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My Spike Lee marathon has taught me a lot about the man himself. From the movies I've been watching, it looks like Spike Lee's strongest point is personality. Even when he tries to make social commentary the main theme, the personality usually overtakes the themes. This is especially true for Lee's first two official releases, She's Gotta Have It and School Daze. Looks like our friend Lee finally perfected it in his essential hood movie, Do the Right Thing.
An Italian-American named Sal runs his pizzaria with his two sons, and hired only one other person: Mookie, one of the many black men in the city. However, another black man called Buggin' Out raises a complaint about the wall of fame in the pizzeria only featuring Italian-American actors, he angrily wants some black actors represented. The whole movie centers around the events of the day and various characters expressing their social and racial opinions until a big bang which ends in an angry mob.
It's gonna be impossible to write a review about Do the Right Thing without bringing up the very concept of racial differences, as well as true blue spirits to American racial subcultures that this movie displays. So I'm just gonna wing it and me the natural old me who thought racism was a myth when he was a kid.
There are a bunch of movies I could compare this to in terms of technical skill. However, I think the best movie to compare this to is Citizen Kane, due to Lee starring perfectly as the lead character in an incredibly thematic movie which gives people a lot of things to think about at just about every corner. This movie is ALL character ALL the time. Even though most scenarios revolve around Mookie (Spike Lee), the hyperlink behavior brings out a lot of commentary on hood society as a perfect replacement for heavy character development. Hell, the scene where various characters of various characters looking into the camera and taking fifteen seconds each to hurl insults at a race each before our DJ Senor Love Daddy tells everyone to chill out says a lot about the city we are experiencing.
Sometimes people are pushed to the point where they will hurl racial insults just to get back, regardless of whether or not their true racial beliefs are coming out. Heart-to-hearts like the one Sal has with his son or the scene where Da Mayor is criticized by a small group of friends for his drunken behavior tell a lot, and it's all realistic not only because this is all normal for people growing up in the right neighborhoods, but these actors all feel like real people in the city. Even the guy who has trouble speaking feels realistic when he's trying so hard to say "F-f-f-f-f-**** you!"
This racial commentary also helps familiar cultural aspects of various Americans coming out. We don;t just get that independent hood spirit from the African-American community, but Sal's family feels as real as the Corleones. In fact, the Koreans are blatantly obvious immigrants due to the honest scripting of their struggles with service English-speaking customers. I can't be the only one who's had difficulty communicating with people who's English wasn't perfect. Of course, the real bad guy in this scene was Radio Raheem who foul-mouthed the whole scene.
But the third act is the one that blows everything out of the water. I mean, seriously, that was a damn horror show. But isn't this also honest? When people keep pushing each other to insult each other based on heritage, and pent up aggression concerning history comes into the picture? The fact that this shit DOES happen is what makes this brutal and heartbreaking. In fact, it almost makes me mad that Lee and Aiello played their parts sop perfectly, because the perfect acting also made this last act hurt.
Oh my sweet. I cannot believe what I just watched. There's never gonna be a movie like this again, hopefully, because this was all too real. I can't BELIEVE the realism of this film. You might as well have filmed a documentary all day and got lucky when something brutal actually did happen. Lee mastered filmmaking that early in his career, and I don't know if he'll ever be able to top it. In fact, I'm still deciding where I'm gonna put it on my top movies of all-time list: either 8 or 9.
= 100/100. This is the second Spike Lee movie I've given a perfect rating. This also makes Lee the fourth director to ever have two movies in my top 20, with the other three being Francis Ford Coppola (obviously), Terry Gilliam and Steven Spielberg.
Do the Right Thing
(1989) - Directed by Spike Lee
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Hood Film / Slice of Life / Drama
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"Hate! It was with this hand that Cain iced his brother. Love! These five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man."
(1989) - Directed by Spike Lee
--------------------------------------------
Hood Film / Slice of Life / Drama
-------------------------------------------------
"Hate! It was with this hand that Cain iced his brother. Love! These five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man."
My Spike Lee marathon has taught me a lot about the man himself. From the movies I've been watching, it looks like Spike Lee's strongest point is personality. Even when he tries to make social commentary the main theme, the personality usually overtakes the themes. This is especially true for Lee's first two official releases, She's Gotta Have It and School Daze. Looks like our friend Lee finally perfected it in his essential hood movie, Do the Right Thing.
An Italian-American named Sal runs his pizzaria with his two sons, and hired only one other person: Mookie, one of the many black men in the city. However, another black man called Buggin' Out raises a complaint about the wall of fame in the pizzeria only featuring Italian-American actors, he angrily wants some black actors represented. The whole movie centers around the events of the day and various characters expressing their social and racial opinions until a big bang which ends in an angry mob.
It's gonna be impossible to write a review about Do the Right Thing without bringing up the very concept of racial differences, as well as true blue spirits to American racial subcultures that this movie displays. So I'm just gonna wing it and me the natural old me who thought racism was a myth when he was a kid.
There are a bunch of movies I could compare this to in terms of technical skill. However, I think the best movie to compare this to is Citizen Kane, due to Lee starring perfectly as the lead character in an incredibly thematic movie which gives people a lot of things to think about at just about every corner. This movie is ALL character ALL the time. Even though most scenarios revolve around Mookie (Spike Lee), the hyperlink behavior brings out a lot of commentary on hood society as a perfect replacement for heavy character development. Hell, the scene where various characters of various characters looking into the camera and taking fifteen seconds each to hurl insults at a race each before our DJ Senor Love Daddy tells everyone to chill out says a lot about the city we are experiencing.
Sometimes people are pushed to the point where they will hurl racial insults just to get back, regardless of whether or not their true racial beliefs are coming out. Heart-to-hearts like the one Sal has with his son or the scene where Da Mayor is criticized by a small group of friends for his drunken behavior tell a lot, and it's all realistic not only because this is all normal for people growing up in the right neighborhoods, but these actors all feel like real people in the city. Even the guy who has trouble speaking feels realistic when he's trying so hard to say "F-f-f-f-f-**** you!"
This racial commentary also helps familiar cultural aspects of various Americans coming out. We don;t just get that independent hood spirit from the African-American community, but Sal's family feels as real as the Corleones. In fact, the Koreans are blatantly obvious immigrants due to the honest scripting of their struggles with service English-speaking customers. I can't be the only one who's had difficulty communicating with people who's English wasn't perfect. Of course, the real bad guy in this scene was Radio Raheem who foul-mouthed the whole scene.
But the third act is the one that blows everything out of the water. I mean, seriously, that was a damn horror show. But isn't this also honest? When people keep pushing each other to insult each other based on heritage, and pent up aggression concerning history comes into the picture? The fact that this shit DOES happen is what makes this brutal and heartbreaking. In fact, it almost makes me mad that Lee and Aiello played their parts sop perfectly, because the perfect acting also made this last act hurt.
Oh my sweet. I cannot believe what I just watched. There's never gonna be a movie like this again, hopefully, because this was all too real. I can't BELIEVE the realism of this film. You might as well have filmed a documentary all day and got lucky when something brutal actually did happen. Lee mastered filmmaking that early in his career, and I don't know if he'll ever be able to top it. In fact, I'm still deciding where I'm gonna put it on my top movies of all-time list: either 8 or 9.
= 100/100. This is the second Spike Lee movie I've given a perfect rating. This also makes Lee the fourth director to ever have two movies in my top 20, with the other three being Francis Ford Coppola (obviously), Terry Gilliam and Steven Spielberg.