Essay on Do the Right Thing

“We are home!”

On Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing

With his Do the Right Thing producer, director, and actor Spike Lee has succeeded in creating a truely controversial film that leaves its audience with questions and a source for a lively discussion. And indeed many have taken the opportunity to comment on Lee’s work, mostly ignoring its general aspects and rather focussing on its message or deeper meaning.

The film deals with both social and racial relationships and shows a community in which people from all sorts of backgrounds live together in a way which is probably best described with the image of a salad bowl. With all these different cultures living next to eachother yet having problems living with eachother, there is this constant feeling of tension throughout the entire film. Even more so, if one was to describe the film in one word, вЂ?tense’ would most definitely be an obvious choice. The almost inbareble heat that the inhabitants of Bed-Stuy have to face serves as a perfect metaphor for the rising tension between the different вЂ?races’. Or as Wehrle puts it: “The sepia tone of the film accurately captures the sweltering heat and humidity of summer as well as the tense racial climate of the community.”

What makes the story utterly compelling is the way in which every character approaches the seemingly impossible task of living together with such a variety of cultures, while in fact the variety of personalities is almost as crucial. But as Do the Right Thing makes clear, the bond created by colour is far stronger than that created by personality. This even goes as far as seeing segregation as the ultimate solution for racial differences:

Pino: Dad, I don’t wanna be here. They don’t want us here. We should stay in our own neighbourhood, stay in Bensonhurst, and the niggers should stay in theirs.

Besides Pino’s approach towards the issue, there is also Buggin’ Out’s in the form of a Malcolm X-like approach of boycotting and �taking up the weapon as an ultimum remedium’. Like Malcolm X, Buggin’ Out is also struck by the economic exploitation of the �blacks’:

Buggin Out to Radio Raheem (about Sal): He makes much money of us black people!

In contrast, The Mayor and SeÐ"±or Love Daddy prefer it the вЂ?King way’ and believe in a future success of a mixed multicultural society. But what sets them apart is the fact that The Mayor has undergone the hardships of life, whilst SeÐ"±or Love Daddy has been safe and sound in his booth, yelling from the sideline.

Still, racial tense is just one example of tense that Do the Right Thing brings forward. In addition there’s also the tension between generations (the three old men not understanding Radio Raheems choice of music, the gang of youngsters not respecting The Mayor’s position), between clashing personalities (Mother Sister and the Mayor, Pino and Vito, Buggin’ Out and Sal), and finally that of financial insecurity (the old men wanting to set up their own businesses, Mooky trying to make a living). The tension that is caused by the American Dream of materialism is not something to be