Do The Right Thing

Do the right thing sounds like good common sense.  However, some times it is difficult to know what is the right thing to do.

Spike Lee acted in, produced, directed and wrote the screenplay (nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, but lost to Tom Schulman's Dead Poets Society) for his 1989 film, Do The Right Thing, which explores the dilemma of what is the right thing to do in one particular situation.  The cast included Danny Aiello (nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Denzel Washington in Glory), Ossie Davis, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn and John Turturro.  "The film was shot entirely on Stuyvesant Avenue between Quincy Street and Lexington Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn."  

Do The Right Thing tells what happens on the hottest day of the year in an African American neighborhood in which there is a popular pizzeria (Sal's Famous), owned and operated by an Italian American family, Sal (Aiello) and his two grown sons.  One of the sons (Turturro) is not happy to be there and would prefer to move the business to an Italian American neighborhood.  Sal remains committed to stay where he has succeeded for over 20 years.

On one wall (Sal's Wall of Fame) of the pizzeria are many photos exclusively of Italian American celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio, Al Pacino and Robert Di Nero.  A customer named Buggin' Out (Esposito) complains there are no African Americans on the Wall of Fame.  Sal retorts that it's his pizzeria, so he can put whom ever he wants on it.  As a result of this rejection, Buggin' Out calls for a boycott of Sal's Famous, but few agree with him.

Sal's decision is short sited and contrary to good business practice.  I learned from my experience working in customer service at Kohl's that you want each customer to have a good experience every time they are in your establishment.  Would it have hurt Sal to have put some African Americans on the Wall of Fame?  Many of his customers would have been pleased to see this.

Late that night near closing, Buggin' Out returns with his friend Radio Raheem (Nunn), who always carries a boombox with loud music blaring.  They repeat the demand about putting African Americans on the Wall of Fame.  Sal again says no and demands that Radio Raheem turn off his boombox, which he refuses to do.  Buggin' Out and Sal exchange ethnic slurs.  Sal then destroys the boombox with a baseball bat.  Radio Raheem and Sal get into a fight which "spills out into the street."

Police arrive to break up the fight.  They arrest Buggin' Out, but Radio Raheem resists.  One policeman puts him in a choke hold which he doesn't release until too late, killing Radio Raheem.  The police put Buggin' Out and Radio Raheem's body in a squad car and quickly depart the neighborhood.

With the police gone, the many onlookers, now a mob and angered over the death of Radio Raheem, turn their hostility toward Sal and his sons.  Why?  They didn't kill him.  Maybe because they are white like the police.  

Two key figures can turn this mob either for good or bad.  Da Mayor (Davis) is an old man who walks around the neighborhood forever exhorting people to "do the right thing."  Proving his own metal, earlier he risks his life to save a boy from being run over by a car.

Mookie (Lee) lives in the neighborhood and delivers pizzas for Sal's Famous.  Thus, he has connections to both this throng of onlookers and Sal.  Mookie has heard Da Mayor's exhortation.  What does he do?  He throws an empty garbage can through the front window of Sal's Famous Pizzeria inciting a riot.  

While Da Mayor pulls Sal and his sons away to safety across the street, a horde destroys the pizzeria and eventually burns it to the ground.  It will probably never be rebuilt.  No more pizza in the neighborhood?   

Did Mookie do the right thing?  One explanation is that Lee's action diverted the rioter's attention away from Sal and his sons and saved their lives.  Better a burnt out pizzeria than three more dead people.  It's his movie and he decides how the mob will react. 

Another explanation is that Lee's action was an expression of anger and frustration over the continued violence by the police against the Black community.  Why blame Sal for what the police did?

However, in the real world, when a crowd is encouraged to be violent, there is no guarantee what the result will be.  They could burn the pizzeria and kill the owners.  Perhaps, Mookie should have led the group to the police station where the real culprits were and peacefully protest against police brutality.

A year or two after I saw this movie, I entered the elevator in my office building at 800 Third Avenue in Manhattan.  I suddenly realized that to my left was Spike Lee.  I guess I was starring at him.  He smiled and said, "How ya doin'."  I said back to him, "How ya doin'."  That was the extent of our conversation.  I regret not saying, "Spike, you didn't do the right thing."