Talk:Do the Right Thing

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Contents 1 Controversial film 2 Re: plot summary. 3 Obsessed with money 4 "Four-fingered ring" 5 Citation Needed 6 Incorrect description of Sal

[edit] Controversial film

Was "Do the right thing" controversial? eh? Project2501a 18:55, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Very. When it was released there were reports of riots showing the film in some areas, and it was boycotted by several anti-defamation leagues.--Fallout boy 08:53, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

That's not true. There were fears that it might cause riots. In the event it didn't. The Singing Badger 14:58, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Re: plot summary.

Did extensive rewrite, especially after someone said that Smiley (the mentall retarded guy) was white. He might be lightskinned, but he's not white! --FuriousFreddy 01:39, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Obsessed with money

I had to remove the remark that Mookie was "obsessed with money" because he wants to get paid. I want to get paid. Does that make me obsessed with money? There's just not enough evidence in the movie to point to money as a primary motivation for any of the actions Mookie takes, except for going to work in the first place. -- Anon

[edit] "Four-fingered ring"

Is a "four-fingered" ring what's commonly known as a knuckleduster? -- Anon

Not quite. Similar, but somewhat different, I'd say. --FuriousFreddy 00:53, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Speaking of which (and obviously I just need to go watch the movie for myself, but), is LOVE/HATE an homage to Night of the Hunter, and if so, should it be mentioned in the article somewhere? --Quuxplusone 01:17, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Citation Needed

"Lee himself has stated that this question is only one that bothers white viewers. He believes that the key point is that Mookie was angry at the death of Radio Raheem, and that viewers who consider the riot unjustified are implicitly valuing property over the life of a black man."

I haven't found anything where Spike Lee says that. Can someone put in a citation?

Roger Ebert makes the above implication that the writer attributes to Lee in his essay on the film for the Criterion Collection. Ebert writes, "Among the many devastating effects of Lee’s film, certainly the most subtle and effective is the way it leads some viewers (not racist, but thoughtless or inattentive or imbued with the unexamined values of our society) to realize that they have valued a pizzeria over a human life." [1] The Criterion web site positions this essay directly beneath a signature of Spike Lee in a way that might lead one to believe Spike Lee had written the article (one would have to ignore the self-references to Spike Lee within the article, but anyway..) It seems plausible that someone confused the two. But someone suggests Lee himself says it in the same DVD, which is something I cannot verify. -- Anon

A citation is surely needed. The death of Radio Raheem at the hands of the police is horrific, but the destruction of the pizzaria is properly tragic and so elicits a greater reaction. Lee's respect for the idiom of tragedy as a mistake magnified is shown by Sal's having destroyed Raheem's boombox in an earlier scene. MaherCoen (talk) 09:57, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

He says it in an interview on the Criterion Collection DVD. I'll add a citation. Cop 663 (talk) 14:17, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh wait, it's already cited!! Pay attention, people... Cop 663 (talk) 14:19, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Incorrect description of Sal

The character Sal is indeed racist, just like Pino. The difference is the aggressive nature of how each character expresses it. Sal's racism is shown when he loses his temper (similar to how whites become more liberal regarding minorities when they're drunk). Pino's racism is blatant. This is the point Spike Lee makes during the final quarter of the film. I've edited the article to reflect this. Panda

I think there are many diffrent ways to interpret what Sal yells here. The fact that he yells racial slurs when he is enraged does not necessarily mean that he is a racist. I think anyone can agree that he was put under an incredible amount of stress here. I think that he struggles with racal prejudice as much as anyone else does, but I think that when you look at what he says when he is at his most contemplative (discussing with Pino the decades he has spent in the neighborhood), it's hard to call him a racist. I also take issue with the notion that people were valuing property over life in this movie. In effect, the pizzeria is Sal and his sons' life. Sal makes this clear in his discussion with Pino. The crowd is destroying three people's lives as retaliation for the actions of a third party—namely, the police officer who murdered Radio. — noktulo 23:09, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not quite sure whether you were the one that edited the article (as i review it seems the article is now a mirror of your above response), but I believe we need an administrator to lock this page. A grown man should be able to control himself regardless of how 'incredible' their stress is. It is unacceptable and unprofessional to threaten even an irate customer with battery (baseball bat Sal). I think it's universally agreed that Buggin Out and Radio both disrespected Sal's establishment. 'The crowd is destroying three people's lives' can be interpreted as extremely unsympathetic view of life. As Mookie stated in the film, Sal's insurance would cover his material losses. He will move his business to another neighborhood since his and Pino's actions along with those of the police tarnished his relationship with the community. However, Radio Raheem's life cannot be recaptured.

Also, the following paragraph has strange wording:

Sal, after being harassed by youth looking for a reason to start a fight, loses his temper near the climax and begins shouting racial slurs in retaliation for the racial slurs against him, and winds up destroying the radio box that was blasting music so loudly that no one could hear one another. His younger son Vito is not racist at all and has a unique bond with Mookie.

Panda

I I don't think it's particularly fair to Sal to say that he should have been able to control himself, when Radio also showed a huge lack of self-control in starting the fight. Sal wasn't responsible for Radio's death, either. Obviously there are bigger forces at work than just Sal and his sons vs. Radio, Buggin' Out, and the rest of the neighborhood. Clearly it's a travesty, and a result of racism, that the police killed Radio over a fight, and the crowd was certainly justified in wanting to smash SOMETHING, but taking their anger out on the pizzeria basically because it was the only white-owned business on the block wasn't fair to Sal and didn't solve anything. The white cops will still be around, there's nothing stopping another white business from opening up, and Sal, Vito, and especially Pino probably have a much worse view of the neighborhood and non-whites in general. ebolamunkee 03:09, 6 February 2008 (UTC)