Synopsis for
Do the Right Thing (1989) More at IMDbPro »

This movie was released at a time when hip-hop culture was at its height. Whether it was music videos, pop hits or the latest fashion, hip-hop was hot! On another note, shows like COPS and other reality TV shows were also high-ranking in popularity. This movie makes a statement about the then-current (1980s) racial relations of two ethnic groups and even the old-school ways and passed-on legacy of the Baby Boomer age and the Generation Xers, as depicted by the Italian father and his sons and the neighborhood community and their growing youth.

A rather enthusiastic Buggin Out character requests that Sal, the proud owner of the local neighborhood pizzeria, place some photos of great African Americans on his "Wall of Fame." Sal sees no reason to change his ways. It's his place and he will do what he wants, and he insists on keeping the wall dedicated to great Italian Americans, even though the neighborhood is predominantly African-American and his audience and patrons are African Americans. Buggin Out is outraged. He insistently goes around the neighborhood urging a boycott of Sal's to see his request come to fruition peacefully but persuasively.

The setting is during the hottest days in summer when tensions are high and breaking points are thin. Spike Lee demonstrates several themes in this movie. Radio Raheem has the letters of love and hate written on his hands as seen in another classic movie, Night of the Hunter, symbolizing the struggle of one conquering the other. Another idea shown in the movie is that racism can be passed down through the generations. It doesn't just disappear so everyone can pretend nothing ever happened. Ignorance can be bliss, but it can also lead to demise. In the final escalation scene, a defiant Radio Raheem and a motivated Buggin Out push Sal and his sons to their breaking point. The cops intervene and use force and brutality to apprehend the large Radio Raheem. He is unwilling to succumb to the over-excessive brutality of the police and the racist views of Sal and his family, only to be stamped or snuffed out by righteous, overzealous police officers who don't understand the repercussions of the violence they just unleashed. The neighbors band together to protest this extreme form of pure, toxic bigotry. Violence begets violence, and the end of this movie makes us feel the high level of intensity to which confusion, anger, violence, ignorance and racism can and do rise. Mob mentality takes over, and the other local non-African American store owners become threatened. Tempers flare, and rage is in the air. As the movie unwinds at the end, we are left with uncertainty: What do we do now? Where do we go from here? The movie leaves us with that open-ended question. I can only close by listing some famous quotes:

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King, Jr.

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." Martin Luther King, Jr.

"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it." Malcolm X

"It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's the only thing that can save this country." Malcolm X

"There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know." Harry Truman

"You have to know the past to understand the present." Carl Sagan