The Movie Do the Right Thing - Essay Example

The movie “Do the Right Thing” looks dated sometimes as far as graphics and style, but it has not lost its significance even now – in the 21st century.
The main topic of the movie is the relations between races in modern America. The story of the movie takes place one hot day in an African-American neighborhood of Brooklyn. We follow the lives of a few personalities on this particular day, and the center of the action is Sal’s Famous Pizzeria owned by white people from the neighborhood.
In the beginning, the movie seemed to be quite entertaining, with interesting fun characters, but then the tension built up, to the point that the end of the movie is tragic and dramatic.
What I liked about the movie is how the characters are depicted in detail and each of the characters is memorable. It seems like there are no secondary roles in this movie – each character is important. The director of the movie, Spike Lee, who also plays the character of Mookie, portrays the relationship between the characters on the racial background. The message about racism and the relations between races is quite strong in this film.
You can divide the characters into two groups – those who try to live peacefully with the representatives of another race (Pino, Jade, Vito), and those who are in a state of conflict and have anger at the people of a different race (Buggin Out, Radio Raheem). Mookie is somewhere in between – he seems to be torn between both sides due to his commitments. One more important character of the movie is Mister Senor Love Daddy – he is the voice of reason in this conflict.
The conflict, which builds up gradually and finally breaks out at the end of the movie, is triggered by Buggin Out and Radio Raheem, but the main part is played by Mookie, who seems to finally decide for himself which side to take, and ends up on the side of his race, the African-Americans.
Even though the movie is not easy to watch, I would even dare to say that it is a heavy-duty film, in the end, you feel like you have learned something because you see the position of those who are on the other side.
The main conclusion that I come to is that racism is ugly in all its manifestations. Whether people are dying from racial conflicts, businesses suffering, or children getting the wrong message – racism is bad, it is wrong.
When you start watching the movie with the title “Do the Right Thing”, you wonder what IS the right thing? Watching the movie I was thinking and, in a way, hoping that in the end, I will get the answer to this profound question. Instead, I was left wondering. This question is left up to the audience to decide, and that is probably what a good movie is about – not to tell you what is right or what is wrong, but to make you ask yourself these questions. Read More