DO THE RIGHT THING: SPIKE LEE

This film directed by Spike Lee shares the story of racism on the streets of Brooklyn in the late 80’s. Each character in the story represents a different struggle of society, one being ‘Mookie’, the pizza delivery boy. Mookie seems to be a very liked person within the community who stands up for what he believes in and always seems to catch people’s attention as we walks by. He works in the Italian pizzeria, where he tends to argue with the Italian owner, Sals, son often. Another character portraying a different view is the mother-sister. She is portrayed as a calm and peaceful character, usually sitting on the windowsill and watching everyone walk through the town. She show s hatred toward the mayor, and ends up taking him in at the end of the film. The mayor is another character that is known to be the town drunk with no job. He is always shown standing on the street with a cold beer in one hand getting yelled at by children and adults for basically being a waste of space. One reoccurring theme throughout the film is the song “Fight the Power” playing through the box speaker being carried around by one of the more quiet characters. Racism is shown constantly through the actions of different characters. In one scene, Mookie’s friend is eating pizza at the Italian pizzeria when he starts a commotion and starts yelling about how there are no pictures of “brothers” on the wall. As the camera shows the wall, all the pictures are framed of white actors or singers. Another scene of racism is shown when three older African men are sitting under a small umbrella on the sidewalk, and a cop car with two white cops drive by. There is an intense stare between all characters in this scene, and one of the cops mumbles “what a waste” under his breathe. The whole film is supposed to demonstrate one whole day, the hottest day of the year.