to in particular - are generally as full, world is ying and yang, male and
talk over his words, raising her voiceor as cartoony, as the male charac- female, Malcolm and Martin, then
to tell him to stop, to "leave him ters. The women of Do the Right the women are standing for non-
alone." The final shot of this punish-Thing can speak - Lee's Tina is so violence. Lee has said that he feels
ing and abrupt confrontation be- talkative that a "boy can she speak" more in sync with Malcolm's vision.
tween the African-American men
j is in order- but are cast to the side of Looking at the role of women in Do
from very different generations, I the action: they become, simply, the Right Thing, we knew that. M

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