I’m going through the AFI Top 100 and number 96 is Do the Right Thing! written and directed by Spike Lee.  TCM gives this synopsis:

On a sweltering hot day in a Brooklyn neighborhood, everyone has their own issues to deal with and tensions between Blacks and Italians rise. Issues of pride and prejudice, justice and inequity come to the surface as hate and bigotry smoulder–finally building into a crescendo as it explodes into violence.

For someone who loves Hollywood escapist films, watching a social problem film that has no resolution is hard.  I like things to be tied up in nice shiny bows at the end of a film and that certainly doesn’t happen with Do the Right Thing!

After viewing this film, I was left with this feeling of helplessness.  There are so many people at fault in this film.  I wasn’t sure who did or was doing the right thing.  And upon further investigation and research, I found out that’s exactly Spike Lee’s point.

There are two conflicting quotes shown at the end of the film: one by Dr. Martin Luther King speaking against violence and one by Malcom X talking about the use of violence for self-defense.  The entire film is one big contradiction essentially designed to make you think.

Movies like Crash and Do The Right Thing! just make me feel defeated and I ask, “if things are this bad, how can I change anything?”  I have to wonder how effective movies like this really are.

My take away is this:  movies like Crash and Do the Right Thing! are necessary to raise awareness about issues in humanity.  But I personally would rather show someone ACTUALLY doing the right thing as a model for other people to follow rather than asking a question and not giving an answer.  But that’s just me.

Regardless of whether I enjoyed the film, it sure made me think and that is why Do the Right Thing! is on the list.  Spike Lee is an extremely talented filmmaker who has spent his entire career making movies with a message that he is passionate about.  That’s incredible.

The only Spike Lee “joints” I’ve seen are Malcolm X, Inside Man and Do the Right Thing! Which of his films have you seen?