Cinema
Do the Right Thing
Spike Lee · 1989
Synopsis
Bedford-Stuyvesant, in Brooklyn, on the hottest day of summer. Mookie delivers pizzas for Sal, an Italian American who has run his pizzeria with his sons Pino and Vito for twenty-five years and has watched the neighbourhood's children grow up. The pizzeria's wall of photos shows only Italian Americans; Buggin' Out demands Black faces there, Sal refuses and throws him out, and Buggin' Out calls for a boycott. Radio Raheem strolls about with a big radio playing at full volume, and around them live African Americans, Hispanics and a couple of Asian grocers.
Context
Shooting lasted eight weeks, from 18 July to 14 September 1988, after six weeks of preparation: façades were repainted in red and orange to evoke heat, crack dens were closed, and Lee threw a neighbourhood party before filming began. The film was released on 30 June 1989 in 360 theatres. It received two Oscar nominations, for the screenplay and for Danny Aiello, but not one for best picture, which went to a film about a Black chauffeur and his white employer; Lee recalled this thirty years later.
Who it is for
A two-hour film with many characters and saturated colours, set almost entirely on a single street.
Prizes and reception
Best Picture prize from the Los Angeles critics, four Golden Globe nominations, and selected in 1999 by the Library of Congress for preservation.
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