At times it seems like it’s almost impossible to keep all of the characters in Do The Right Thing straight—new ones are popping up around every corner of the neighborhood. Mookie, Tina, Sal, Pino, Vito, Radio Raheem, Buggin’ Out, Da Mayor—the list goes on and on. And for every character, there are just as many relationships that fall apart throughout the movie. It all starts when Buggin’ Out feels like Sal is overcharging him for extra cheese on his pizza and decides that Sal should have pictures of African Americans hanging on the wall instead of Italian Americans. It’s definitely not a coincidence that the racial conflicts within the neighborhood come to a head during the hottest days of the summer—in fact, the heat is probably what causes Buggin’ Out to bug out in the first place, since like Sal says, he’s in the pizzeria every day and knows what cheese costs by now. Playing the Steel Pulse song “Can’t Stand It” during the fire hydrant scene gave the heat two meanings. The first, obviously, is the abnormally high temperature. The second is the heat caused by the growing racial tensions, represented in that scene by the jerk in the nice car getting sprayed by the fire hydrant and the aftermath with the police.
Now, as for the garbage can—honestly, the first time I saw Do The Right Thing for my Arts in NY seminar last semester, I thought Mookie turned against Sal by throwing the garbage can. I was so annoyed with every character in the movie by the end and I just hated the whole thing. It actually hadn’t even crossed my mind that Mookie had thrown the garbage can to deflect the violence from Sal until we discussed the movie in class. That makes a lot more sense to me personally, since I had such a hard time believing that Mookie would get caught up in the riot and turn against Sal. So I choose to believe that Mookie threw the can to protect Sal. (Taking this stance on the ending also makes me dislike the movie slightly less)
Finally, I just have to say that it was SO WEIRD for me to see Giancarlo Esposito as the almost cartoonishly weird Buggin’ Out, since I know him best for playing the cold-blooded killer/meth kingpin Gus Fring on my favorite TV show Breaking Bad!
