Get a full month of MUBI, a hand-picked selection of cult, classic and award-winning films, FOR FREE: mubi.com/screenprism Support ScreenPrism on Patreon: www.patreon.com/user?u=7792695 Subscribe to keep up with our latest videos, and let us know what you want to see next!
Mookie knows Sal has better things he should be doing with his life and that the insurance money will afford him the chance. He knows Sal's sons resent the business & neighborhood, don't deserve it, and should be doing other things. He knows the neighborhood needed a 'release valve' for their pain/anger re the police excessive force/quasi-murder of Raheem. How much of the characters' motivation is the desire for love ? Mayor for SisterMama ; Mookie for RosiePerez : others without any apparent prospects for love ..despairing. The over-seeing Senor Love (SamuelJackson) in the Radio DJ booth. Who owns the buildings where most of these folks are paying rent ? And in this neighborhood ..where is the Church (i.e. the active congregation/'kingdom of God') ? Writer/Director SpikeLee is likely a sort of genius. ✌️
Chyna 2Monroe I take it as a reference to the love and hate rings that Radio Raheem had. That’s kind of the point of the movie. “Do you choose love or hate?”. Mookie chose hate. Now you have to ask if he chose the right one.
I just noticed something , I cannot believe I never noticed before , at the end of the movie after Sal's Pizzeria is burnt to the ground, it is obvious Mookie does not have a job, yet still puts on his uniform to pick up his paycheck
@@coopertoons13 Lee in an interview explained the back story to that scene as he envisioned it. Basically, Sal rebuilds his pizzeria, and at some point the two reconcile and he gets his old job back.
@@Sortafly70 sound like truth to me and i am not even from america Also you have a problem when a cop kill a black man in the streets But when a black kid die in somewere'istan it is okay That is the diferends, how much he is paid???!!!
My favorite movie of all time. I could watch it on a loop and never get tired of it. You don’t feel like you’re watching a movie when you watch it; you feel like you’ve wandered into a neighborhood that has lived and breathed long before you came in … and will live and breathe long after you leave.
@@konradzaleski860 Dr. King did, that’s right. But Malcolm disagreed. He believed there was a time and a place. And we can’t really prove which one is right; after all, violence accomplished many great things in the past, just look at the American Revolution or Civil War. The only thing we know for sure is that nothing will change if we do nothing, and that’s the point the original commenter was making.
@@akorn9943 well we did,and look where we’re at now!!! No where!!! Doing nothing Is better than doing something and facing dire consequences afterwards.
They forgot to mention that do the right things is a quote by Malcom X. "You gotta to do the right thing" In french Canada no one debate if he did the right thing because the movie title was translated to "Crazy pizza place"
This is the second-greatest scene in film history right after the armor attack on the Nazis in BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS. In that movie, Angela Lansbury's last line is, "you're certain you're doing the right thing?"
Hellsing's Pyre true and things are a lot better but shit like this still happens which makes me mad but at least it’s gotten better but never accept a right given partially
@jonhack2585 The film is so @#£%ing weird. I side with the Italians through and through and I cannot see how anyone cannot. Salvatore was a good man who literally did nothing wrong throughout the film except uttering a slur a couple times (After the black guy called him an equivalent slur.) and broke a radio (Blasting loud music in someone else's property is not legal.). For that he was being choked to death and if the Police had not arrived he would be dead. The Police responded with admittedly excessive force (By holding the baton for so long however the guy was about to murder a man so do not pretend he was some peaceful guy.) which has nothing to do with Salvatore. All it does is prove the son's point about why those communities are doing so @#£%. It is a sad film.
@@johnnotrealname8168 but the problem is that all Sal cared about was his business was destroyed he didn't care that a HUMAN BEING was killed right in front of him.
@johnnotrealname8168 I'm just not a fan of Sal because he used the N-word. You remember in the movie the other people in the pizza place were on Sal's side until he used the N-word. That's when he lost the argument to me. You shouldn't have to stoop down to win an argument.
@@K1ng1995 I agree, he did a horrible thing...too bad those other people did not stand up for him when he was called a guinea! That is also a racial slur and that was before he used any derogatory term. He opened the restaurant for black kids after clock and was proud to feed so many. Yet what is the Thanks he gets?
One more thing to point out, although Mookie throws the garbage can thru the window, he does not take part in the actual looting and destruction of Sal's. The shot of him and his sister on the curb, and his look, I think he was even shocked by his reaction. A brilliant film, one that is still powerful.
I remember in high school I watched this and wondered what it meant. That was like in 2011? YEARS later, i find myself rewatching it again. Man. It hits differently when you start absorbing things when you've become more mature.
@@ertfgghhhh I remember seeing this movie at 12 or was it 11, and I didn't get it. It wasn't until I was in my late teens I watched it again not knowing it was the same movie it was a totally different experience
Moral gray areas like Mookie’s decisions, or Raheem’s radio blasting, or even Sal breaking the radio, aren’t what should be focused on. Yes, some of those actions are wrong and helped the tensions to rise, but let’s face it. A riot was going to break out no matter what. It didn’t matter if it was then, it didn’t matter if Sal obliged and hung black pictures on the wall, the tensions would still be there. That’s why we should focus on the police’s definite wrong actions of killing Raheem, and the general racism that caused these tensions, not the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Spike Lee did a disservice to the black community with this film. The characters proved Pino right. He portrays black people as ignorant, lazy, and irresponsible. Gave them a message that everyone hates them and their fate is not in their own hands. Why not make a film about a strong black man who helps bring the community together. Instead he made black people into ignorant stereotypes who cannot take care of themselves.
@@kixuh6314 it’s called instigating race wars. That’s why I stopped watching Hollyweird movies and television shows. It’s all a form of brain washing and manipulation. Read books that give wisdom and knowledge. If I want to be entertained, I just read fantasy novels or conspiracies. Not a movie or tv show that constantly talks about race and politics 24/7. Everything is getting politicized nowadays I’m fed up and would honestly just forget about the whole shit. I’d rather go back to just reading good books.
When I first saw Mookie grab the trash can, I thought he was going to slam it on the ground to silence everyone and then start monologuing about how this pointless conflict took the life of his friend.
That's probably the most rational and ethical thing to do in that situation (plus taking about how they need to work towards systemic changes and whatnot). But that's not how normal people react to their friend being unjustly murdered and definently wouldn't make for as good of an ending.
@@caseymckenzie144 Sal also doubled down and tried to justify the murder of Raheem. At that point any friendship Mookie felt for him was understandably gone.
@@noahmclaughlin7921Salvatore who was being choked to near death by this same guy? I would be surprised if such a person was able to turn the other cheek. We forgetting that? The Police was excessive but not because herr derr racism but choking and resisting arrest. Instead Mookie helps destroy the business of the guy who was giving him work despite his Edit: "evidently" crappy work ethic. The guy who was proud to be serving a black community and was one of the few businesses there.
Did he do the right thing? Technically, no. But I might’ve done the same had I been in his position. Plus, his friend was killed in front of his face, so he was emotional. Most people who look at this movie are using logic. Emotion is irrational and doesn’t respond to logic.
his friend was killed by police, why take the easy path of destroying his boss pizzeria instead of going to destroy the police precinct? Sal did not killed him, he even was about to get killed by Radio, he was choking him down, heck, he did not even called the cops, why take it against Sal?
Spike has made two of the greatest films American of history Do The Right Thing & Malcolm X. He got an Oscar recently and that was just a token reward.
@@Red-pv7kx You must've deleted your reply because I do not see it, but let me reply since I still got the notification. "Snub, rebuff, or ignore disdainfully, therefore anything that has been ignored is considered a snub" It cannot be considered ignored because out of all of the nominees, AND THE WINNER, it is the most well known. Same goes for rebuffed. It was not rejected in an ungracious manner. There was a voting process and this film was not chosen. The term to be used here, and I cannot stand that one, either, is robbed. It was not ignored, nor was it rejected as it had a chance to win Best Picture at the Oscars. A 1 in 5 chance. There were hundreds of films released that year, and DTRT was picked as a nominee. No snub.
JloveLamar My comment’s still there and seeing as you didn’t see it in it’s entirety, I’m not going to even bother respond. Just because something has acclaim 25 years later after release, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a snubbed. It was snubbed (ignored) by the Academy. E.g. “Bradley Cooper was snubbed for best director” is a phrase most top 10 sites for snubs are using.
The genius of the ending is that it makes you question whether you reacted more strongly to the burning down of a pizzeria or the unjust death of a man. Why? What does that mean about you?
@@BOZ_11 The fact that you completely missed the point says a lot about you too. Innocent man being murdered vs innocent man’s business being burned to the ground. Are you really not getting it?
so maybe how that word is being interpreted is the problem.. one group sees conflict that needs to be resolved, and another group sees a never ending situation so why bother getting involved..🤔🤔🤔
@@BlackPDigitalMedia almost. It's just like yin and yang. One side looking for righteousness or a black and white world. The other side experiencing all the shades of gray and accepting them.
I saw the movie when it originally came out years ago and just haven't had the stomach to see it again. It's a good movie, but hits too close to home. My 18 year old, honor-student-athlete nephew, died by the hands of police officers who claimed they were "in fear for their lives", when they pulled him over for a tail light 15 years ago. As Karma would have it, 1 cop died of cancer that slowly let the hate and rot inside of his body kill him. And another died from suicide because he was getting ready to go to prison for killing his wife and kids. Your analysis was spot on, white people talk about the "damage to property" but refuse to talk about the murder by cops of Radio Raheem. Property to them, means more than a man's life.
Finally watched this film. I feel there is duality presented in doing the right thing, love and hate, the Martin and Malcolm quotes, Mother Sister and Da mayor, between Sal’s sons, the right thing is subjective, not objective. Also the film constantly shows the tension rising, as well as literally the heat. We see the talks between characters, the racial taunts spoken to the camera by characters, the gentrification, the local business getting out run by the bigger newer business (ice cone man vs the ice cream truck) and in this predominantly black community they have the least power, the least respect, the least say. You could say they are the loudest, with radio raheem and public enemy on the boom box, Bugging out vocal protests of Sals, even the riot... but the sad thing is they are not listen too, even to this day.
I like how during the stereotype scene, Lee zooms in on everyone the same way. Essentially equating all racism as equal, by just the way every racist statement in the scene is shot exactly the same, Spike is saying it doesn't matter what the color of your skin is, if you're racist, you're racist.
@@K1ng1995I appreciate the film in one sense, despite his own particular perspective, Shelton Jackson Lee made a film that the other side of the equation can agree with too (No, not racists but those that do not subscribe to that race relations shtick.).
When he says that all this stuff happens and nothing ever gets done about it, really puts it into perspective and Do the Right Thing is definitely one of the greatest films of all time.
As one who was born in Bed Stuy and was 18 when that film was released, I can assure the narrator that when Radio Raheem says "Static" at 9:03,He meant Beef,Friction,basically opposing forces. You got beef? and you want some static? meant the same thing back in The 80's. Although,on second thought,two equally opposing forces,would create a technically static situation.
Malcolm X ended up ultimately changing his views to favour MLK's ideas of unity. After separating from the Nation of Islam, he indulged in self-discovery in Mecca and came to the conclusion that separation was not the way forward. This was what killed him, as members of the Nation despised that sentiment and believed in black-only unity, so he was ironically killed by preachers of his own sentiments of necessary violence, whom used said beliefs to justify it. Whether you agree with his sentiments that violence is sometimes justified or not, I think it says a lot when 2 great men ended up being killed by 2 very different ideologies which had only violence in common. Not only was it destructive to the enemy, it was also self-destructive.
Hmmmmm, yes but......the fbi helped. The fbi saw people who hated Malcolm x, and helped take out a common enemy. What was genius was the fact that the fbi could hide behind nazi like bastards (Farakhan and those guys) to kill malcolm x
George Kafiridis lmao, the fbi did take no risks. Especially when they saw he was less politically correct, they took no risks with Malcolm X too when they saw he was more concerned about unity. Unfortunate, at least we can learn from it all
Not true, Malcolm X never accepted the views of Dr. King and always accepted that Separation was the best road toward Freedom. He however, was willing to accept any help from where he didn't consider reaching out to prior leaving the NOI
It boils down to the two quotes at the end of the movie. If you side with MLK, he didn't. If you side with X, he did. Both could be seen as correct. The human condition is a struggle between these two philosophies. Even though it was a violent act, it brought public attention to the violence and injustice of the police in that community.
Not to sound facile, but it didn't. It might be an understandable reaction to seeing a policeman kill someone in cold blood to start a riot, but it isn't constructive. If this were real life it would just been reported in the press as a race riot in which an Italian owned business was burned out and a man died at the hands of police. He's not transformed into some civil rights hero by dint of his act of vandalism, you can empathise with his desperation but Mookie was, ultimately, a loser throughout the film. People who want to change things don't start riots, they make films about them.
@@joshradcliffe8563 About that last line, what about events like the French or American revolution? Didn't they first start as riots or protests? Would they have worked if there were movies made out of the motives?
The whole point was everyone created the event at the end. Nobody did the right thing. Cops didnt, Sal didnt, Mookie didnt and the three guys who wanted a black person on the wall of the pizza place didnt either. The movie was a message to the country and to all races that we all need to do the right thing together.
@scarosone14 Out of everyone in this comment section, I think you're the most accurate. Despite Lee's interview where he explains he leans towards Mooki being right, at the basis of the movie's ideology, everyone was causing "static". This is evident the anti-climatic lack of change or "arc" of the characters. This is Lee telling us that reality doesn't have "Speilberg ending".
I think people are missing this whole thing…sal didn’t do anything wrong!!!! He requested for the music to be turned off and they didn’t comply!!! He broke the boom box and radio attacked him,cops showed up outta no where and killed rahim. Yet people are blaming him for what??? What was he supposed to do in a crowd full of angry blacks?
@@zamasu9396 He smashed the boombox, shouted slurs to get radio raheem riled up, refused to hear buggin out's complaints from the very beginning, largely tolerated his son's racism, and when the rioters asked him about raheem's death, he clearly showed no remorse. He isn't a terrible guy, but alot of his actions, and also inaction, directly contributed to the riot
@@AhmedMahmoud-fb1ug they shouted slurs at him first, he smashed the radio because they were blasting it is his face and screaming in HIS fucking business, HE DOESNT HAVE TO LISTEN TO BUGGIN OUTS COMPLAINTS....it’s his fucking restaurant, he didn’t tolerate his sons racism or any racism, he talked to him about it and told him why he was wrong in a compassionate fatherly way, the death of Raheem was 100% on Buggin Out and he took advantage of radio Raheem. Let’s also not forget that radio Raheem tried to literally kill sal and was very close. Sal did absolutely nothing wrong, the police did. How tf do you not understand that? It really baffles me. I think you’re a little racist and have a bias against white people.
@@AhmedMahmoud-fb1ug Yeah, people who saw Sal as a good guy condones a more benign form of racism. Not to mention he was obviously putting on moves on Mookie's sister, who was much younger than him, and lying to others and probably himself about his true motives.
@Death To Diaper Ghouls how can it have failed? This is a human story not just a black story, you understand everything they feel right? Maybe you dont and have no empathy but whatever, we are growing stronger as those who hate are dying.
You made an error - The Malcolm X quote was very specific about when violence is justified. Not "certain situations" as you said, but in Self-Defense; a very significant distinction.
wow THANK YOU for making this analysis on do the right thing!!! I watched this film in class years ago and always wanted to discuss it more. I found this channel a couple days ago and am shocked that you guys also made an analysis on this movie. Read my mind!! Keep up the good work.
i feel like whether or not mookie did 'the right thing' is ultimately not the point. the point is that mookie, a man who is ultimately powerless, exerting the only kind of power he can in the face of his friend's murder. grief can make us all do things that might not be 'right' but are 'understandable'. after all, who can mookie vent to aside from the rest of his community (the other black people)? he cant vent to any of the non black folk in his neighbourhood because they also have a stake in anti blackness, and he obviously cant go to the cops, so instead he acts out, the way people often do when they see no other way to express themselves. and i found it interesting and understandable that only white people asked why mookie threw the garbage can, because they have never faced this level of frustration. america was more or less built on the tenants of white supremacy, so white people wouldnt be able to understand why someone would react in a violent way to smthn like raheem's murder, because they have never faced it. im not black myself but i am a poc so i can also understand the frustration mookie feels (although not entirely since im not black). i feel like the world is due for another movie like 'do the right thing'.
Cody Smith so they loot and burn down someone else’s property and someone dies as a result. Yet the people who start and finish the destruction are not to blame. Pathetic.
No one in this movie was a saint. In case you forgot, Radio was about to literally kill Sal. The cops definitely overstepped by killing him, as they already had him restrained, but there is no absolute right or wrong in this film. And you don't have to be a person of color to understand or empathize with someone's grief due to an unjust act. It may not be exactly the same, but people of color aren't the only people capable of suffering or experiencing stuff like that.
He chooses to be powerless. That's the message people should take away. You can buy into victimhood mentality so you can blame the system, or you can take responsibility for yourself and rise above it, like many people of all stripes do. His sister's character had the right mindset. Our wealth and power comes from our ability to add value. Slacking off at work, not taking responsibility as a parent seriously etc. hurts nobody more than oneself. Many new immigrants come to the USA with almost nothing, no local education, some without even a basic grasp of the language, and achieve greater heights than people who were born and raised here. If the culture in the USA is so oppressive/racist/dis-empowering, why do people still flock here from all over the world? "Do the right thing" should be literal. Violence does not add value, it destroys value. Acting out on emotion does not add value, it wastes time and energy. Educate yourself (it's easier than ever with the Internet), learn a skill, provide value, invest in yourself and lift yourself out of whatever misfortune you truly happen to suffer - and count your blessing for being born in a country people are dying to get into rather than fighting and dying to escape (both literally).
It’s such a good film and does a good job of showing varied perspectives... however I struggle to feel like Mookie did the right thing. I think he figured out that there isn’t always a right thing to do, so he opted to at least do *something*... it wasn’t productive and it only created more pain, but it was the one thing he had power to affect, so he did it
It's a tough question to answer. It's pretty hard to blame his anger when his friend just got murdered by people who are supposed to be forces of justice and morality. I also think that violent riots are unethical and usually unproductive. And while Sal does share some of the blame in getting tensions to that boiling point, he still isn't the one who killed Raheem and therefore he debatably didn't deserve what happened. Although I don't feel too much sympathy for him after he tried to justify Raheem's death, if he showed some remorse they probably wouldn't have been quite as angry at him. Of course Mookie also vented his anger on the Pizzareia and not the cops who are actual murderers. It's attacking a symptom of the problem and not the root cause (cops are also products of the system in our society but they also have imbalanced power over most and not good justifications for it, so they're still very much at fault). So it's unproductive and could be used by people who don't want any changes/to justify racism towards black people as an excuse for that. On the other hand, yo could argue Mookie not doing anything would also be bad at this point. He just saw his friend get murdered, it feels wrong to do nothing after that. So it's a complex issue where his action wasn't good but he really had no good options, or very few at least.
@@noahmclaughlin7921The guy was trying to murder Salvatore, I hardly think he was going to be saddened when he himself died. Stop trying to blame a victim. I am not going to claim he should have died but Radio Raheem was hardly a bystander. He was in the process of murdering and resisting arrest. The Police went too far maybe but not trying to murder helps too.
When sal gives a speech to his son of his proudness of owning a shop and seeing grow people, he did the right thing. And when the little brother tells the other one Mookie treats him better and he trusts him independently of his colour, he did the right thing.
One of the most aggravating things I always find about the discussion over this movie is the omission of the fact that Radio was about to kill Sal over a broken radio he wouldn't turn off inside someone else's establishment. The NYPD villainous caricature isn't enough to make me appalled over the situation, because he attempted murder and then kept resisting arrest. The "ambiguity" of the ending only comes from writing contrivances, logical shortcuts and a director who was never really interested in presenting both sides.
I dunno, they had him pretty well under control. Though I did read that a collection of incidents like this led to the NYPD being issued with tasers, to give them an intermediate level of force to use between that provided by a baton and that provided by a gun. The other cop telling the killer to stop was enough for me, and you see the way the killer cop is portrayed throughout the film- he's spoiling for a fight......much like Buggin Out is, who is just as rabid but without the social power (I suspect Lee's point, knowing his politics) to "get away with it". We see him carted off to the police station, spitting and squirming but powerless, and are left to presume that the death of Raheem was covered up.
So someone being murdered doesn’t upset you? No wonder this world is full of hate. Clearly your blinded by race, it’s evident in your disgusting attempt to vilify a murdered black man.
@@hiyall142 if he was white would you say the same thing? or would you say he shouldn't have been killed, but also did something incredibly stupid and dangerous?
RUclips Veterinarian how was he walking around with a attitude?? Dude was literally bumping his radio minding his own business majority of the movie...
"Radio Raheem like a muhhfucka!" You don't fuck with Radio's ghettoblaster with those "motherfuckin D batteries!" A white guy that bashes a radio playing "Fight the Power" with a wooden bat is symbolic of white oppression.
@@Chellemdogg with a baseball bat, not only a weapon used in so many hate crimes against black people but also a symbol of america. baseball is the great american pastime after all
How is this even a question? Mookie was 100% in the *wrong.* Let's look at the facts: - Right after closing his restaurant for the day, Sal opens it once more and happily welcomes four more (black) customers, despite Mookie telling them that they're closed for the day. - As they're eating, Buggin' Out and Radio Raheem enter the restaurant without permission, screaming and legally trespassing. Additionally, Raheem is blaring his music at night, constituting noise pollution. - Previously in the film, Raheem had blared his radio in Sal's restaurant and Sal had to yell several times to get him to turn it off. - Buggin' Out demands Sal add black faces to his wall. Now, let's think about this: Sal is an Italian American running an Italian American restaurant serving Italian American food. It makes perfect sense for him to post pictures of famous Italian Americans to both reflect his heritage as well as the theme of the restaurant. It isn't a racist statement, and it would make no sense for him to add photos of black people. Furthermore, Buggin' Out never employed a civil approach, which might actually have worked in the beginning. But now, after yelling and whining throughout the entire film, he storms in uninvited (again, trespassing) and demands that Sal put up photos of black people. Hell, even if Sal wanted to, what was he supposed to do in that moment? Immediately rifle through newspapers, find and cut out pictures of famous black people, run to the printers', buy a bunch of frames and nails, and then hang up photos after having closed for the night? What the hell were Buggin' Out and Raheem hoping to accomplish other than make complete asses of themselves and frighten a small business owner? - Raheem escalates the situation by continuing to blare his music. - Buggin' Out escalates the situation even further by calling Sal a "guinea," an ethnic slur against Italians. - Sal reacts by calling Buggin' Out the N word. This is the first (and really only) clearly wrong thing that Sal does. But even this is something he does under _extreme_ duress. - Raheem refuses to turn his radio off, so Sal destroys it. The alternative would have been to call the cops, but Sal went for the quicker and quieter solution. - Raheem accepts this and reacts peacefully by leaving. Haha, just kidding. He LITERALLY TRIES TO STRANGLE SAL. - Peno fights Raheem in a perfectly-justified attempt to save his father's life. - The police arrive and end up arresting Buggin' Out (thank god) and killing Raheem. This is obviously a case of police brutality and likely murder. But note again that Sal did not call the police. - People start to attack Sal and his family and threaten the Koreans (who were entirely peaceful themselves). - Mookie takes out his anger and grief over losing Raheem by going after the police. Haha, just kidding. He... breaks the window of a guy who isn't involved with law enforcement at all and was almost entirely a helpless victim himself that same night. - As Sal points out, it isn't just about the money. Sure, his insurance can help him rebuild, financially. But Sal built his business from the ground up and it was destroyed for no good reason. So, yes, Mookie was wrong. Completely, utterly wrong. Were the police more wrong by killing a man? Of course they were. But - and I think most people seem to forget this, bafflingly - _Sal is not a cop._ Sal did not even _call_ the cops. Nothing suggests that he wanted Raheem dead. Two wrongs don't make a right, and by destroying Sal's window, Mookie likely helped normalize senseless violence in the wake of tragedy. Even if we are to accept Malcolm X as being right here, the violence he was referring to was in self defense. Violence against aggressors who are oppressing you. So in this case it would mean protecting oneself against a violent police officer. But that was not at all the case here.
Agreed. Buggin’ out was creating a problem that didn’t exist. He could have just eaten somewhere else if he didn’t like that there were no black athletes on the wall of the pizzeria.
Perhaps the message is that you cannot have any self defence against the police, since they would shoot you? So the only option are those close to the conflict. Also I'll say, I do not think you could consider Raheem playing music as escalating, since he clearly does that always, which Sal would know, meaning it is totally expected. Not escalating behaviour, normal.
Sal took the insurance money and opened another Pizzeria in Florida. To this day the building is still gutted from the fire and is one less place for the neighborhood to eat at.
people can't see the hate that is inherent in Mookie. And rightfully so, they will never be at the same level, because they've started from different levels to begin with. WE have to work with this understanding in mind, otherwise we won't get anywhere.
This is a fantastic analysis. I really like this channel a lot, and Do The Right Thing is one of my all time favorite movies. I hope people rewatch it after seeing this video essay with new, open eyes. Its message is still so incredibly relevant in our country and world. Keep up the great work y'all!
I'm going to quote Thor from the cartoon Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes "Broken bones, broken buildings. These things can be rebuilt but broken friendships that's something entirely different Sal's going to get insurance money there's no question about it, but Radio Raheem isn't coming back. How would you have felt if one of your best friends was literally murdered right in front of you? By people whose job is to SERVE AND PROTECT their communities.
it was always funny to me that no one asked "did Sal do the right thing?" "did the police do the right thing?" but it's showing that we ask Mookie, a broke pizza guy who's apart of the most oppressed community, if he did the right thing. how do you do right, in a system that is inherently wrong?
Because in a lot of ways, Mookie appeared to be one of the people that wanted to live peacefully and bridge worlds. But in the end, he did partake in the escalation of racial violence. You're right though. It's damn near impossible to do the right thing in those circumstances.
Mookie did not do the right thing because Sal treated him well. Taking anger over Raheem out on Sal was wrong. Throw the can at a police car, testify as a witness that's the right thing. It's Sals business Raheem and Buggin crossed the line. Of course Raheem didn't deserve to be killed.
Raheem was about to kill Sal... so the police stopped him. They went overboard and Raheem got killed. But I can't call that a tragedy. Someone robs a store and gets shot by the police, that's not a tragedy.
This and Jungle Fever is one hell of a racist movie. Everything is so black and white in Spike Lee's head that I begin to feel disgusted. What I take from watching Do the Right Thing is that don't start a business in a black neighborhood if you're not black and that every race should keep to themselves, oh and that most black people are stereotypical loudmothed assholes, and being nice to them is a mistake apparently. Yay for racial segregation I guess.
In The Quiet American, the Vietnamese translator to Michael Caine's character makes the same point that you make in this fine take on Do The Right Thing. Michael Caine's character keeps repeating that, as a news journalist, he is simply in French controlled Vietnam to report the news. But at the end of the movie, "to remain human," he finally chooses a side, for whatever reason. This is the greatest take on a movie that I have ever watched. Thank You
As a youngster I love this movie and was on the side of BugginOut and Radio Raheem. As a over 40 rational thinking with a little bit of wisdom adult. This movie shows the defiant and irrational thinking of African American males in the hood that seems to be common. Though this is a classic movie however my take on it as a over 40 adult African American male is not the most favorable. Don't you think something different could have been done to prevent Radio Raheem to be killed and to prevent a whole community from being damage including a favorite pizza hang out spot? All the ending drama over pictures on the wall? The right thing was not done. If the right thing was done then Radio Raheem would be alive and the community wouldn't have been destroyed. Sometimes doing the right maynot please the inner evil side of man however it's the right thing to do.
I disagree. The problem is black people are forced to think that a death like Raheem's is our fault. It is not. As Lee said, black life is devalued. Sal could've put a picture on the wall it wouldn't have killed him. If anything it would've helped his business. Cops had no reason to kill Radio Raheem, end of story. The second you feel that because you are black you have to move more carefully, you have been marginalized.
I would say the right thing would have been for Sal to put up the pictures. Something so simple that even made sense considering where the pizzeria was located. And yet he stubbornly refused. Due to his ignorance, and unconscious racism he ultimately was the catalyst to his business burning down and the riot.
Good take - but I think that is also kind of the point of the movie. Sal's pictures were just his way of rightfully promoting his own culture. Radio Raheem's music was his way of promoting his people's culture. Both should be allowed to do this. Sal, as the owner of the shop, could more easily and passively express this. Raheem, without a platform or power, has to resort to a more 'in your face' approach to promoting his culture. And perhaps that's how it is for many young African Americans - without the platform/power it is harder to break through and be relevant, to be heard. Sure, you can be too aggressive about it, and sometimes a more conciliatory approach with your fellow human is more productive. And that goes to the core of DTRT - Love and Hate. The whole movie is a dance between getting along with each other whilst confronting our differences, issues and injustices. One thing I would say about BugginOut was that he was a bit of a hypocrite; on the one hand he's saying that surely Sal can make room for one or two pictures of black people, and yet he is not so happy to have Clifton, a white man, living on his block, on his side of the street. (Although the point of that scene was more to highlight what a "Free Country" means in the context of comparing White and Black Americans.)
Why cant it be both Mookie protecting Sal and Mookie being angry? Something that people tend to forget about art is that its subjective; it doesnt matter what Lee says Mookies motives are. Once art is released public it's open to public interpretation.
He did scream "hate" before throwing the can, and the next day when he's talking to Sal he seems to show no remorse, so I don't know if that would make sense
@@FromThe7thFloorno but he became a victims the moment that trash can was thrown even if you don't value property the man was still choked out and had his livelihood destroyed
Rarely comment on youtube videos. I had to take time to say this was absolute brilliant commentary, analysis, and breakdown of this movie. Keep going guys! Wishing your channel the best.
Sal's tragic flaw was that instead of standing up to the Germans he grew up around, who lorded it over Italians as lower on the totem pole in New York, he built a pizzeria in a black neighborhood and lorded it over black people who were lower on the totem pole than Italians. He became what he hated.
He never "lorded it" over the black people. With the exception of Raheem and Buggin' Out (who were constantly giving _him_ trouble first), he treated black people with kindness. He even opened his doors for some of them after his restaurant had already closed. Not to mention that any other racist white guy would have fired Mookie for being a terrible employee.
Mookie was right to be angry, at the ones who murdered his friend not the pizzeria. A hero stands up for themselves or others against injustice. Mookie vs. murderers A bully cowers before his enemies and takes his frustrations on others. Mookie vs. Sal Mookie did not do the right thing
This. This is why Spike Lee is actually dead wrong with those two quotes at the end. Self Defense is as American as apple pie and I'll be damned if every black family in America should not have at least one member of their house ready to light up any tiki torch wielding fuckhead who tries to attack them, but acting violently towards people because they LOOK like people who have done you wrong, or are not as angry about injustice as you, and treating them as if they were themselves are the perpetrators, is not the right thing. Never will be.
Mookie did not "Do the Right Thing". As a boyfriend to Tina he was undependable. As a father to Hector he was negligent. As a brother to Jade he was a poor older sibling example. As an employee of Sal's he took extended lunches and was disrespectful to his employer. Mookie incited the riot that led to the destruction of Sal's pizza restaurant. The movie "Do the Right Thing" (unintentionally?) made black people look like lazy, ignorant, racists who blame everyone but themselves for their poor choices in life.
I viewed it as Mookie sort of saved Sal and his sons. It deflected what could have turned into a lynch mob into some serious property damage, but nothing deadly. Whether he did that intentionally or not, I don't know, but you sense he had a lot of respect for Sal throughout the film.
I always felt that the point was we don't know if Mookie did the right thing. I've always debated whether he threw that garbage can out of sudden rage or to save Sal and his family. We'll never know and think that's the point.
Spike Lee says in the video that the latter was not the case. Funny thing for me is that I always figured the trash can was thrown because of Radio Raheem's death; the theory about it being to protect Sal and his sons never occured to me but it does make sense, had the true intention not been explained here. One could have pointed out that one person had already died and that the riot actually saved the lives of three more. Also, (and I haven't really seen this mentioned before), some of the people in the crowd turn around to go and do the same to the Korean-owned shop across the street, which would have caused more destruction and possibly more death, had Sonny not spoken up.
I saw Spike Lee at a college and several black students asked about why Mookie did it. So he's either full of shit or it never happened before I saw it.
@ParselyBunny Shut the fuck up with that white guilt trash NOBODY HAS EXPERIENCED ACTUAL OPRESSION IN AMERICA IN FIFTY YEARS. Not black, brown, red, white, or yellow. It hasn't been socially acceptable for someone to be spit on and called a racial slur in a long fucking time, and cops don't just shoot black people for fun but statistically black people are more likely to resist arrest and then grab a fucking gun from their waist so they get THEMSELVES shot.
@ParselyBunny I think it's a bit more nuanced than that, and it's partly why I don't view Lee as a racist (though, as a White person, I can see the arguments for it, plus he's made contemptuous comments, and a contemptuous film, about mixed couples). The drenching of Frank Vincent's character's car being case in point, Vincent's character was belligerent but the street kids were still escalating the situation by doing what they did (so he shows us both sides of racial tension- the baiting on both sides). The police turned up, same officers as we see later, and skillfully defused the situation.
@ParselyBunny It's the causal connection, or lack thereof, between what Sal did (smashing the radio) and what Raheem did (choking him) and what the cop did (killing Raheem). But yeah, I accept your point and I think it was Lee's point- social power is vested, he would say, almost entirely in Whites and so the excesses of the Whites are ultimately more harmful. That said, Raheem was not just 'attacking' Sal, he was choking him seriously as we can clearly see- Sal could have ended up dead. Now, the difference between Sal ending up dead at Raheem's hands and Raheem ending up dead the hands of a cop is stark too- one is a common or garden murder, one is a very sinister abuse of power.
I still remember, til this day. The ending was so controversial. A group of black men got so angry one of them jumped over the seats kicking me in the shoulder. I was 24 at the time. I got angry and said something to one of the black men. Before you knew it. I ended up fighting all three men. I will never forget that day!
Thank you for covering less currently mainstream movies, it really sets you guys apart. Every other channel does an analysis on big modern blockbuster films, but the content you guys publish is always unique, insightful and creative.
I'm never sure how I feel about the ending but I never had trouble with the explanation of "law/rule is how it it and you not liking it doesn't matter". But the characters frustration with that feels even more real. Nobody forced the characters to commit the crimes they committed and even that makes it more tragic. And to be fair, Radio Raheem was resisting arrest had committed multiple assaults against cops and civilians beforehand and didn't response to pleas from anyone so force was reasonably justified in my eyes.
Yeah same. It was not some poor black man being shot because he put his hands up (Oh wait he was reaching for the gun.) but a guy choking to near-death another man and resisting arrest. You can argue it was taken too far but you cannot argue it was racial bull@#£%.
Man fuck that they were constantly annoying sal and making business hard for him. The trio and radio rahims death was reasonable he was fighting a man for enforcing his store policy. Not only that, but when the cops came he started fighting them. He was dangerous and pretty dull.
The quote that Mr Lee said is just too real; I saw the movie maybe 5 to 6 years ago and have never, nor even for a moment, questioned the actions that Mookie did. Bc I understood that anger, that frustration, that sudden drive to do something, that makes you feel that if you don't do a thing about it you may explode, and today, 6/05/2020, after the unfortunate events which resulted in the murder of George Floyd, I being feeling the same way + sorrow , which makes almost terapeutic to watch this great analysis of this excellent joint. I would probably revisit it in the next couple of days and surelly will encourage a lot of ppl to watch it
The problem with this movie is the fact Buggin out caused this whole thing. That man never got blamed either. Nobody should be mad to do something like that in their own place.
This movie tried to warn us about the Trump presidency. Theres a scene where the two cops are in the pizzeria and one cop jokingly says to Sal "Did you remember to put two straws in there Mr. Trump?" The other cop says "I've been there, Trump's Pizza." The first cop corrects him and says its called Trump Plaza. This shit blew my mind when i watched the movie again last week.
Do the right thing is a story about LOVE and HATE. Radio Raheem stated earlier in the movie that the rings he wore symbolized LOVE/HATE, a tale of good and evil. Love is the right hand and Hate is the left hand. It was with the left hand that Cain killed his brother. The 5 fingers of the right hand goes straight to the soul of man and represents love. Love and Hate are always fighting with each other, producing static (radio). It appears as if hate is winning the fight at first, but Love eventually defeats the hate by knocking hate to the ground with a mean right hook (fight the power). The Mayor told Mookie at the beginning of the film to always do the right thing. The Mayor also tried to diffuse the situation prior to them torching Sal's pizzeria. The Mayor was thinking in terms of love. What is the right thing you ask? Love is the right thing to do, but hate won this time.
You guys deserve an award. I honestly am so impressed by your insight into so many varying topics and the fact that you can discuss film and TV from the cinematic technicalities to the deep social contexts. Bravo. Also you've really inspired me to check out things I might not normally. Dear White People looked interesting but I didn't actually watch it until I saw your video. And then I binged the whole season in a day. It can be uncomfortable to be confronted with inequality and the fact that to some degree I'm implicit. But that's why stories are important, they can take us outside of our personal experience to understand what is largely unknown to us. And though I'll never understand exactly what Mookie experiences, I do know how it feels to be hopless and victimized. Sometimes all you can do is break a window.
He never does the right thing. He is useless at work. He is unaccountable. He really only wants to destroy his boss. He messes with the boss' kids the whole movie, undermines the boss every time he speaks, demands money before finishing his day, but barely even works. He wanted a riot against his boss from the beginning. When his boss flirted with his sister, he was disgusted.
Hmmmm, unique analysis but I would disagree. I think maybe the most I'd agree with is Lee was putting across some 'blood is thicker than water' idea, with Mookie ultimately deciding that his brotherhood with other Blacks was more important than his livelihood. He was, I agree, a waistrel, conceited and flawed but I didn't pick up real antipathy toward Sal or the sons. Even toward the racist son he seemed more interested in 'schooling' him in how the world really works, taking the time to talk to him etc. He was, to me anyway, someone who considered himself smarter than he really was, a bit of a slacker and infected by the same identity politics as everyone else in the film, don't believe he had a master plan to undermine Sal and torch his pizzeria. Remembering also that what turned events really nasty was Sal's decision to smash the radio, that wasn't Mookie's fault on any analysis.
I'm a Black guy but Sal is Honestly the Victim of this Movie, he Lost everything he ever Built just because he refused to put pics of Black people, like its his Restaurant he's free to put what he wants, he didn't hurt anybody, Radio Raheem and Buggin Out are 2 Idiots who's Stupid actions cost them what they Got, I'm not saying Raheem deserved to be Killed, he didn't but that's on the Cops and Not Sal, and who fucking blasts music in a Restaurant and expects the Owner not to Order him to Turn it off, Mookie did the Wrong thing by Trashing Sal's Restaurant when Sal honestly didn't start or Ask for any kind of Trouble in the First Place?, *this Movie just Shows how messed up we Black People Are*
It seemed like Radio Raheem was going to kill Sal, and while the police officer went too far, it's hard to feel Raheem was worth rioting over. Raheem could have diffused all of it by turning off his annoying boombox. He seemed like the most localized oppressive force in the whole damn movie. Da Mayor, for all his personal faults, appeared to be the most valuable character to the community.
@@goodvibes9324 He assaulted a store clerk, decided to Jaywalk and then attacked a police officer. His death was sad because he was so young but it was still his own fault.
@@PokemonTrainerVince 1. I saw all the videos they released not one shows him attacking a store Clark, Just getting a bag of roll ups he brought the day before but had them hold for him (confirmed by store workers from that day he brought it) 2. A lot of people jaywalk so I'm guessing they should die....noted... 3. Multiple videos showing feds getting attacked... I can show you a few where the attacker actually had legit weapons they didn't die... BUT I Guess it's different huh lmao
Lee took inspiration from a Hitchcock short film about heat making people more prone to violence. Everyone is angry in this movie, regardless of race or wealth. Everyone wants to start a fight. Raheem and Sal just happened to the lighter (no pun intended) that sparked the fire. A riot was gonna happen no matter what that day, regardless of whether Raheem and Sal fought
Get a full month of MUBI, a hand-picked selection of cult, classic and award-winning films, FOR FREE: mubi.com/screenprism
Support ScreenPrism on Patreon: www.patreon.com/user?u=7792695
Subscribe to keep up with our latest videos, and let us know what you want to see next!
Could you please do something else on Fight Club?
Can you guys do American Gods
Radio Rahim brought his death upon himself
Mookie knows Sal has better things he should be doing with his life and that the insurance money will afford him the chance. He knows Sal's sons resent the business & neighborhood, don't deserve it, and should be doing other things.
He knows the neighborhood needed a 'release valve' for their pain/anger re the police excessive force/quasi-murder of Raheem.
How much of the characters' motivation is the desire for love ? Mayor for SisterMama ; Mookie for RosiePerez : others without any apparent prospects for love ..despairing.
The over-seeing Senor Love (SamuelJackson) in the Radio DJ booth.
Who owns the buildings where most of these folks are paying rent ?
And in this neighborhood ..where is the Church (i.e. the active congregation/'kingdom of God') ?
Writer/Director SpikeLee is likely a sort of genius.
✌️
Spike Lee 37 Reddmman
I legit never noticed Mookie saying Hate before throwing the trash can, changes everything.
It changes nothing, it only confirms that he threw the can because he was angry and fed up
No lie. For years, I always thought he was saying, hey!
Chyna 2Monroe I take it as a reference to the love and hate rings that Radio Raheem had. That’s kind of the point of the movie. “Do you choose love or hate?”. Mookie chose hate. Now you have to ask if he chose the right one.
924photos that’s what I thought too
Mookey is a piece of dogshit
I just noticed something , I cannot believe I never noticed before , at the end of the movie after Sal's Pizzeria is burnt to the ground, it is obvious Mookie does not have a job, yet still puts on his uniform to pick up his paycheck
Mookie reappears in red hook summer still delivering sals pizza
@@coopertoons13 Lee in an interview explained the back story to that scene as he envisioned it. Basically, Sal rebuilds his pizzeria, and at some point the two reconcile and he gets his old job back.
How is that powerful to you. He’s a mooch who ruined a mans business that supported his neighborhood.
@@ridedirect9114 : 👍👍👍👍👍👍!.
@@Sortafly70 sound like truth to me and i am not even from america
Also you have a problem when a cop kill a black man in the streets
But when a black kid die in somewere'istan it is okay
That is the diferends, how much he is paid???!!!
Do The Right Thing, and this scene in particular, has been on my mind for the past week.
My favorite movie of all time. I could watch it on a loop and never get tired of it. You don’t feel like you’re watching a movie when you watch it; you feel like you’ve wandered into a neighborhood that has lived and breathed long before you came in … and will live and breathe long after you leave.
You could visit some of the neighborhoods in the outer boroughs of New York
The wrong thing to do, is to do nothing. Dr. King and Malcolm X both stated so. Such a brilliant piece of filmmaking.
he also said not to fight racism with violence
@@konradzaleski860 Dr. King did, that’s right. But Malcolm disagreed. He believed there was a time and a place. And we can’t really prove which one is right; after all, violence accomplished many great things in the past, just look at the American Revolution or Civil War. The only thing we know for sure is that nothing will change if we do nothing, and that’s the point the original commenter was making.
@@akorn9943 well we did,and look where we’re at now!!! No where!!! Doing nothing Is better than doing something and facing dire consequences afterwards.
@@zamasu9396 you are very naïve and privileged. Doing nothing is absolutely the wrong thing. What consequences are you talking about lmfao?
@@qoladipo5754 oh shit you use the privilege card
They forgot to mention that do the right things is a quote by Malcom X. "You gotta to do the right thing"
In french Canada no one debate if he did the right thing because the movie title was translated to "Crazy pizza place"
Alexandre Beaudry wow...just wow
What the fuck?
is that true? not the Malcolm quote but the title
@@dirtymcghee well actually its La pizzeria en revolte..translates to The rioting pizzeria. more or less.
Yeah I'm sure nobody had ever said "do the right thing" before Malcolm X 😂😂😂
Made in 1989 and its still relevant almost 30 years later
Game dont change. Only the players do.
This is the second-greatest scene in film history right after the armor attack on the Nazis in BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS. In that movie, Angela Lansbury's last line is, "you're certain you're doing the right thing?"
Yep, brothers still play the victim instead of doing the right thing and accepting responsibility
Hellsing's Pyre true and things are a lot better but shit like this still happens which makes me mad but at least it’s gotten better but never accept a right given partially
Spike Lee Smoke Outside Carlos Suññ
Spike's most powerful film to this day---best part about it is that it gives you NO clear answers--you have to ultimately decide for yourself.
@jonhack2585 The film is so @#£%ing weird. I side with the Italians through and through and I cannot see how anyone cannot. Salvatore was a good man who literally did nothing wrong throughout the film except uttering a slur a couple times (After the black guy called him an equivalent slur.) and broke a radio (Blasting loud music in someone else's property is not legal.). For that he was being choked to death and if the Police had not arrived he would be dead. The Police responded with admittedly excessive force (By holding the baton for so long however the guy was about to murder a man so do not pretend he was some peaceful guy.) which has nothing to do with Salvatore. All it does is prove the son's point about why those communities are doing so @#£%. It is a sad film.
@@johnnotrealname8168 but the problem is that all Sal cared about was his business was destroyed he didn't care that a HUMAN BEING was killed right in front of him.
@@K1ng1995 Yes, the human being that was *TRYING TO MURDER HIM!!!*
@johnnotrealname8168 I'm just not a fan of Sal because he used the N-word. You remember in the movie the other people in the pizza place were on Sal's side until he used the N-word. That's when he lost the argument to me. You shouldn't have to stoop down to win an argument.
@@K1ng1995 I agree, he did a horrible thing...too bad those other people did not stand up for him when he was called a guinea! That is also a racial slur and that was before he used any derogatory term. He opened the restaurant for black kids after clock and was proud to feed so many. Yet what is the Thanks he gets?
One more thing to point out, although Mookie throws the garbage can thru the window, he does not take part in the actual looting and destruction of Sal's. The shot of him and his sister on the curb, and his look, I think he was even shocked by his reaction. A brilliant film, one that is still powerful.
He threw the trashcan idiot. He started the riot
@xxx xxx and im giving mine but point taken
He started the riot basically, and he broke a window (destruction of property) what the fuck kind of PoV is this...?
Raymond Park lmao damn thank God I’m not in the ghetto 😂😂😂 I guess my neighbors didn’t get the memo
he caused the riot to start.
I remember in high school I watched this and wondered what it meant. That was like in 2011? YEARS later, i find myself rewatching it again. Man. It hits differently when you start absorbing things when you've become more mature.
I watched it in hs 30yrs ago and understood and it saddens me that u didnt when u were in hs
@@ertfgghhhh yeah didnt' appreciate it as much as I do now.
@@ertfgghhhh Why? He understands it now, that’s what matters
@EVANS what does earth look like from your high horse?
@@ertfgghhhh I remember seeing this movie at 12 or was it 11, and I didn't get it. It wasn't until I was in my late teens I watched it again not knowing it was the same movie it was a totally different experience
Moral gray areas like Mookie’s decisions, or Raheem’s radio blasting, or even Sal breaking the radio, aren’t what should be focused on. Yes, some of those actions are wrong and helped the tensions to rise, but let’s face it. A riot was going to break out no matter what. It didn’t matter if it was then, it didn’t matter if Sal obliged and hung black pictures on the wall, the tensions would still be there. That’s why we should focus on the police’s definite wrong actions of killing Raheem, and the general racism that caused these tensions, not the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Spike Lee did a disservice to the black community with this film. The characters proved Pino right. He portrays black people as ignorant, lazy, and irresponsible. Gave them a message that everyone hates them and their fate is not in their own hands. Why not make a film about a strong black man who helps bring the community together. Instead he made black people into ignorant stereotypes who cannot take care of themselves.
@@kixuh6314 it’s called instigating race wars. That’s why I stopped watching Hollyweird movies and television shows. It’s all a form of brain washing and manipulation. Read books that give wisdom and knowledge. If I want to be entertained, I just read fantasy novels or conspiracies. Not a movie or tv show that constantly talks about race and politics 24/7. Everything is getting politicized nowadays I’m fed up and would honestly just forget about the whole shit. I’d rather go back to just reading good books.
@@Turboman-kx7cc facts
@@Turboman-kx7cc If you think your books aren't political you're not reading them. Just read Starship Troopers or Game of Thrones and you'll see it.
@@derektran9404 starship troopers has a book? Wtf I didn’t know that.
When I first saw this movie in school, it was way above my head. This analysis has been awesome. I understand this movie in a new way.
When I first saw Mookie grab the trash can, I thought he was going to slam it on the ground to silence everyone and then start monologuing about how this pointless conflict took the life of his friend.
Same lmao, it would’ve made the movie much worse and predictable however
That's probably the most rational and ethical thing to do in that situation (plus taking about how they need to work towards systemic changes and whatnot). But that's not how normal people react to their friend being unjustly murdered and definently wouldn't make for as good of an ending.
Sal was his friend to
@@caseymckenzie144 Sal also doubled down and tried to justify the murder of Raheem. At that point any friendship Mookie felt for him was understandably gone.
@@noahmclaughlin7921Salvatore who was being choked to near death by this same guy? I would be surprised if such a person was able to turn the other cheek. We forgetting that? The Police was excessive but not because herr derr racism but choking and resisting arrest. Instead Mookie helps destroy the business of the guy who was giving him work despite his Edit: "evidently" crappy work ethic. The guy who was proud to be serving a black community and was one of the few businesses there.
Did he do the right thing? Technically, no. But I might’ve done the same had I been in his position. Plus, his friend was killed in front of his face, so he was emotional. Most people who look at this movie are using logic. Emotion is irrational and doesn’t respond to logic.
his friend was killed by police, why take the easy path of destroying his boss pizzeria instead of going to destroy the police precinct? Sal did not killed him, he even was about to get killed by Radio, he was choking him down, heck, he did not even called the cops, why take it against Sal?
@@mariovargas2733 & if You were Sal are and onlooker who knew the situation would you Say that. " Sal Did ANYTHING WRONG "?? IM JUST ASKING.
There is no right choice in this situation. What he did was the closest thing to it
@@ctaylah bullshit... the right choice was definitive not 'burning down some random guys store'
He didn’t do the wrong thing though. The only one that actually did anything wrong was the cops
This channel doesn't get the recognition it deserves
It got the appreciation from me for sure.
Agreed
Spike has made two of the greatest films American of history Do The Right Thing & Malcolm X. He got an Oscar recently and that was just a token reward.
Well, considering that it was Spike Lee, I think he was right.
One of the all-time biggest snubs for best picture.
Jeremy Stubbs Agreed.
It cannot be a snub, as it was nominated for Best Picture. You mean Robbed for the win??
@@Red-pv7kx You must've deleted your reply because I do not see it, but let me reply since I still got the notification.
"Snub, rebuff, or ignore disdainfully, therefore anything that has been ignored is considered a snub"
It cannot be considered ignored because out of all of the nominees, AND THE WINNER, it is the most well known. Same goes for rebuffed. It was not rejected in an ungracious manner. There was a voting process and this film was not chosen. The term to be used here, and I cannot stand that one, either, is robbed. It was not ignored, nor was it rejected as it had a chance to win Best Picture at the Oscars. A 1 in 5 chance. There were hundreds of films released that year, and DTRT was picked as a nominee. No snub.
JloveLamar My comment’s still there and seeing as you didn’t see it in it’s entirety, I’m not going to even bother respond.
Just because something has acclaim 25 years later after release, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a snubbed. It was snubbed (ignored) by the Academy.
E.g. “Bradley Cooper was snubbed for best director” is a phrase most top 10 sites for snubs are using.
@@Red-pv7kx They can absolutely say they believe he was snubbed for Best Director. HE DIDN'T GET A NOMINATION!
This video is the best answer to why the nationwide riots are currently occurring.
That's the truth, Ruth.
Yup, pretty much. Dumb, angry people do dumb, angry things.
Doesn't explain the white kids
marcohelminth They’re minor characters who pretty much explain themselves over the course of the film.
Forget this video... this movie is the best answer as to why the riots are happening
The genius of the ending is that it makes you question whether you reacted more strongly to the burning down of a pizzeria or the unjust death of a man. Why? What does that mean about you?
A bully gets killed, so let's burn down innocent people's business. Nice logic
Sal didn't kill Raheem or have a hand in his death. Might as well burn the street for the good it will do
A very good point
@@jafooli You have no idea how stupid you are
@@BOZ_11 The fact that you completely missed the point says a lot about you too. Innocent man being murdered vs innocent man’s business being burned to the ground. Are you really not getting it?
Radio Raheem saying 'Static' at that time doesn't mean not changing, it means, conflict.
so maybe how that word is being interpreted is the problem.. one group sees conflict that needs to be resolved, and another group sees a never ending situation so why bother getting involved..🤔🤔🤔
@@BlackPDigitalMedia almost. It's just like yin and yang. One side looking for righteousness or a black and white world. The other side experiencing all the shades of gray and accepting them.
Oh raheem knew how to cause some static.
It is so weird that Gus Fring is Buggin' Out in this movie.
Nope because to US he was BOOGA NOW and BIG BROTHER ALMIGHT-Y before her was GUS❤🖤💚✊
@@submissiveproviderstboth9485 ikr??? Smh. They are soo egocentric as if life doesnt start until THEY acknowledge u
His range is astonishing
I saw the movie when it originally came out years ago and just haven't had the stomach to see it again. It's a good movie, but hits too close to home. My 18 year old, honor-student-athlete nephew, died by the hands of police officers who claimed they were "in fear for their lives", when they pulled him over for a tail light 15 years ago. As Karma would have it, 1 cop died of cancer that slowly let the hate and rot inside of his body kill him. And another died from suicide because he was getting ready to go to prison for killing his wife and kids. Your analysis was spot on, white people talk about the "damage to property" but refuse to talk about the murder by cops of Radio Raheem. Property to them, means more than a man's life.
Donna Cee +
+
Donna Cee I'm really sorry about your nephew.
An attack on your property is an attack on yourself.
The Crimson fucker oh fuck off
Finally watched this film. I feel there is duality presented in doing the right thing, love and hate, the Martin and Malcolm quotes, Mother Sister and Da mayor, between Sal’s sons, the right thing is subjective, not objective. Also the film constantly shows the tension rising, as well as literally the heat. We see the talks between characters, the racial taunts spoken to the camera by characters, the gentrification, the local business getting out run by the bigger newer business (ice cone man vs the ice cream truck) and in this predominantly black community they have the least power, the least respect, the least say. You could say they are the loudest, with radio raheem and public enemy on the boom box, Bugging out vocal protests of Sals, even the riot... but the sad thing is they are not listen too, even to this day.
That´s true. People use to pay attention to the loudest events. How can u cocern about property when a human life was lost.
I like how during the stereotype scene, Lee zooms in on everyone the same way. Essentially equating all racism as equal, by just the way every racist statement in the scene is shot exactly the same, Spike is saying it doesn't matter what the color of your skin is, if you're racist, you're racist.
@@K1ng1995I appreciate the film in one sense, despite his own particular perspective, Shelton Jackson Lee made a film that the other side of the equation can agree with too (No, not racists but those that do not subscribe to that race relations shtick.).
I just saw this film for my "intro to cinema" class! This was *way* more in-depth than our class discussion
When he says that all this stuff happens and nothing ever gets done about it, really puts it into perspective and Do the Right Thing is definitely one of the greatest films of all time.
As one who was born in Bed Stuy and was 18 when that film was released, I can assure the narrator that when Radio Raheem says "Static" at 9:03,He meant Beef,Friction,basically opposing forces.
You got beef? and you want some static? meant the same thing back in The 80's.
Although,on second thought,two equally opposing forces,would create a technically static situation.
My favorite new film analysis channel. I wish I could do these kinds of things and actually make money lol
Sometimes you have to punch back. Just make sure you punch the right guy.
Who else watching this in 2020 like “nailed it”
Malcolm X ended up ultimately changing his views to favour MLK's ideas of unity. After separating from the Nation of Islam, he indulged in self-discovery in Mecca and came to the conclusion that separation was not the way forward. This was what killed him, as members of the Nation despised that sentiment and believed in black-only unity, so he was ironically killed by preachers of his own sentiments of necessary violence, whom used said beliefs to justify it. Whether you agree with his sentiments that violence is sometimes justified or not, I think it says a lot when 2 great men ended up being killed by 2 very different ideologies which had only violence in common. Not only was it destructive to the enemy, it was also self-destructive.
Umm no he didn't
OGxLyfe Speaks lmaoo. So clear and direct. Haha.
Hmmmmm, yes but......the fbi helped. The fbi saw people who hated Malcolm x, and helped take out a common enemy. What was genius was the fact that the fbi could hide behind nazi like bastards (Farakhan and those guys) to kill malcolm x
George Kafiridis lmao, the fbi did take no risks. Especially when they saw he was less politically correct, they took no risks with Malcolm X too when they saw he was more concerned about unity. Unfortunate, at least we can learn from it all
Not true, Malcolm X never accepted the views of Dr. King and always accepted that Separation was the best road toward Freedom. He however, was willing to accept any help from where he didn't consider reaching out to prior leaving the NOI
Great choice for the times we're in.
The movie never stopped being relevant.
What times? Life gets better and better every day for everyone.
@@JNadobnik not really
@@JNadobnik nah
"Nah" "not really"-great arguments you fellows got there! 🤭
Finally! I was waiting for this. Thanks, ScreenPrism!
It boils down to the two quotes at the end of the movie. If you side with MLK, he didn't. If you side with X, he did. Both could be seen as correct. The human condition is a struggle between these two philosophies. Even though it was a violent act, it brought public attention to the violence and injustice of the police in that community.
Not to sound facile, but it didn't. It might be an understandable reaction to seeing a policeman kill someone in cold blood to start a riot, but it isn't constructive. If this were real life it would just been reported in the press as a race riot in which an Italian owned business was burned out and a man died at the hands of police. He's not transformed into some civil rights hero by dint of his act of vandalism, you can empathise with his desperation but Mookie was, ultimately, a loser throughout the film. People who want to change things don't start riots, they make films about them.
@@joshradcliffe8563 About that last line, what about events like the French or American revolution? Didn't they first start as riots or protests? Would they have worked if there were movies made out of the motives?
Watching this movie always makes me feel like taking a shower
Dirty America.
I went and got a couple slices of pizza right after lol
The whole point was everyone created the event at the end. Nobody did the right thing. Cops didnt, Sal didnt, Mookie didnt and the three guys who wanted a black person on the wall of the pizza place didnt either. The movie was a message to the country and to all races that we all need to do the right thing together.
@scarosone14 Out of everyone in this comment section, I think you're the most accurate. Despite Lee's interview where he explains he leans towards Mooki being right, at the basis of the movie's ideology, everyone was causing "static". This is evident the anti-climatic lack of change or "arc" of the characters. This is Lee telling us that reality doesn't have "Speilberg ending".
I think people are missing this whole thing…sal didn’t do anything wrong!!!! He requested for the music to be turned off and they didn’t comply!!! He broke the boom box and radio attacked him,cops showed up outta no where and killed rahim. Yet people are blaming him for what??? What was he supposed to do in a crowd full of angry blacks?
@@zamasu9396 He smashed the boombox, shouted slurs to get radio raheem riled up, refused to hear buggin out's complaints from the very beginning, largely tolerated his son's racism, and when the rioters asked him about raheem's death, he clearly showed no remorse. He isn't a terrible guy, but alot of his actions, and also inaction, directly contributed to the riot
@@AhmedMahmoud-fb1ug they shouted slurs at him first, he smashed the radio because they were blasting it is his face and screaming in HIS fucking business, HE DOESNT HAVE TO LISTEN TO BUGGIN OUTS COMPLAINTS....it’s his fucking restaurant, he didn’t tolerate his sons racism or any racism, he talked to him about it and told him why he was wrong in a compassionate fatherly way, the death of Raheem was 100% on Buggin Out and he took advantage of radio Raheem. Let’s also not forget that radio Raheem tried to literally kill sal and was very close. Sal did absolutely nothing wrong, the police did. How tf do you not understand that? It really baffles me. I think you’re a little racist and have a bias against white people.
@@AhmedMahmoud-fb1ug Yeah, people who saw Sal as a good guy condones a more benign form of racism. Not to mention he was obviously putting on moves on Mookie's sister, who was much younger than him, and lying to others and probably himself about his true motives.
This movie still rings loud even in 2018 and it’s a damn shame that it still does.
@Death To Diaper Ghouls how can it have failed? This is a human story not just a black story, you understand everything they feel right? Maybe you dont and have no empathy but whatever, we are growing stronger as those who hate are dying.
@RUclips Veterinarian Really
You made an error - The Malcolm X quote was very specific about when violence is justified. Not "certain situations" as you said, but in Self-Defense; a very significant distinction.
wow THANK YOU for making this analysis on do the right thing!!! I watched this film in class years ago and always wanted to discuss it more. I found this channel a couple days ago and am shocked that you guys also made an analysis on this movie. Read my mind!! Keep up the good work.
i feel like whether or not mookie did 'the right thing' is ultimately not the point. the point is that mookie, a man who is ultimately powerless, exerting the only kind of power he can in the face of his friend's murder. grief can make us all do things that might not be 'right' but are 'understandable'. after all, who can mookie vent to aside from the rest of his community (the other black people)? he cant vent to any of the non black folk in his neighbourhood because they also have a stake in anti blackness, and he obviously cant go to the cops, so instead he acts out, the way people often do when they see no other way to express themselves.
and i found it interesting and understandable that only white people asked why mookie threw the garbage can, because they have never faced this level of frustration. america was more or less built on the tenants of white supremacy, so white people wouldnt be able to understand why someone would react in a violent way to smthn like raheem's murder, because they have never faced it. im not black myself but i am a poc so i can also understand the frustration mookie feels (although not entirely since im not black).
i feel like the world is due for another movie like 'do the right thing'.
I agree
Cody Smith so they loot and burn down someone else’s property and someone dies as a result. Yet the people who start and finish the destruction are not to blame. Pathetic.
No one in this movie was a saint. In case you forgot, Radio was about to literally kill Sal. The cops definitely overstepped by killing him, as they already had him restrained, but there is no absolute right or wrong in this film. And you don't have to be a person of color to understand or empathize with someone's grief due to an unjust act. It may not be exactly the same, but people of color aren't the only people capable of suffering or experiencing stuff like that.
@akshay satish yes, my favorite character in the film.
He chooses to be powerless. That's the message people should take away. You can buy into victimhood mentality so you can blame the system, or you can take responsibility for yourself and rise above it, like many people of all stripes do. His sister's character had the right mindset. Our wealth and power comes from our ability to add value. Slacking off at work, not taking responsibility as a parent seriously etc. hurts nobody more than oneself.
Many new immigrants come to the USA with almost nothing, no local education, some without even a basic grasp of the language, and achieve greater heights than people who were born and raised here. If the culture in the USA is so oppressive/racist/dis-empowering, why do people still flock here from all over the world?
"Do the right thing" should be literal. Violence does not add value, it destroys value. Acting out on emotion does not add value, it wastes time and energy. Educate yourself (it's easier than ever with the Internet), learn a skill, provide value, invest in yourself and lift yourself out of whatever misfortune you truly happen to suffer - and count your blessing for being born in a country people are dying to get into rather than fighting and dying to escape (both literally).
Seriously well done. Not only was your analysis on point, but the way you incorporated parts from the movie and external sources was very clever, too.
It’s such a good film and does a good job of showing varied perspectives... however I struggle to feel like Mookie did the right thing. I think he figured out that there isn’t always a right thing to do, so he opted to at least do *something*... it wasn’t productive and it only created more pain, but it was the one thing he had power to affect, so he did it
It's a tough question to answer. It's pretty hard to blame his anger when his friend just got murdered by people who are supposed to be forces of justice and morality. I also think that violent riots are unethical and usually unproductive. And while Sal does share some of the blame in getting tensions to that boiling point, he still isn't the one who killed Raheem and therefore he debatably didn't deserve what happened. Although I don't feel too much sympathy for him after he tried to justify Raheem's death, if he showed some remorse they probably wouldn't have been quite as angry at him. Of course Mookie also vented his anger on the Pizzareia and not the cops who are actual murderers. It's attacking a symptom of the problem and not the root cause (cops are also products of the system in our society but they also have imbalanced power over most and not good justifications for it, so they're still very much at fault). So it's unproductive and could be used by people who don't want any changes/to justify racism towards black people as an excuse for that. On the other hand, yo could argue Mookie not doing anything would also be bad at this point. He just saw his friend get murdered, it feels wrong to do nothing after that. So it's a complex issue where his action wasn't good but he really had no good options, or very few at least.
@@noahmclaughlin7921The guy was trying to murder Salvatore, I hardly think he was going to be saddened when he himself died. Stop trying to blame a victim. I am not going to claim he should have died but Radio Raheem was hardly a bystander. He was in the process of murdering and resisting arrest. The Police went too far maybe but not trying to murder helps too.
The part where da mayor saves the kid from getting hit by a car is the only part in the whole movie in which someone actually does the right thing.
When sal gives a speech to his son of his proudness of owning a shop and seeing grow people, he did the right thing. And when the little brother tells the other one Mookie treats him better and he trusts him independently of his colour, he did the right thing.
One of the most aggravating things I always find about the discussion over this movie is the omission of the fact that Radio was about to kill Sal over a broken radio he wouldn't turn off inside someone else's establishment. The NYPD villainous caricature isn't enough to make me appalled over the situation, because he attempted murder and then kept resisting arrest. The "ambiguity" of the ending only comes from writing contrivances, logical shortcuts and a director who was never really interested in presenting both sides.
I dunno, they had him pretty well under control. Though I did read that a collection of incidents like this led to the NYPD being issued with tasers, to give them an intermediate level of force to use between that provided by a baton and that provided by a gun. The other cop telling the killer to stop was enough for me, and you see the way the killer cop is portrayed throughout the film- he's spoiling for a fight......much like Buggin Out is, who is just as rabid but without the social power (I suspect Lee's point, knowing his politics) to "get away with it". We see him carted off to the police station, spitting and squirming but powerless, and are left to presume that the death of Raheem was covered up.
So someone being murdered doesn’t upset you? No wonder this world is full of hate. Clearly your blinded by race, it’s evident in your disgusting attempt to vilify a murdered black man.
akshay satish guilt doesn’t justify lethal force.
@@hiyall142 if he was white would you say the same thing? or would you say he shouldn't have been killed, but also did something incredibly stupid and dangerous?
I agree with you
"the riot starts out of nowhere" Radio Rahem was just killed
Not one person ever acknowledged radio raheem was choking sal to death.
RUclips Veterinarian how was he walking around with a attitude?? Dude was literally bumping his radio minding his own business majority of the movie...
"Radio Raheem like a muhhfucka!" You don't fuck with Radio's ghettoblaster with those "motherfuckin D batteries!" A white guy that bashes a radio playing "Fight the Power" with a wooden bat is symbolic of white oppression.
@@Chellemdogg with a baseball bat, not only a weapon used in so many hate crimes against black people but also a symbol of america. baseball is the great american pastime after all
Wow interesting take 😂
I know I’ve been in quarantine too long because this video made me cry bro
How is this even a question? Mookie was 100% in the *wrong.* Let's look at the facts:
- Right after closing his restaurant for the day, Sal opens it once more and happily welcomes four more (black) customers, despite Mookie telling them that they're closed for the day.
- As they're eating, Buggin' Out and Radio Raheem enter the restaurant without permission, screaming and legally trespassing. Additionally, Raheem is blaring his music at night, constituting noise pollution.
- Previously in the film, Raheem had blared his radio in Sal's restaurant and Sal had to yell several times to get him to turn it off.
- Buggin' Out demands Sal add black faces to his wall. Now, let's think about this: Sal is an Italian American running an Italian American restaurant serving Italian American food. It makes perfect sense for him to post pictures of famous Italian Americans to both reflect his heritage as well as the theme of the restaurant. It isn't a racist statement, and it would make no sense for him to add photos of black people. Furthermore, Buggin' Out never employed a civil approach, which might actually have worked in the beginning. But now, after yelling and whining throughout the entire film, he storms in uninvited (again, trespassing) and demands that Sal put up photos of black people. Hell, even if Sal wanted to, what was he supposed to do in that moment? Immediately rifle through newspapers, find and cut out pictures of famous black people, run to the printers', buy a bunch of frames and nails, and then hang up photos after having closed for the night? What the hell were Buggin' Out and Raheem hoping to accomplish other than make complete asses of themselves and frighten a small business owner?
- Raheem escalates the situation by continuing to blare his music.
- Buggin' Out escalates the situation even further by calling Sal a "guinea," an ethnic slur against Italians.
- Sal reacts by calling Buggin' Out the N word. This is the first (and really only) clearly wrong thing that Sal does. But even this is something he does under _extreme_ duress.
- Raheem refuses to turn his radio off, so Sal destroys it. The alternative would have been to call the cops, but Sal went for the quicker and quieter solution.
- Raheem accepts this and reacts peacefully by leaving. Haha, just kidding. He LITERALLY TRIES TO STRANGLE SAL.
- Peno fights Raheem in a perfectly-justified attempt to save his father's life.
- The police arrive and end up arresting Buggin' Out (thank god) and killing Raheem. This is obviously a case of police brutality and likely murder. But note again that Sal did not call the police.
- People start to attack Sal and his family and threaten the Koreans (who were entirely peaceful themselves).
- Mookie takes out his anger and grief over losing Raheem by going after the police. Haha, just kidding. He... breaks the window of a guy who isn't involved with law enforcement at all and was almost entirely a helpless victim himself that same night.
- As Sal points out, it isn't just about the money. Sure, his insurance can help him rebuild, financially. But Sal built his business from the ground up and it was destroyed for no good reason.
So, yes, Mookie was wrong. Completely, utterly wrong. Were the police more wrong by killing a man? Of course they were. But - and I think most people seem to forget this, bafflingly - _Sal is not a cop._ Sal did not even _call_ the cops. Nothing suggests that he wanted Raheem dead. Two wrongs don't make a right, and by destroying Sal's window, Mookie likely helped normalize senseless violence in the wake of tragedy. Even if we are to accept Malcolm X as being right here, the violence he was referring to was in self defense. Violence against aggressors who are oppressing you. So in this case it would mean protecting oneself against a violent police officer. But that was not at all the case here.
Great analysis. Agree.
Agreed. Buggin’ out was creating a problem that didn’t exist. He could have just eaten somewhere else if he didn’t like that there were no black athletes on the wall of the pizzeria.
Perhaps the message is that you cannot have any self defence against the police, since they would shoot you? So the only option are those close to the conflict. Also I'll say, I do not think you could consider Raheem playing music as escalating, since he clearly does that always, which Sal would know, meaning it is totally expected. Not escalating behaviour, normal.
Sal took the insurance money and opened another Pizzeria in Florida. To this day the building is still gutted from the fire and is one less place for the neighborhood to eat at.
I just watched this movie in my film appreciation class and it automatically became one of my favorite movies
people can't see the hate that is inherent in Mookie. And rightfully so, they will never be at the same level, because they've started from different levels to begin with. WE have to work with this understanding in mind, otherwise we won't get anywhere.
This is a fantastic analysis. I really like this channel a lot, and Do The Right Thing is one of my all time favorite movies. I hope people rewatch it after seeing this video essay with new, open eyes. Its message is still so incredibly relevant in our country and world. Keep up the great work y'all!
I understand that Mookie needed to vent his frustration, but now he's out of a job and the neighborhood lost a pizzeria.
I'm going to quote Thor from the cartoon Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes "Broken bones, broken buildings. These things can be rebuilt but broken friendships that's something entirely different
Sal's going to get insurance money there's no question about it, but Radio Raheem isn't coming back. How would you have felt if one of your best friends was literally murdered right in front of you? By people whose job is to SERVE AND PROTECT their communities.
@@K1ng1995it still is no fault of the pizza place. Why didn't he throw it at the police car,since he was so indignant of them?
One of my favorite movies ever.
it was always funny to me that no one asked "did Sal do the right thing?" "did the police do the right thing?" but it's showing that we ask Mookie, a broke pizza guy who's apart of the most oppressed community, if he did the right thing. how do you do right, in a system that is inherently wrong?
Was Sal oppressing him?
Because in a lot of ways, Mookie appeared to be one of the people that wanted to live peacefully and bridge worlds. But in the end, he did partake in the escalation of racial violence.
You're right though. It's damn near impossible to do the right thing in those circumstances.
I think most people don't ask if the cops did the right thing because we KNOW that they're fucked and it was completely wrong.
It's because Mookie is the protagonist.
It is because Mookie is the protagonist and he is the one that is told to do the right thing.
in the mood for pizza now!
Mookie did not do the right thing because Sal treated him well. Taking anger over Raheem out on Sal was wrong. Throw the can at a police car, testify as a witness that's the right thing. It's Sals business Raheem and Buggin crossed the line. Of course Raheem didn't deserve to be killed.
To be fair, Sal's son Pino insulted Mookie a little bit sometimes.
@@michaeldiekmann6494 this is no" fair"
@@michaeldiekmann6494 pino is a giant prick the entire film really
Raheem was about to kill Sal... so the police stopped him. They went overboard and Raheem got killed. But I can't call that a tragedy. Someone robs a store and gets shot by the police, that's not a tragedy.
This and Jungle Fever is one hell of a racist movie. Everything is so black and white in Spike Lee's head that I begin to feel disgusted. What I take from watching Do the Right Thing is that don't start a business in a black neighborhood if you're not black and that every race should keep to themselves, oh and that most black people are stereotypical loudmothed assholes, and being nice to them is a mistake apparently. Yay for racial segregation I guess.
In The Quiet American, the Vietnamese translator to Michael Caine's character makes the same point that you make in this fine take on Do The Right Thing. Michael Caine's character keeps repeating that, as a news journalist, he is simply in French controlled Vietnam to report the news. But at the end of the movie, "to remain human," he finally chooses a side, for whatever reason. This is the greatest take on a movie that I have ever watched. Thank You
As a youngster I love this movie and was on the side of BugginOut and Radio Raheem. As a over 40 rational thinking with a little bit of wisdom adult. This movie shows the defiant and irrational thinking of African American males in the hood that seems to be common. Though this is a classic movie however my take on it as a over 40 adult African American male is not the most favorable. Don't you think something different could have been done to prevent Radio Raheem to be killed and to prevent a whole community from being damage including a favorite pizza hang out spot? All the ending drama over pictures on the wall? The right thing was not done. If the right thing was done then Radio Raheem would be alive and the community wouldn't have been destroyed. Sometimes doing the right maynot please the inner evil side of man however it's the right thing to do.
I disagree. The problem is black people are forced to think that a death like Raheem's is our fault. It is not. As Lee said, black life is devalued. Sal could've put a picture on the wall it wouldn't have killed him. If anything it would've helped his business.
Cops had no reason to kill Radio Raheem, end of story. The second you feel that because you are black you have to move more carefully, you have been marginalized.
Finally a good comment
I would say the right thing would have been for Sal to put up the pictures. Something so simple that even made sense considering where the pizzeria was located. And yet he stubbornly refused.
Due to his ignorance, and unconscious racism he ultimately was the catalyst to his business burning down and the riot.
Good take - but I think that is also kind of the point of the movie. Sal's pictures were just his way of rightfully promoting his own culture. Radio Raheem's music was his way of promoting his people's culture. Both should be allowed to do this. Sal, as the owner of the shop, could more easily and passively express this. Raheem, without a platform or power, has to resort to a more 'in your face' approach to promoting his culture. And perhaps that's how it is for many young African Americans - without the platform/power it is harder to break through and be relevant, to be heard. Sure, you can be too aggressive about it, and sometimes a more conciliatory approach with your fellow human is more productive. And that goes to the core of DTRT - Love and Hate. The whole movie is a dance between getting along with each other whilst confronting our differences, issues and injustices.
One thing I would say about BugginOut was that he was a bit of a hypocrite; on the one hand he's saying that surely Sal can make room for one or two pictures of black people, and yet he is not so happy to have Clifton, a white man, living on his block, on his side of the street. (Although the point of that scene was more to highlight what a "Free Country" means in the context of comparing White and Black Americans.)
@@YusefOtesh8880 It's his pizzeria, he's not to be dictated what to put on the wall
As a white guy who grew up street in 60s DC, this film is a masterpiece. It is as authentic as it gets.
You probably saw some crazy stuff... 60's DC, wow.
His character is mindfully and actively peaceful, not passive. I don’t like the narrative kept calling him that.
Screenprism is my favourite tv/movie channel on youtube. Analyses are so in depth and multifaceted. Amazing work.
Why cant it be both Mookie protecting Sal and Mookie being angry? Something that people tend to forget about art is that its subjective; it doesnt matter what Lee says Mookies motives are. Once art is released public it's open to public interpretation.
He did scream "hate" before throwing the can, and the next day when he's talking to Sal he seems to show no remorse, so I don't know if that would make sense
Because it is not about Sal…Sal is not the victim at this point… there is now a dead man involved…
@@FromThe7thFloor A dead man who wasn't killed by Sal. A man who searched for troubles
@@FromThe7thFloorno but he became a victims the moment that trash can was thrown even if you don't value property the man was still choked out and had his livelihood destroyed
Rarely comment on youtube videos. I had to take time to say this was absolute brilliant commentary, analysis, and breakdown of this movie. Keep going guys! Wishing your channel the best.
Any other film students making notes from this? Great video btw!
Sal's tragic flaw was that instead of standing up to the Germans he grew up around, who lorded it over Italians as lower on the totem pole in New York, he built a pizzeria in a black neighborhood and lorded it over black people who were lower on the totem pole than Italians. He became what he hated.
Himaryous or here me out he was trying to run a pizza shop and when he refused service to someone they rioted
Alucard Bunche not true they most of them were even on his side during the movie until he started saying racist shit lol
@@alucardbunche4197 Wow, what an unaware racist
@@goku8621 I'm not seeing people mention the creepy moves he put on Mookie's sister.
He never "lorded it" over the black people. With the exception of Raheem and Buggin' Out (who were constantly giving _him_ trouble first), he treated black people with kindness. He even opened his doors for some of them after his restaurant had already closed. Not to mention that any other racist white guy would have fired Mookie for being a terrible employee.
Mookie was right to be angry, at the ones who murdered his friend not the pizzeria.
A hero stands up for themselves or others against injustice. Mookie vs. murderers
A bully cowers before his enemies and takes his frustrations on others. Mookie vs. Sal
Mookie did not do the right thing
This. This is why Spike Lee is actually dead wrong with those two quotes at the end. Self Defense is as American as apple pie and I'll be damned if every black family in America should not have at least one member of their house ready to light up any tiki torch wielding fuckhead who tries to attack them, but acting violently towards people because they LOOK like people who have done you wrong, or are not as angry about injustice as you, and treating them as if they were themselves are the perpetrators, is not the right thing. Never will be.
@El Fenomeno Sal didn't kill him. LOL
Sal was the reason the situation escalates to the point where radio was killed
@@martinmoore1769 Sal screwed up, but Rookie was the source of the problem, all over god damned pictures
@@martinmoore1769Radio Raheem was the reason the situation escalated
The only sane man in that place is the old man but people called him insane.
Not going to lie. I watched the video just to hear her say "mookie" 😍
Love that voice
Mookie did not "Do the Right Thing". As a boyfriend to Tina he was undependable. As a father to Hector he was negligent. As a brother to Jade he was a poor older sibling example. As an employee of Sal's he took extended lunches and was disrespectful to his employer. Mookie incited the riot that led to the destruction of Sal's pizza restaurant. The movie "Do the Right Thing" (unintentionally?) made black people look like lazy, ignorant, racists who blame everyone but themselves for their poor choices in life.
Radio Raheem cared more about his stupid damaged radio than Sal's life
I viewed it as Mookie sort of saved Sal and his sons. It deflected what could have turned into a lynch mob into some serious property damage, but nothing deadly. Whether he did that intentionally or not, I don't know, but you sense he had a lot of respect for Sal throughout the film.
I always felt that the point was we don't know if Mookie did the right thing. I've always debated whether he threw that garbage can out of sudden rage or to save Sal and his family. We'll never know and think that's the point.
spike siad it's not the latter AT ALL
Aaron Starks did you watch the video? The director says that's not why he did it
You gotta trolling us lmao!
He started the riot out of grief for Radio Raheem. The shark doesn't stir unless he smells blood...
Spike Lee says in the video that the latter was not the case. Funny thing for me is that I always figured the trash can was thrown because of Radio Raheem's death; the theory about it being to protect Sal and his sons never occured to me but it does make sense, had the true intention not been explained here. One could have pointed out that one person had already died and that the riot actually saved the lives of three more. Also, (and I haven't really seen this mentioned before), some of the people in the crowd turn around to go and do the same to the Korean-owned shop across the street, which would have caused more destruction and possibly more death, had Sonny not spoken up.
And to think Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture and Do the Right Thing wasn't even nominated.
I saw Spike Lee at a college and several black students asked about why Mookie did it.
So he's either full of shit or it never happened before I saw it.
He's most likely full of shit because he's a known racist.
@ParselyBunny Shut the fuck up with that white guilt trash NOBODY HAS EXPERIENCED ACTUAL OPRESSION IN AMERICA IN FIFTY YEARS. Not black, brown, red, white, or yellow. It hasn't been socially acceptable for someone to be spit on and called a racial slur in a long fucking time, and cops don't just shoot black people for fun but statistically black people are more likely to resist arrest and then grab a fucking gun from their waist so they get THEMSELVES shot.
@ParselyBunny I think it's a bit more nuanced than that, and it's partly why I don't view Lee as a racist (though, as a White person, I can see the arguments for it, plus he's made contemptuous comments, and a contemptuous film, about mixed couples). The drenching of Frank Vincent's character's car being case in point, Vincent's character was belligerent but the street kids were still escalating the situation by doing what they did (so he shows us both sides of racial tension- the baiting on both sides). The police turned up, same officers as we see later, and skillfully defused the situation.
@ParselyBunny It's the causal connection, or lack thereof, between what Sal did (smashing the radio) and what Raheem did (choking him) and what the cop did (killing Raheem). But yeah, I accept your point and I think it was Lee's point- social power is vested, he would say, almost entirely in Whites and so the excesses of the Whites are ultimately more harmful. That said, Raheem was not just 'attacking' Sal, he was choking him seriously as we can clearly see- Sal could have ended up dead. Now, the difference between Sal ending up dead at Raheem's hands and Raheem ending up dead the hands of a cop is stark too- one is a common or garden murder, one is a very sinister abuse of power.
You ladies never cease to amaze me! I watch all of your videos! Keep surprising us!
Insightful as always ladies
I still remember, til this day. The ending was so controversial. A group of black men got so angry one of them jumped over the seats kicking me in the shoulder. I was 24 at the time. I got angry and said something to one of the black men. Before you knew it. I ended up fighting all three men. I will never forget that day!
The moral of the story is stick to your own kind 😂
Thank you for covering less currently mainstream movies, it really sets you guys apart. Every other channel does an analysis on big modern blockbuster films, but the content you guys publish is always unique, insightful and creative.
I'm never sure how I feel about the ending but I never had trouble with the explanation of "law/rule is how it it and you not liking it doesn't matter". But the characters frustration with that feels even more real. Nobody forced the characters to commit the crimes they committed and even that makes it more tragic.
And to be fair, Radio Raheem was resisting arrest had committed multiple assaults against cops and civilians beforehand and didn't response to pleas from anyone so force was reasonably justified in my eyes.
Yeah same. It was not some poor black man being shot because he put his hands up (Oh wait he was reaching for the gun.) but a guy choking to near-death another man and resisting arrest. You can argue it was taken too far but you cannot argue it was racial bull@#£%.
Man fuck that they were constantly annoying sal and making business hard for him. The trio and radio rahims death was reasonable he was fighting a man for enforcing his store policy. Not only that, but when the cops came he started fighting them. He was dangerous and pretty dull.
This was a great video, loved that you gave the viewer room to make their own perception while presenting evidence
The quote that Mr Lee said is just too real; I saw the movie maybe 5 to 6 years ago and have never, nor even for a moment, questioned the actions that Mookie did. Bc I understood that anger, that frustration, that sudden drive to do something, that makes you feel that if you don't do a thing about it you may explode, and today, 6/05/2020, after the unfortunate events which resulted in the murder of George Floyd, I being feeling the same way + sorrow , which makes almost terapeutic to watch this great analysis of this excellent joint. I would probably revisit it in the next couple of days and surelly will encourage a lot of ppl to watch it
Hi, my name is Smiley. This is Martin and this is Malcolm.
The problem with this movie is the fact Buggin out caused this whole thing. That man never got blamed either. Nobody should be mad to do something like that in their own place.
This movie tried to warn us about the Trump presidency. Theres a scene where the two cops are in the pizzeria and one cop jokingly says to Sal "Did you remember to put two straws in there Mr. Trump?" The other cop says "I've been there, Trump's Pizza." The first cop corrects him and says its called Trump Plaza. This shit blew my mind when i watched the movie again last week.
When I watched the ending I started crying because of how easy Radio Rahem was killed. I didnt because of Sals place.
@Jo Ol They would've been killed if they came anywhere close tot he police, you missed the whole point.
@@smurfydayso the point is to be a coward and hurt the people who look like the people that hurt you?
What a great film. I wonder if Spike is going to do anything for the 30th anniversary next year.
The film is top-tier stuff.
Do the right thing is a story about LOVE and HATE. Radio Raheem stated earlier in the movie that the rings he wore symbolized LOVE/HATE, a tale of good and evil. Love is the right hand and Hate is the left hand. It was with the left hand that Cain killed his brother. The 5 fingers of the right hand goes straight to the soul of man and represents love. Love and Hate are always fighting with each other, producing static (radio). It appears as if hate is winning the fight at first, but Love eventually defeats the hate by knocking hate to the ground with a mean right hook (fight the power).
The Mayor told Mookie at the beginning of the film to always do the right thing. The Mayor also tried to diffuse the situation prior to them torching Sal's pizzeria. The Mayor was thinking in terms of love.
What is the right thing you ask?
Love is the right thing to do, but hate won this time.
Did you notice at the end when Radio Raheem falls down that he land's on the fist that says love 👊
@@67tr876 wow no I didn't catch that! I'm going to go and look at it again.
You guys deserve an award. I honestly am so impressed by your insight into so many varying topics and the fact that you can discuss film and TV from the cinematic technicalities to the deep social contexts. Bravo.
Also you've really inspired me to check out things I might not normally. Dear White People looked interesting but I didn't actually watch it until I saw your video. And then I binged the whole season in a day. It can be uncomfortable to be confronted with inequality and the fact that to some degree I'm implicit. But that's why stories are important, they can take us outside of our personal experience to understand what is largely unknown to us.
And though I'll never understand exactly what Mookie experiences, I do know how it feels to be hopless and victimized. Sometimes all you can do is break a window.
A monumental art by one of the most important humans of our age.
He never does the right thing.
He is useless at work. He is unaccountable.
He really only wants to destroy his boss. He messes with the boss' kids the whole movie, undermines the boss every time he speaks, demands money before finishing his day, but barely even works.
He wanted a riot against his boss from the beginning.
When his boss flirted with his sister, he was disgusted.
Hmmmm, unique analysis but I would disagree. I think maybe the most I'd agree with is Lee was putting across some 'blood is thicker than water' idea, with Mookie ultimately deciding that his brotherhood with other Blacks was more important than his livelihood. He was, I agree, a waistrel, conceited and flawed but I didn't pick up real antipathy toward Sal or the sons. Even toward the racist son he seemed more interested in 'schooling' him in how the world really works, taking the time to talk to him etc. He was, to me anyway, someone who considered himself smarter than he really was, a bit of a slacker and infected by the same identity politics as everyone else in the film, don't believe he had a master plan to undermine Sal and torch his pizzeria. Remembering also that what turned events really nasty was Sal's decision to smash the radio, that wasn't Mookie's fault on any analysis.
I'm a Black guy but Sal is Honestly the Victim of this Movie, he Lost everything he ever Built just because he refused to put pics of Black people, like its his Restaurant he's free to put what he wants, he didn't hurt anybody, Radio Raheem and Buggin Out are 2 Idiots who's Stupid actions cost them what they Got, I'm not saying Raheem deserved to be Killed, he didn't but that's on the Cops and Not Sal, and who fucking blasts music in a Restaurant and expects the Owner not to Order him to Turn it off, Mookie did the Wrong thing by Trashing Sal's Restaurant when Sal honestly didn't start or Ask for any kind of Trouble in the First Place?, *this Movie just Shows how messed up we Black People Are*
good job you understand the literal point of the movie!
It seemed like Radio Raheem was going to kill Sal, and while the police officer went too far, it's hard to feel Raheem was worth rioting over. Raheem could have diffused all of it by turning off his annoying boombox. He seemed like the most localized oppressive force in the whole damn movie.
Da Mayor, for all his personal faults, appeared to be the most valuable character to the community.
Radio Raheem was like Michael Brown. His actions lead to his own death. People like that aren't worth rioting for.
@@PokemonTrainerVince shut up my guy... It's been proven by facts that's Mike ain't do anything bad before they killed him
@@PokemonTrainerVince and everyone liking your comment they dumb as shit too
@@goodvibes9324 He assaulted a store clerk, decided to Jaywalk and then attacked a police officer. His death was sad because he was so young but it was still his own fault.
@@PokemonTrainerVince 1. I saw all the videos they released not one shows him attacking a store Clark, Just getting a bag of roll ups he brought the day before but had them hold for him (confirmed by store workers from that day he brought it) 2. A lot of people jaywalk so I'm guessing they should die....noted... 3. Multiple videos showing feds getting attacked... I can show you a few where the attacker actually had legit weapons they didn't die... BUT I Guess it's different huh lmao
12:10 so he breaks the window? what an amazing way for him to do something
Who's watching this in 2020 during the George Floyd movement?
Me -- but I also found this after reading comments about the movie "Parasite" (yes, really)
Do you really think it is relevant or just wanna collect stupid likes?
@@coronelsakura2841 How do you NOT see the direct correlations dumb dumb lol
@@ethanw1056 Exactly -- like a comment from someone else, "the same people who ask why Kim stabbed him also asked why Mookie threw the trashcan"
I've tried to understand this movie, and I still cant there so much to unpack. This video gave me another way to look and analyze it.
Lee took inspiration from a Hitchcock short film about heat making people more prone to violence. Everyone is angry in this movie, regardless of race or wealth. Everyone wants to start a fight. Raheem and Sal just happened to the lighter (no pun intended) that sparked the fire. A riot was gonna happen no matter what that day, regardless of whether Raheem and Sal fought