think Do the Right Thing is a masterpiece -- certainly one of the most invigorating and moving

experiences I've ever had at the movies. But, even more than that, it's a movie I love and
connect with in a deeply personal way. Watching it, for me, was like being inside somebody
else's head -- somebody I felt very much in tune with -- and really seeing through his eyes which
was sort of like how I felt when I saw !ee's first film, She's Gotta Have It". #o be sure, it's a
deliberately unsettling and provocative film, but it's also brimming with $oy and color and
physicality. #he first hour is so exuberant that I sometimes almost forget the dark clouds that are
about to descend -- and that makes the last part of the film all the more painful to watch.
By Jim Emerson

"Wake up!"
That was the final rallying cry of Spike Lee's previous picture, %chool &a'e. And &o the
(ight #hing Lee's purposefully a!"iguous e#ploration of escalating racial tensions on one
$edfordStuyvesant "lock on the hottest day of the su!!er picks up where %chool &a'e left
off% with the very sa!e rousing words.
"Waaaaake up!" calls &r. Se'or Love (addy )Sa!uel L. *ackson+, the ,-./01 (* for
neigh"orhood radio station W2L342 as he holds a ringing alar! clock ne#t to his studio
!icrophone. 5ro! an inti!ate closeup of Love (addy's lips, !ic and clock, the ca!era pulls
"ack, through the glass front of the W2L342 "ooth and out onto the street that is the sole setting
for &o the (ight #hing.
6n "oth %chool &a'e and &o the (ight #hing, those words "Wake up!" are ai!ed directly at
the !ovies' characters and audiences. They're words Lee hopes people will carry with the! as
they leave the theater and head "ack out onto the streets the!selves. 4irtually all the colorfully
eccentric characters who populate Lee's !ovies could use a little consciousnesse#panding to
wake the! up. And after eight years of "lithe co!placency and denial under 7onald 7eagan, so
could !ost A!ericans.
&o the (ight #hing, Lee's third feature, is "y far his !ost co!ple# and acco!plished to date, a
!ovie tee!ing with life, a"la8e with sunny colors )!ainly "rilliant reds, oranges and yellows+,
pulsating with !usic, and charged with unresolved tensions and contradictions that gradually
accu!ulate in the sweltering air. A variegated assort!ent of $edStuy personalities "u!p into and
"ounce off of one another throughout the day, their !yriad frictional encounters and !oral
dile!!as punctuated with potent "ursts of hu!or.
As &r. Se'or Love (addy announces the "eginning of what pro!ises to "e a scorcher of
a Saturday, the neigh"orhood slowly rouses itself% There's Sal )(anny Aiello+, the proud 6talian
A!erican who has run Sal's 5a!ous 9i88eria on the sa!e corner for ,1 years: Sal's two sons,
9ino )*ohn Turturro+, an angry young "igot, and 4ito )7ichard 2dson+, who's friends with the
pi88eria's irresponsi"le delivery !an, &ookie )Lee hi!self+: &ookie's sister *ade )played "y Lee's
sister *oie+, who is always trying to get her ""ig" "rother to face up to his responsi"ilities: and Tina
)7osie 9ere8+, &ookie's screechyvoiced 9uerto 7ican girlfriend and !other of his infant son
;ector.
3ther "lock deni8ens include% (a &ayor )3ssie (avis+, an alcoholic elder who's "eco!e a
neigh"orhood fi#ture: &other Sister )7u"y (ee+, who sits in her window all day and watches:
$uggin' 3ut )<iancarlo 2sposito+, a ""oy who wants Sal to put up so!e pictures of "lack people
alongside the ones of *oe (i!aggio, 7o"ert (e=iro, and 5rank Sinatra on the pi88eria's Wall of
5a!e: 7adio 7ahee! )$ill =unn+, a very "ig !an who parades up and down the street with a
ghetto "laster that see!s oversi8ed even for hi!: Sonny )Steve 9ark+, a >orean grocer: S!iley
)7oger <uenveur S!ith+, a retarded !an who sells handcolored postcards of the only photo of
&artin Luther >ing and &alcol! ? together: and the hilarious @orner &en, &L )9aul $enAa!in+,
@oconut Sid )5rankie 5aison+ and Sweet (ick Willie )7o"in ;arris+, who co!!ent on what's
happening on the "lock like a la8ily co!ic <reek chorus.
Lee !iraculously orchestrates all of this and !ore, Aust as he interweaves his father $ill
Lee's !agnificent, !elancholy, !inorkey Aa88 score with "laring rap )9u"lic 2ne!y+, reggae
)Steel 9ulse+, gogo )2B+ and other ur"an street sounds on the soundtrack. The !ovie's "old,
"right styli8ation rese!"les a ;ollywood "acklot !usical done streetstyle. Lee and
cine!atographer 2rnest (ickerson playfully contrast the artificial and the realistic, so that the
picture see!s to take place in a world that isn't Cuite either, "ut "oth.
5ro! its si88ling titles seCuence )in which 7osie 9ere8 dances in front of i!ages of $rooklyn to
9u"lic 2ne!y's "5ight the 9ower" Spike, nobody's gonna read those credits!+ to its sad, !uted
afterthestor! coda and the final Au#taposed Cuotations fro! &artin Luther >ing and &alcol! ?,
&o the (ight #hing is thoroughly engaging, !es!eri8ing fil!!aking.
With a lot of help fro! his actors, who i!provised portions of scenes, Lee packs the picture full of
intriguingly a!"ivalent details and provocative contradictions on every level. We see conflicting
sides to, and har"or opposing feelings toward, al!ost every character.
5or e#a!ple% 6n a dou"leedged co!!ent on the econo!ic underpinnings of racis! in our
society, "oth &ookie and Sal view !oney as the solution to all pro"le!s Sal thinks he can "uy
off trou"le "y slipping a few dollars to (a &ayor or S!iley or &ookie: and &ookie's a wage slave
who doesn't see! to care a"out anything e#cept "gettin' paid." The first and last ti!e we see
hi!, he's counting his !oney. And $uggin' 3ut, who "eco!es the catalyst for the !ovie's violent
cli!a# over the Wall of 5a!e issue, is played "y an actor who is hi!self half"lack and half
6talian.
$ecause of his appealing presence and the funny underdogs he's played "efore &ars
$lack!on in %he's )otta *ave It and ;alf9int in %chool &a'e Lee's &ookie will pro"a"ly the
the character with who! audiences are !ost eager to identify. And Lee has shrewdly anticipated
that% &ookie is the !ovie's pivotal figure, the one who finally e#presses his rage and frustration in
a single, decisive "ut confused act that touches off a riot and destroys Sal's 5a!ous.
An argu!ent "etween Sal and a "lack custo!er who refuses to turn down his !usic
escalates first into racial na!ecalling and then into a "rawl. When the police arrive, they use
e#cessive force and end up strangling a friend of &ookie's. An angry crowd gathers around Sal's
and &ookie throws a trash can through the front window. All hell "reaks loose.
(oes &ookie "do the right thing"D ;e does what he feels is necessary at that !o!ent, "ut is then
stunned and overwhel!ed "y the chaotic forces he unleashes. Eou start thinking% 6f only Sal, who
is always yelling at every"ody, hadn't had such a Cuick te!per. 6f only the custo!er had Aust
turned down the volu!e on his radio. 6f only...
There are no unco!pro!ised heroes, no clearcut villains here or in any of Lee's
!ovies. And so!e viewers !ay find this frustrating, confusing, even infuriating. $ut it's that space
"etween right and wrong, Austice and retri"ution, reason and outrage, that Spike Lee wants to
urge his audiences to e#plore for the!selves. The heated critical de"ate that has already arisen
around the fil! indicates he's succeeded there.
The !ovie itself is not incendiary, an incite!ent to riot. Lee skillfully !oves the audience through
the violent e!otions of the riot into a Cuiet, sad and conte!plative epilog the !orning after, in
which &ookie and Sal achieve a sort of uneasy eCuili"riu!. The picture ends with Love (addy
)the !ovie's voice of conscience, along with sister *ade+ telling his listeners to "chill," warning that
today is going to "e even hotter, and encouraging peolple to vote. "Are we going to learn to live
togetherD" he asks.
When the lengthy Cuotations fro! (r. >ing )"4iolence as a way of achieving racial
Austice is "oth i!practical and i!!oral.... a descending spiral ending in destruction for all...."+ and
&alcol! ? )"... 6 don't even call it violence when it's self defense, 6 call it intelligence,"+ crawl
slowly up the screen, viewers sits in rapt silence, trying to a"sor" and intellectuali8e what they've
Aust seen.
7adio 7ahee!, who wears a "rassknuckle ring that says "L342" on one hand and ";AT2" on
the other, gives a speech in the !iddle of the !ovie that's a riff on 7o"ert &itchu!'s fa!ous talk
in the surrealistically styli8ed +ight of the *unter, in which he sy!"olically descri"es the continual
struggle "etween these two ele!ental forces. When &ookie throws the trash can, he "lindly
screa!s% ";AT2!" and it's this sa!e, unresolved struggle that every !oviegoer will feel churning
inside while watching &o the (ight #hing. 7age is understanda"le, !ay"e even Austifia"le "ut
is it "right"D
What it all co!es down to is that no"ody else in A!erica is !aking !ovies that engage,
entertain and challenge viewers the way Spike Lee does. And, as Love (addy says% "That's the
truth, 7uth!"