#96 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
This movie came out when I was 11 and Mike was 9. Therefore, we had each seen various portions of the movie, but couldn't actually remember the whole thing. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it, because I often find Spike Lee movies boring (except Inside Man, which was awesome). Mike was looking forward to it, because he likes Spike Lee more than I do. We were both pleasantly surprised. This was a great movie. I'm sure that is why it is on the list, but it was really a lot better than I thought it was.
If you don't know, Do The Right Thing is about a really hot day in Bed-Stuy, focusing on racial tensions. What did I love about it? Mostly that it wasn't trying to talk about a solution or about how things should be, but instead was just showing things as they are (or at least how they were in 1989). What makes this movie great is that it throws it in your face. Here's some racism. It's ugly and uncomfortable racism. The movie doesn't try to tell us that it's wrong, it relies on our ability to understand that calling people these words and acting this way is wrong. It doesn't tell us what we should do, it relies on us to know what we should do. I guess I just like that it isn't trying to preach, it's trying to illuminate. That's what makes it successful. Are things better today? I have no idea. I'm sure that there are plenty of people that would say they are not, and they may not be. We certainly still have racism in the U.S., and with all the mass shootings lately, we have plenty of violence to go with it. Which means that this movie is still very relevant, even though it's over 20 years old.
I would also like to point out that when we saw "a Spike Lee joint" come up on the screen, we both went "wow, this was before people knew who Spike Lee was." Which is an interesting conversation on its own, and thinking about the 80s and what we didn't know then is always fun. I will also say that there is a conversation in the film about whether Dwight Gooden or Roger Clemens is better, which I found enjoyable, considering we have the benefit of knowing what happened for each ballplayer since the movie was released. Also, there is a lot of Public Enemy going on here. When is the last time you heard Public Enemy?
And speaking of it being over 20 years old and things that have changed, this movie had some young actors, before their careers took off. It has Samuel L. Jackson (as Sam Jackson), it was Martin Lawrence's first movie, it introduced Rosie Perez. There's John Savage (who I love), Danny Aeillo, and Giancarlo Esposito. Our favorite performance was certainly John Turturro. I think we can all agree that he's one of the top 5 character actors out there, and his performance in this movie is brilliant, especially when you look at which scenes were improvised. Now we need to watch some more movies with John Turturro. This movie is a great example of why we are watching the movies on this list. Because this is not something we would have chosen on our own, but we enjoyed it immensely and it was definitely worth seeing. For now, it will be taking over the top spot on our list.
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