DO THE RIGHT THING

I'm trying to gather my thoughts for the canonical Spike Lee film, "Do the Right Thing." I'm struggling to understand the point of the film or how I feel about Lee's interpretation of racial tension. What I am most disturbed by is how unlikable Lee's film portrays its black characters. There's Mookie, played by Lee himself, who is essentially an incompetent kid bumming off his older sister, a mostly-absent dad, and a fairly lazy pizza delivery man. We are, I think, supposed to sympathize with Mookie as he struggles between working for the white men (who in themselves are immigrants: Italian Americans) and his black friends and peers in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. If only it were that simple. The other characters include Mookie's older sister, Jade; radio host Mister Senor Love Daddy; town drunkard Da Mayor; black pride-obsessed Buggin Out; and a man dedicated to his boom box Radio Raheem.

My concern is that the black cast can easily be seen as caricatures of important issues. Buggin Out demands that Sal's pizzeria include pictures of blacks because, as he puts it, they are the ones spending money there (never mind that it's an Italian pizzeria). A valid point, to be sure, and if only that point were raised eloquently or with reason instead of irrational yells and name-calling. Buggin Out is no verbal pugilist and while his character isn't supposed to be written that way, I think Lee is pushing our patience or even belief in his reality when Radio Raheem becomes his biggest ally in boycotting Sal's pizzeria. Radio Raheem is a hulk, a man of few words, and for no reason I can think of, angry at Sal for making him turn down his radio inside his pizza shop. We get it: Radio Raheem enjoys his boom box. But doesn't he have an off button?

The two characters I think we are unequivocally supposed to like are Jade, Mookie's older sister, who gets along with everyone, including Sal, and Da Mayor, the town drunk that saves a kid's life, wins over snoopy Mother Sister's affections and is generally spouting off benign advice, including the movie title: "Always do the right thing," he says to Mookie. Therein lies the main issue: does Mookie do the right thing? Does anyone in this film? You could argue so, but only because facts are missing and blinders are on. Why does Lee ostracize Da Mayor from the rest of the neighborhood while Mookie is generally well-liked? My best guess is that Da Mayor represents the fear of the black community: to have worked hard but still watch the people he loves suffer and winds up wandering the streets, shamelessly. You could say he's earned his right to drink.

You can see the craftsmanship of building up these personalities and the tension mounting as the heat rises, but ultimately it's when the sun begins cooling that everything starts crashing. We're left wondering why Mookie stands idly by while two of his friends start harassing Sal as he starts closing up shop. In fact, a few minutes prior, Lee clenches our heart with dialogue about how Sal considers Mookie his son and how there will always be a place for him at his pizzeria; Sal also lets in some neighborhood kids in for one last bite even though it's past closing time since, as he noted hours before, these kids grew up on his food. Sal takes pride in this neighborhood and somehow feels a part of it. So why do Radio Raheem and Buggin Out desperately want to knock Sal off his good intentioned pedestal? There is the principle of it, which is that blacks should own property in their own neighborhood. True. I wish it came from more credible characters, and that their wanting to take back their neighborhood didn't come from such petty places. Throughout the film, Buggin Out advocates for segregation, starting a fight with a Brooklyn native who happens to be white and who happens to accidentally step on his shoes (of course, Buggin Out is a serious sneaker head, and watching his outrage makes me cringe).

The fight begins, and somehow Radio Raheem is choking Sal, and the precinct arrive. Here's where it gets tricky. The police arrive and attack the blacks, and begins chocking Radio Raheem, so much so that he dies. There is outrage at the police, of course, but what can you do to police, really? Nothing. So the hate turns to Sal and his pizzeria. Mookie throws the first trash can into the store window and the rest is decimated by the angry crowd. Here's what I don't get. How is this Sal's fault? And why did Mookie cast that first stone? Why this ultimate show of betrayal? Mookie explains the next day that it didn't matter that he threw that stone; Radio Raheem died, and insinuates to Sal, how could you even care about your fucking shop right now? Well. Funny thing. Mookie is asking this as he comes to collect his paycheck from last night. Mookie. How do you even have the nerve to show up to collect? I suspect Sal is a more forgiving person than I because there is some awkward chatter as the two ambiguously start to forgive each other.

Who here has done the right thing? In my mind, my confusion lies in the fact that I think it's straight-forward and that people would disagree with that. Everyone has acted poorly, except for Sal, who reacted poorly by succumbing to name-calling and racial stereotypes-- cheap tricks. No one, truly, is to blame, but I feel like it's a shame that no one has developed sensibility or come to realize that perhaps what they were doing was wrong. So what you have is something that is very accurate to life, without resolution, but you get the sense that in the aftermath, there's just been destruction and no learning curve; how can you expect anyone to do the right thing in the future then?

In the end, I wonder who the film is for. I remember reading Charlotte Perkin Gilman's "Herland," a supposedly feminist Utopian novel whose protagonist is.... a male. Similarily, I am left feeling a bit uneasy that a film about a predominantly black and Puerto Rican neighborhood gives its sympathy to a white outsider. Is this a rally for solidarity? I hope so.

currently listening to:
Back On a Roll
Super Furry Animals

frustrated,
t

PS - In case you can't tell, I did enjoy the film. But am currently confused to its interpretation.