With Black History Month coming to an end, the Umoja program at San Diego City College was set to wrap up its annual Black Film Fridays with Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.”
Though this week’s screening was canceled with no explanation, the film is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, with a subscription or free with advertisements on YouTube.
Lee’s iconic 1989 film is a beautifully written and shot comedy-drama that examines the cataclysmic dynamic of racism and racial tension in the United States.
“Do the Right Thing” opens with a fiery four-minute long sequence featuring Tina, who is played by Rosie Perez, dancing to a saxophone solo that fades into “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy.
Can’t see the video? Click here.
Written and recorded by Public Enemy for the film, this song works as the premise of “Do the Right Thing.” The song mirrors Lee’s call to action against racism and institutional authority and works as an anthem to remind audiences that community outlasts the powers that be.
The film takes place on a block in the predominantly black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the year.
Resentments simmer among different racial groups along with the heat until it reaches a boiling point of no return.
Through the combination of social realism and stylized imagery, Lee creates a mood of a ticking time bomb that progresses throughout the film.
Rather than following a single protagonist, you are immersed in the lives of a variety of multi-ethnic characters, which then creates an abundance of life on the Bed-Stuy block.
Can’t see the video? Click here.
This variety of life shows the complexities of the way race affects how lives are lived in the United States.
It’s impossible for most of the characters to be fully likable because once you begin to sympathize with them their hatred and bigotry erupts from within.
Racial tension combined with heat brings out the worst in everyone, pushing them all to their breaking points.
“Do the Right Thing” raises questions of what is right in a world of moral ambiguity. Lee isn’t trying to tell you what’s “right,” rather he highlights the dichotomy of the lives lived and their complex situations.
Lee concludes the film with quotations by civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X that contradict one another on what is right in the debate of violence.
King strongly urges against violence as a way of achieving racial justice, while Malcom X admits that violence may be necessary when defending oneself.
The film is an alluring presentation of differing worldviews that resists the temptation of favoring one over another.
“Do the Right Thing” is a lush celebration of Black life paired with complex rage, a perfect way to celebrate the end of February and Black History Month.
This story was edited by Tresean Osgood and David J. Bohnet.
