Doctor Marsha Lineahan created Dialectical Behavior Therapy to aid clients with treatment resistant depression and borderline personality disorder, but it is a set of skills every interacting human would benefit from learning. One of the key components of DBT is the idea of letting go of black and white, either/or type thinking, and thinking dialectally, meaning two opposing ideas can be true at one time. Spike Lee takes this concept to the big screen in his emotionally charged, 1989 film, Do the Right Thing. There is a cut and dry “wrong” in the film that cannot be understated. But mostly, this Brooklyn community, and all involved in the chaos of the hottest day of the year, are humans with a tragic story that is real, and true, for them and their human experience.
Lee introduces the characters through a series of deep close-up shots, sweat beading off their faces, the camera angle is off to indicate something is afoot. In the opening scene, viewers meet Tina (Rosie Perez) fight dancing in numerous settings to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.” Lee sets expectations and alerts the audience to what is to come; he is telling the viewers, be ready for a fight. “Fight the Power” anchors the film diegetically as Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) walks the neighborhood, irritating the old folks, with his boom-box blaring this poignant song by Public Enemy. Raheem has no idea he will be murdered over that boom box.
Most of the characters in the film are people of color, but diverse color and heritage. There is one gentrified white man living on the block who seems oblivious to his surroundings. Sal (Danny Aiello) owns the pizzeria on the block and has been there for twenty-five years. Sal has two sons, Vito (Richard Edson) and Pino (John Turturro). Pino is outwardly racist. It is with the introduction of Sal’s when racism is first acknowledged in the film. Sal says the air conditioning repair man will not come to their neighborhood without a police escort. Pino says that famous black people such as Prince are black, but not really black. Lee does an excellent job of portraying Pino’s evil thoughts about the patrons of Sal’s. Again, with the deep close-up and angled camera shots the audience knows Pino is horribly racist and filled with hate.
Sal, on the other hand, seems to be against racism and does not understand Pino’s hate. Sal feels everything is fine; they (the neighborhood) grew up on his food, and he has never had any trouble with anyone. Sal considers Mookie (Spike Lee), his delivery guy at the pizzeria, like a son. Sal is soft on Mookie’s sister Jade (Joie Lee) which is unacceptable to Mookie. Sal is great, until he is pushed to his limits.
Throughout the film, Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito) is demanding the neighborhood boycott Sal’s because he only has pictures of Italian Americans on his wall, when all his patrons are people of color. Buggin wants to see Malcom X or Martin Luther King on the wall. He travels the block demanding all to boycott Sal’s. Ultimately, this is what starts the spiral.
Sal, out of the kindness of his heart, opens his already locked door after close to some of the kids on the block. This leads to Buggin throwing a fit and Radio Raheem blaring “Fight the Power”. The camera is again angled and flashes between close-ups of Sal screaming and Radio Raheem blaring the music. Sal shouts the ultimate racial slur and beats the boom box with a baseball bat. This entire sequence is done using odd camera angles and insanely close shots of people screaming, which gives the audience the feeling of being a part of the chaos.
Radio Raheem attacks Sal and drags him over the counter. He is choking him when the police arrive. Raheem is choked to death by a cop’s nightstick while everyone on the block watches. Even if Raheem could have killed Sal, there was no justification to killing him. They had him restrained. Another cop could have put the cuffs on before he was choked out. Does Raheem’s murder by police officers justify destroying Sal’s? Mookie starts a riot by throwing a trashcan through the window. The establishment is destroyed and burned to the ground. Property destruction, while understood, is never the answer. It can only breed more hate.
Roger Ebert states in his review of Do The Right Thing “There are really no heroes or villains in the film.” The truth is, neither Sal nor the Koreans should have been operating businesses in the neighborhood without also having thriving black and brown business on the block. The greatest disservice to freed black people was to not give them the same rights and opportunity as everyone else. Next time there is a riot in the streets, ask the question, would they burn it down if they were proportionately represented in business? It is highly doubtful.
