Tag Archives: do the right thing

Da Mayor Knows

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I love the 1989 film, Do the Right Thing. I saw it two years ago in my high school film history class but it’s been on my mind quite a few times since then. Spike Lee somehow captures the worst of prejudices- racial and age-related- and plays them until they peak in grand disaster (which our class hasn’t seen yet so I’ll stop now to avoid too many spoilers). The three bums resent the Koreans for their success. The Italians (namely Vito) hate the African-Americans because they’re trouble. The teens tease Da Mayor for being an alcoholic and putting on airs. The Hispanics hate Radio Rahim because his beats drown out their music. To put the cherry on the sundae, it is the absolute hottest day of the year. It is a straight up recipe for disaster.

In seeing the film for the second time I’m starting to step back and form my own interpretation of Do the Right Thing. Da Mayor, despite his ‘bum’ patterns, is the voice of the film. He asks Mother Sister to love him as he loves her. He wants happiness, not hate. He wants Mookie to ‘do the right thing’, though he isn’t above paying a kid fifty cents to run to the corner and get him another beer. He strolls the block and observes all the passers-by, sharing his wisdom. He is, as we all are, flawed, but his character always shines. Do you remember his response when asked to point to who had damaged the antique car? “Doctor, those that’ll tell don’t know, and those that know won’t tell.”

-Cali Paetow

Poor, Poorer, Dead Broke

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From what I’ve seen, Do The Right Thing is an excellent movie that lightly depicts the tense racial conflicts that is prevalent in a poor community. Perhaps the word “community” is important here. In this neighborhood, it is a loosely termed word describing a collection of a band of different identities. For some like, the mayor, the neighborhood is a loose society that barely masks the misery of a broken home and broken dreams. For others, like Mooti, it is an ugly patchwork of different cultures, each clashing with one another for self-establishment. Still, others like Radio Raheem see the neighborhood as a cruel place that demands each individual to competitively exclude another. Perhaps the only thing that ties each culture to one another is the mutual acceptance of their poverty. Perhaps this is why the youth, disgusted by this acceptance, act up. I am interested in seeing how far these tensions will progress. Are there any villains, or are the people all villains to one another? By that same token, if everybody is a villain to one another, can’t everyone be right? Probably not. Then what is the right thing? And if it does exist, will someone do the right thing?

Do the Right Thing

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Unlike most of my fellow students, I am disgusted by the profligate use of profanity in “Do the Right Thing.” Yes, I enjoyed the scene with the fire hydrant where the (white) driver gets splashed and becomes apoplectic. (And no, he is not racist. Any normal human would have the same reaction.) And yes, this movie is surely a commentary on race relations in Brooklyn and in the country at large. But I cannot help expressing my disgust at the vulgar utterances of certain characters. This movie creates a very negative impression of the African-American community by suggesting that its members cannot communicate without resorting to curse words. Personally, I dislike these kinds of race movies, that seek to divide people on the basis of skin color and promote a victim mentality. Still, I look forward to watching the rest of the movie and seeing how the message of “doing the right thing” plays out. Perhaps we should focus less on race, and more on doing the right thing.

Love and Hate

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I really find Do the Right Thing to be a very interesting film. It’s interesting to see the social structure of this neighborhood during this time and all the different people that make it up. There’s the “Mayor” and Mother Sister, who seem to be the wisest people of the neighborhood, even if Mayor seems to be quite a tragic figure. There’s the group of rowdy youths and the group of middle-aged men, both who do a lot of talking but so far very little positive action. Then there are the shopkeepers, who seem to be a distant part of this community, perhaps due to them being Italian-American and Korean, which says much about the views towards race at the time. There’s the very revealing scene in which people of every race let loose a stream of epithets that seem to be circular and unending. The racial tension is very palpable, and often seems escalate to the edge of violence, like when Bugging Out raised an argument about the pictures on the wall of the pizzeria, and how quickly an angry mob formed when the biker scuffed Bugging Out’s sneaker. It seems that soon enough this tension will come to a boiling point.

It’s like the boy with the boom box said: love and hate are constantly warring against each other. There’s much to love about this community and communities in general. It’s nice to know people, to recognize your neighbors and have good relationships with them. It’s also nice to know there are people around you that you could look up to and trust. But there’s also much to hate in this as well. If a community is so close-knit as to view everybody else with distrust and at times hostility, it’s not only a recipe for close-minded people but for dangerous interactions.