If you choose Spike Lee’s favorite movies, then I will definitely choose such films as Crooklyn, Blues of a Better Life and of course Do It Right. Although some critics call the film “Do it right” the strongest in the career of Spike Lee. After watching many of Spike Lee’s films, you easily agree with that view. A lot of good pictures were made about racism, but Spike Lee raised this problem to a very high level.
He himself plays a major role in this film. His character is an ordinary guy who works as a pizza delivery man in an Italian restaurant. It should be said that this restaurant is located in the black quarter, and next door there is a Chinese store. In the yard there is a crazy heat that melts the brains of the residents of this block. Hip-hop and rap sounds. Everything seems calm, but it is only appearance.
Spike Lee is a real agitator and his film tells us that racism is very bad. Everyone seems to know this, but nothing changes. Spike Lee shot a very bright tape. I highly recommend watching this movie in perfect quality because Spike Lee made a live comic with acid colors. This film was liked by many viewers and was even nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Only very sad that the main prize of the film never received (it was given to Soderbergh and by the way very in vain).
Spike Lee's film isn't as violent as Tony Kay's American History X, but Spike Lee's film digs much deeper into the problem of racism. It is a pity that few people have seen this film in Russia. I don’t think you should miss these movies, even if you don’t like them. If you are tired of stupid action movies and comedies, then I recommend you to watch a very smart and very relevant movie - Do It Right.
'Do It Right' is an exploding fire hydrant of colliding extremes and blazing hatred, squeezed into a tense environment overflowing with humanity, humor, danger, sadness, pain and violence. Spike Lee tells the story of how one of the districts of New York literally boiled with the heat and the cute, old, cozy Italian pizzeria “U Sal” turns by the end of the day into a real battlefield.
Sometimes you forget what you saw the next day. But this is a completely different case: thoughts about this picture have been haunting for several days. After all, the morality of the film is diametrically opposed to everything that is happening in the world today. The picture ends with quotes from two great African American leaders: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. “An eye for an eye and everyone will be blind.” How simple it is, how deep it is. Violence breeds violence. And only when one of the parties stops pouring oil into the fire, then everything will end.
Spike Lee points to such important themes as racism and police abuse, this film is not about problems, it is a film about community: about the people, about the challenges, fears, resentments, anxieties, joys and happiness that fill their lives, and about how racism destroys the bonds of community with its hatred. When the new wave of Black Lives Matter started in the United States in 2020, I was surprised. After the accidental murder of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer, a very heated rampage began. If in the film it was limited only to a pizzeria, in real life began to destroy entire areas. And half the world bowed to it. I do not argue that racism is a problem that should not be forgotten. But it is absolutely impossible to solve it in the way that the leaders of BLM began. After all, to use violence for the sake of racial justice is immoral, since it will lead to more destruction.
I am amazed at the amount of hat that was poured on Kanye West after the rapper appeared in the White Lives Matter T-shirt. The rapper called the BLM movement a big scam. Although many people think he's crazy, I think he's a genius. Going against the system, not being afraid to fall under the culture of cancellation, it really deserves respect. His message has always been social control. And that's what the director wanted to argue about in "Do It Right": what is the limit of what is allowed? I also want to note that the film is stuffed with chic representatives of hip-hop at the time. It is a real pleasure for the ears.
The purpose and essence of art, and the whole of our world, is to influence the feelings of people. Birth in a man of emotion. This can be achieved in many ways. But when people go down this destructive path, it indicates a lack of critical thinking and talent, perhaps they understand it or feel it, but can not accept it.
Spike Lee created a timeless movie.
Spike Lee has always been and will always be an ardent champion of African-American rights in the world of cinema. For almost 41 years, he has been protecting the interests of people of color. And that doesn't mean he's only looking one way while being blinkered. He is, in principle, against oppressing anyone, against people inciting each other with a cry from somewhere above. “Do as you should” is an example of such intense paintings, when Spike was full of strength, not sliding into boredom and grumble.
In itself, the tape “Do the Right Thing” is supposedly an older relative of the film “Clerks” by Kevin Smith, when the main dynamics are expressed in the numerous dialogues of the characters involved. At first, the narrative gives its viewer a lot of smiles, which is a reaction to resourceful, with sharp tongues, faces, replacing each other in the frame. Here comes Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes. But “Do It Right” in 1989, and therefore we will initially turn our eyes to him.
Enjoying the conversations of the characters, whether it is an African-American Mookie (played by Spike Lee himself), who works as a pizza delivery boy for the Italians led by Sal (Danny Aiello), with every minute you get a better idea of how much pain and misunderstanding everyone has accumulated in the frame. The cup is almost full, just wait for it to spill over the edge. And the viewer will wait. The electrified atmosphere will eventually spawn a discharge hitting the target. You will do it when you least want it.
Surprisingly, this particular work of Lee stands and will stand beyond all time. Watching what unrest is happening right now in the United States, it is possible to draw parallels with the picture in “Do it right”. Even the outcome is quite readable and very similar to reality. Many characters resist the environment with all their guts, but when you are an American, and Italians or Koreans come to your neighborhood, you involuntarily look around. You can also see if you are Italian and you have to deal with African Americans. What about systemic racial segregation? Especially if you are young and prone to maximalism, which can develop into aggression.
But this is not a single topic of this project, on the other side of the scale we have the problem of relations between young husband and wife, the problem of unemployment, pranks and idleness of local teenagers. Everything is as it should be for the sleeping area. And how much interesting humor here, what is only the “local mayor” (Ossie Davis, Chucky from “Old Grumpy”), which is laughed at, but more respected than the legitimate mayor.
In addition to humor, you can admire the work of Ernest R. Dickerson. The film has one of the most exciting erotic scenes (a scene with an ice cube), which delights with how it is executed, and at the same time very teasing the viewer.
"Do the Right Thing" is a talented picture full of strength and ideas, 32-year-old Spike Lee. Interesting story, screaming at the throat of topical problems, sharp humor in opposition and cameraman Dickerson. And participation in the frame, for example, young Martin Lawrence, John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito and even Samuel L. Jackson. All this gives us a picture of the director from Georgia.
It must have been crazy, despite the movie poster and the comedy label, to expect Spike Lee to have an easy genre movie.
But about the middle of the film, the hope for this takes on quite tangible forms: small domestic skirmishes on racial grounds, clothed in stereotypical hits and almost harmless hamstrings, cutting curses from representatives of “minorities” and “majority” – all this adds up to a bright acid and nostalgic stylish mosaic; and is lost in it.
Apparently, the realities of visuality also leave an imprint - when our contemporary turns out to be Nicholas Winding Refn, you quickly get used to and get hooked on the color and movement in the frame - and with surprise you find that you were able to fascinate in 1989.
The feeling is that you watch a sweet series, waiting for the next story about the beloved heroes. Music, clothes, phrases and images immediately envelop their pleasant inevitability and provoke calm curiosity. In this regard, it is inevitable to recall another film – “American Graffiti”, about a different era and a very different director – but the same “mood film” that would be better without moralizing.
This is the main feeling after watching: stop the director action after about two-thirds of the film on the phrase “It was a good day”, and it would remain a chic photograph of such a close, but already irrevocably bygone era.
But the movie didn't end there.
Yeah, maybe that's what Spike Lee did. And maybe that's what Spike Lee did.
In defense of my unpretentiousness, I want to note that the main background trail – “unbearable heat” in the film is not felt at all. It’s as simple as that: despite the ice cream, ice, hydrants and the characters’ constant talk about how “asphalt melts,” there’s no sense that “the blood of Brooklyn residents is slowly boiling.” Don't you think?
The world through the eyes of the main character Mookie, played by Spike Lee - at the same time and the director of "Do It Right!" - a typical ghetto-town of New York, whose population is represented by African Americans. This quarter acts as a springboard for a good farcical, slightly satirical comedy thanks to a lot of colorful characters, where everyone knows, telling a seemingly ordinary story, everyday life, something in the spirit of a television sitcom. And you don't expect any sharp story. But Spike Lee wouldn’t be who he is today if he didn’t paint a picture that directly impacts society. With “Do It Right!” began his high-profile career, and began quite confidently, with many nominations for the most prestigious awards and future recognition of work around the world, both by eminent publications and entire academies.
The movie "Do It Right!" is amazing. Especially after the film was released in 1989, you realize that this film is not typical of a racist issue. It is not typical, at least, because it does not in the least praise or even raise the opinion of African Americans, unless it was originally great. Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn Quarter, hot under the sultry sun, also heats up the cruel customs of the local population, who, as if listening to Radio Rahim's tape recorder with the "Fight The Power" staged for replay performed by hip-hop icons Public Enemy, suddenly begins to perform a fiery call in the song. And the first to act is Muki, who until now seemed not an angry, pleasant guy. It will not change in the end, it will remain as it was before.
Muki was important because he was a favorite of the whole area. Everyone knows him, warmly treat him, despite the frank human barbs present in him. His surroundings were kept on the verge of explosion – he tried to help everyone if possible, to bring a little more joy and meaning to the lives of many: he worked poorly for the owner of the Sal pizza restaurant, Blessed Smiley gave alms, Pino tried to reason about intolerance and so on. And the fatal throw of the trash can was done by him, too. However, in this situation, caused rather by an ill-considered abrupt decision, it is hardly possible to impute a significant share of the blame to him. Give this people only a reason - this is what the director says, placing full responsibility on blacks. The same people who walked peacefully a couple of hours ago are now ready to rebel against the system and the government. And no one asks, what is Sal's fault, and what happens next, and what is the punishment? No, a mob of ardent African-Americans, seeing the violence, en masse begins to breed violence, making the ordinary neighborhood the epicenter of primitive rebellion. And even if you move away from ethics and morality, start thinking about what happened, you understand that there is no point. A verbal spat started by a guy in a yellow T-shirt for an idiotic reason - the absence of black people on the Wall of Fame - grows into criminal nonsense. The Wall of Fame is located in an Italian pizzeria owned by Italians. What's the problem? Does it make sense to complain about such nonsense? Frank Sinatra and Al Pacino do not belittle anyone by their presence. Thus, at the beginning of the film, Spike Lee demonstrates the essence of any social disorder, where crime reigns, ruthless malice, inspired by long-standing, historical unrest.
Even though Sal's eldest son, Pino, disliked black people, he did not openly express it. And the rest of the family so long ago, his father treated them quite normally, with many maintained good relations. And aggression towards all sorts of boobs is a reaction to their aggression, not anger arising from scratch. Against the background of all the business families in the quarter (and these are Italians and Korean owners of a mini-market), the main population generally seems worthless. Almost everything. Besides Muka, no one does anything: everyone walks the streets, hooligans with a fire hydrant, drinks, chats, sits dullly in place and watches - that is, almost everyone does nothing useful either for themselves or for others. What's remarkable is that the typical stereotypical things -- drugs, gunfights, basketball after all -- are also missing. This Spike Lee shows a rather amorphous community, which in principle does not care about everything in life, but which also no one prevents to live and idle. The apotheosis is a healthy guy with a boombox, Radio Rahim, who endlessly peers into all corners of the ghetto, listens to one single "Fight The Power" ... and that's it. This is how his whole day goes, he is a little bit of a scourge of society, an unnecessary slob. And he still dares to persecute foreigners who have done much more than he did for these streets. Unlike others, his actions are unmotivated aggression. And Buggin Out, or Gluchenny (the same guy in yellow) and openly causes confusion from his own megalomania, all sorts of hits white instead of really useful spending time at least for himself.
The film is filled with all sorts of symbolism. A red-hot Brooklyn increases people’s violent moods – this idea Spike Lee came up with while watching the TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. “Fight the Power” literally translates to “Fight the Power.” If you delve into the politics and various themes of Public Enemy, you realize that the choice in favor of this particular team is extremely metaphorical. But without too much escapism, Public Enemy primarily encouraged the African-American population to actively express themselves. And the lyrics of the song, first sounded in “Do it right!”, openly does not call for crime, which can be thought of due to the almost constant, sometimes out of place of the present track. A very important conclusion is the final appeal to the quotes of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, where even the latter (a black nationalist for a moment) expresses the opinion that problems should be solved peacefully. Against the background of the story shown in Spike Lee’s film, this thesis sounds monumental. The director accepts the mistakes of his race and apologizes for them. He puts his own nation at risk, while at the same time reminding that anyone, regardless of color, can be the culprit of a senseless rebellion. This film is a very unusual, but important humanitarian appeal not to fight, not to fight because of racism. Because it won't lead to anything good, even in a universe with a fictional script.
The main fighter against racism in world cinema, American director and screenwriter Spike Lee after his first work attracted the attention of the world public. This film is considered one of the best in the filmography of the director, and in the opinion of many, the pinnacle of his work. The cultural significance of the film is so great that it is already considered a classic and is included in various lists of important films. It was here that Spike Lee found his author’s style, developed an invariable strategy, which brought him unprecedented success.
The picture is shot at the junction of comedic and dramatic genres. The action takes place in one day, in a poor neighborhood of New York, populated mainly by blacks and Hispanics. Whites hardly appear here, much less live. However, it is here that there is a small pizzeria owned by an Italian American with his sons. It will be the epicenter of events. The ironic style of narration sometimes takes the shape of a farce, and the comic characters are mostly caricatured. However, this is only an outer shell that hides a deeper semantic load.
The picture raises a large number of social problems. This is social inequality, especially noticeable in the ghetto, and widespread poverty, from which it is almost impossible to escape, and of course racial intolerance. This tape is one of several that anticipated the problem of police arbitrariness, more relevant than ever for modern society. However, Spike Lee decided to slightly smooth out the sharp corners, and therefore practically did not touch on the topic of crime, which invariably comes to the fore in such areas of residence. It was a deliberate move to avoid shifting accents.
An important part is the cultural subtext of the film. The song "Fight the Power" American hip-hop group Public Enemy has become absolutely legendary in rap culture and is recognized as one of the most important in the genre. An important element is the iconic scene with sneakers of one of the heroes, an invariable attribute of success for that historical era.
The main role of a young and a little removed from everyday life, the pizza delivery man was played by the director himself. His hero tries to lead a correct lifestyle, but over time, his nervous system fails. John Turturro looks organically in the role of a restless racist and bully. Well, a very interesting character turned out in Danny Aiello, whose hero for many years maintained harmony, but the emotional explosion did not bypass him.
This is a cult film, ironically - a dramatic look at the topic of racial intolerance on the one hand and important from the point of view of the culture of the city streets. A reflection of the 1980s and the moral state of American society. The picture raises problems that are relevant to this day. This is an interesting movie, which has both comedic and tragic elements. The tape still looks very curious to this day. I recommend reading it.
I rarely read the reviews of critics, from routuriers to titled ones, in order not to spoil the purity of my own perception of this or that product of mass culture. But after watching the sabzh, he became interested in the criticism of the film, having read many different reviews. I never thought it was a parody. Moreover, an angry, lost sense of proportion, grotesque.
This is on the surface! All the characters of the film are screened two-dimensional stamps of a white man who has no idea about the life of black quarters. Or "black" stamps, moreover, turned inside out, brought to the absurd. It's an evil, contemptuous object, a parody. But not a parody of any particular film, such as "Don't Threaten South Central..." in relation to "Threat to Society." This is a parody of all black American society. All the people, if you will.
The Black Quarter in the film is Black America in miniature. What do you think of the writer and director? Lazy inhabitants sitting on porches and listening to shitty music. There is no hint of an unhealthy social situation in the country. But all over the world, in Russia, millions of black and white Negroes sit on the porches and listen to shitty music, instead of sweating to make money on Forex. Do they have a low social start, depriving them of all opportunities except pizza delivery? No, according to the authors of such films, they are just lazy.
Not only are slackers, they are also cowards - they were afraid to punch a white bogey who ran a bicycle over one of them. Undoubtedly, a new detail of the beaten stamp, which does not make this stamp more acceptable. There is no question of any characters and written images. Everything is primitive and distorted, like in a curved mirror. In his moral casuistry, the author goes much further, trying to mix with the dirt images of black activists: a clown in a white suit, talking about nonviolence by Martin Luther King of the quarter, oozing with anger “mother sister” – Rosa Parks. We no longer see a grotesque, but a limestone whose sole purpose is to humiliate the object of the narrative.
The only one who works in the neighborhood (except the pizza delivery man) is a petty Italian bourgeois who owns a pizzeria. It's not all right with him either - pizza sucks, even without cheese. You have to pay for the cheese separately. And those who are dissatisfied, throw them away, threatening with a baseball bat. However, in the context of the narrative, such a “service” should seem justified – they say, why ceremony with black slackers? Well, the climax looks like a blatant reason for a fight outside the cinema.
One gets the impression that this absurd craft is the creation of a fat white sofa racist. No way! The writer and director is black! Spike Lee. So what is it? Why would a black man take something that a white man wouldn't dare? That's the point! If such a film was made by a white man, there would be a racial scandal. And in Hollywood, scandals are not in fashion at all – they interfere with business. Moreover, such a scandal would spill over far beyond Hollywood and the film industry in general. And since the director is black, this is “his point of view” on his “brothers”, that’s all.
What drove Spike to such a provocation? Maybe he's an "Eskimo"? This is what blacks are called, imitating whites in everything and often ashamed of their origin. The victims of assimilation. I don't think. Spike is too smart to be such a fool. In fact, the answer in the film itself is that the “pasta” throws money in the face to Spike’s character, who indignantly throws it back, and then ... picks it up and leaves! Having made such a film, Spike was lost and picked up the money, plus an Oscar nomination. Pathetic handout - not even Oscar? So what? Spike won't let pride stifle business. It's so American. If his destiny is to fight against those who fight for their rights, so be it. Money doesn't smell. And why not remove the provocative, lying grotesque and call any black activist a chauvinist? Isn't that the main point in another Spike movie, Malcolm X? And here's Spike's chauvinist, a black DJ who plays the names of thirty-odd black musicians who have enriched American culture. Another chauvinist resents not pizza without cheese, but the “wall of fame” in a pizzeria, which is not black, but entirely Italian. Fun fact: in the center of the wall, I noticed a portrait of the wonderful French actor Trentignant, known for his roles as socialists and communists. Not a good choice for a petty bourgeois. Spike probably didn't know who he was. I just saw one of the Hollywood producers on the wall, so I stuck it. As long as it's white. That's Spike's whole style - clumsy and "thick," giving out overcooked potatoes for chips. He should learn from Hudlin, who in The Great White Hope ridiculed both blacks and whites, unobtrusively, causticly, but not rudely, with humor rather than malice. And not afraid to kick the mighty boxing industry.
But it's not for Spike. It doesn't go against the wind, it's always on stream. He even called his campaign "40 acres and mules," in memory of one notable Civil War event. Sherman, with Lincoln’s consent, gave 40 acres and a mule to freed slaves in Georgia. From property requisitioned from Southerners. After the end of the war and the death of Lincoln, the lands and mules were taken and returned to the Southerners. Spike cherishes his forty acres, and is ready to bend over for an abandoned bill. The rest is just black chauvinism.
___
Not to be confused with the 1970 drama of the same name.
2 out of 10
It's an unimaginable heat wave in New York. Cars are heated to the temperature of blast furnaces, and exhausted people, pouring sweat, dream of spending the rest of the day under the jets of a cold shower. At the same time as the column of the thermometer creeps up ruthlessly, the blood of Brooklyn residents begins to boil, the overwhelming majority of African-Americans. Usually, well-hidden intolerance, aggression and cruelty in force majeure temperature regime are irresistibly asked out, and it is impossible to do the right thing. And so the cute, old, cozy Italian pizzeria "U Sal" turns by the end of the day into a real battlefield.
Thus, the life of one block in Brooklyn becomes the quintessence of racial relations in America during the “advanced democracy”. It seemed that the film was already moving towards its happy ending: everyday sketches and so speak in subtext more than they really are. However, the conflict declared at the very beginning and already almost forgotten about the photos of Italian celebrities who were hung in a pizzeria by the owner of the restaurant - the Italian Sal, comes to life and results in a bloody battle. Apparently unsure that his social preoccupation would be properly understood, Spike Lee (who almost always appears in his films and here played the pizza delivery man Mookie) added a postscript of progressive quotes from the ideologues of the black liberation movement, Luther King and Malcolm H.
The third picture of black Brooklyn Spike Lee is still his highest-rated creation. She won excellent press in Cannes, received two Oscar nominations, made solid box office fees. But, most importantly, she defined a new direction and outlined the phenomenon of “rap cinema”. Short plans, optional transfers in replicas, in short – chatter about nothing. Intangible and vulnerable from the point of view of terminology, Spike Lee’s style found the ease to which he himself repeatedly tried to approach, but each time less successfully.
Bedford-Stuyvisent is one of the many and very dangerous neighborhoods in New York Brooklyn. African Americans, Latinos, and Italians coexist here, and the world in this cauldron of nations is held by a thread. It was the hottest day in New York, but the residents of Bedford-Stuyvisent remembered it not only with hell.
The film “Do It Right” was shot in 1989 by the cult American director Spike Lee, who performed one of the main roles in this film, the character of Mookie, an ordinary African-American with a lot of problems. “Do It Right” is a very stylistically unusual and experimental drama with elements of euscentric comedy, in which Spike Lee touched on the topic of racism and human aggression per se. Bedford-Stuyvisent becomes within the artistic structure of the film a symbol of the entire human anthill, torn by contradictions and strife. The film in its theme is very versatile and I want to return to it regularly.
Acting in the tape is at the highest level of realism. In addition to the charismatically played by Spike, Lee Mookie memorably performed their roles as Danny Aiello, John Turturro, Aussie Davis and Ruby Dee.
The work of the operator Ernest Dickerson in the film is full of unusual and full of metaphors for angles, combining the tension, dynamics and psychological drawing of the main characters.
Composer Bill Lee wrote a very original and bright soundtrack for the film, creating an unusual atmosphere in the film.
I recommend this amazing film to all lovers of auteur cinema and fans of Spike Lee.
9 out of 10