Written by: Alivia Rhodes
On the evening of Wednesday June 25, during scholars first week on the Murray Campus, they got the opportunity to participate in the first installment of the beloved GSP Classic Film Series. This tradition was, once again, a staple of the first week, with the 1989 film Do The Right Thing kicking off the series. Scholars flocked to Faculty Hall, abuzz about the events of the first week, and ready to indulge in the first cinematic experience of the GSP.
Do The Right Thing is a 1989 Spike Lee comedy-drama film set in Brooklyn, New York during a heatwave in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The film follows the inhabitants of the neighborhood, specifically the racial tension between the predominantly African American residents and the Italian Americans who own and operate a popular Pizzeria in the Brooklyn neighborhood. It follows the main character Mookie, a twenty five year old African American man, who is played by the director and producer Spike Lee, who delivers pizzas for Salvatore “Sal” Frangione (Danny Aiello), who owns and operates Sal’s Pizzeria with his sons.
The movie follows the course of 24 hours during the hottest heat wave of the summer, and the temperature isn’t the only thing that’s rising. The heat brings more tensions, especially after Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito) notices that Sal’s “Hall of Fame” in his pizzeria is mostly Italian Americans, believing that since he is operating in an African American neighborhood, there should be more diversity of the people on the wall. Sal refuses, claiming that he is not required to put anything but Italians on the wall, which angers Buggin’ Out. He stages a boycott, attempting to get supporters for his cause, but only gets Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) to join his boycott. After an argument occurs, Raheem attacks Sal. This drags the whole pizzeria and onlookers into the fight, leading to the police showing up, and tensions being as high as they are, one of the police officers chokes and kills Radio Raheem, provoking despair and the destruction and burning down of Sal’s Pizzeria. The final scenes of the movie involve the next morning, the heatwave breaking, and Mookie going back to Sal to get his paycheck, in which they argue, but come to some form of understanding of what they had both lost that night.
The movie ends with two quotes from both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X, Civil Rights Activists who are referenced quite often in the film. During one part of the film, Radio Raheem brandishes brass knuckle rings on his hands that say “Love” and “Hate”, and through the camera work, Raheem breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience. His monologue speaks on the fluctuation of both love and hate in the struggle against racism, the fight for civil rights, and the past of Black history. By directly involving the audience, it is bringing the viewers into the reality of the movie, and a metaphor for how the characters of the movie symbolize and act on both love and hate. Both quotes at the end symbolize this as well, Martin Luther King Jr’s preaching on love, and Malcom X’s preaching on a more violent solution, a constant struggle in the film.
Overall, the final GSP Letterboxd rating of the movie was a 4.1/5 with the lowest rating being a 3 and the highest rating, with the most votes, being a 5. When speaking to scholars, there was a mix of reviews. One scholar, Kate, described her emotions watching the film as, “I felt emotionally constipated after watching it, but it was a really good movie.” Another scholar stated that, “There was a lot going on, I was confused.” Both reviews attribute to the whiplash the movie gives, specifically that there is no resolution where people are fully good or fully bad, and there is no apology or happy ending, it is a realistic view of what was happening through the time, told through excellent cinematography and a whiplash between the everyday life of the neighborhood, the joy and tension, and then the brutality and hatred that occurs because of injustice.