Do The Right Thing directed by Spike Lee in 1989 was used to send a message out to the world about the troubles facing African Americans in America. These problems are what were happening at the time and even today one the problems that is being addressed is tolerance between both races in America is in some parts still not happening. Spike lee was quoted saying "I've been blessed with the opportunity to express the views of black people who otherwise don't have access to power and the media. I have to take advantage of that while I'm still bankable” [i]and “This is America’s biggest problem always has been, always will be”[ii]. Spike Lee accomplishes his goal in sending his message to his audience by using the themes of racism, hypocrisy and violence.

It sparked a debate on racial relations but this is not the only movie Spike Lee has made on this topic. For example he later made a movie called Jungle Fever in 1991 it was about interracial dating which was highly uncommon even though it was only about 15 years ago. Lee's handling of the subject proved yet again highly controversial although it did not quite arouse the debate that Do The Right Thing had done.

Spike Lee used cinematography, sound/music and lighting in the movie to help tell the story when characters weren’t talking. The tension between Pino and Vito is representative of the fight between white and African Americans. This is represented through the way that they both treat Mookie and African American who works for their father Sal. Pino wears a white singlet and Vito wears a black singlet this represents the sides that the two brothers are on. Vito who is tolerant towards the African Americans and Pino who is the complete opposite of Vito. That is one example of the great use of cinematography applied by Spike Lee. Another would be that it is the hottest day of the summer but throughout the whole movie we never see the sun but things like the bright colours of the background using yellow and red in scenes and the clothes that the characters are wearing all summer type clothes such as sing lets and shorts. You can easily tell that it is a hot day even before the characters like “love daddy” mention when he says “It’s gonna be hot”. When Radio Raheem was upset the music on his stereo is louder e.g. at Sal’s near the end of the movie to project is anger. The music for the movie fits in perfectly as Fight The Power encourages people to stand up for themselves Radio Raheem is the one who is constantly playing it on his stereo and he does “Fight The Power” for example when the Spanish guys who turned up their radio in when Radio Raheem approached playing fight The Power he then turned his music up so loud that they couldn’t match it and near the end of the movie when he was fighting with Sal which lead to him dying from police brutality.

This screen shot shows that Pino and Vito wearing the coloured singlets, which represents which racial side, they are on.

The song that is played at the start of the movie and throughout the movie by Radio Raheem “Fight the Power” is in a way encouraging the African Americans to stand up for themselves, the song was by rappers “Public Enemy”. When they do stand up for themselves a member of the community is killed. This means that they should still “Fight the Power” but don’t always have to revert to violence. In this song the chorus is a simple phrase "Fight The Power". This is a powerful phrase it is saying stand up for what up believe and not to let others influence you in your own good judgment. This song was a number hit when it came out and was extremely popular on the radio and TV. It represented the pop cultural at its time. “What we need is awareness” verses like this link the movie and the song closely together as the reason why this song was made was because Spike Lee asked Chuck D (one of the members of Public Enemy) to write a song for Do The Right Thing. “Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps”, “Nothing but rednecks for 400 years” these are strong verses that again help Spike Lee’s message get across by playing the song over and over it seems like it is being played not just for people to stand up for themselves but get the message across.

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A screen shot of Radio Raheem, which shows that he is very much respected and a little intimidating.

The movie is about a neighborhood on the hottest day of the Summer, and the racial tensions that emerge. It starts with the sound of an enthusiastic radio announcer and from the start of the movie it becomes obvious that it is an African American neighborhood. The whole movie is based around a local pizza store owned by Sal and his two sons Pino and Vito. Mookie is lazy and is self-centered as all he cares about is getting paid and repeatedly says “I gotsta get paid”. When we first see him he is counting his money and this is one of the happiest times Mookie is in the whole movie. Buggin’ out who is a friend of Mookie come into “Sal’s Famous Pizzeria” and notices that there are no African Americans on the “Wall of Fame” and starts to protesting on why there are “no brothers on the wall”. Sal refuses and kicks him out. Radio Raheem who is somewhat of a bully who carries around with him a large stereo playing the song Fight The Power goes to buy a slice of pizza when he is yelled at by Sal to turn down the music. He then joins up with Buggin’ out and Smiley who is a mentally retarded local who sells pictures of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. and go back into Sal’s Famous Pizzeria and order him to put some “brothers on the wall”. After they yell at each other Radio Raheem turns his stereo up and in anger Sal smashes it with a baseball bat and that cause them to start hitting each other. The police come to break it up and in the process the police murders Radio Raheem. I use the word murdered as when they were chocking him he was obviously unable to breath but they didn’t let him go which ended up with Radio Raheem dying. After the police left Mookie grabbed a garbage can and smashed the window of Sal’s store that leads to it being trashed. When they had finished trashing the store they burned it down and headed for another store across the street owned by Koreans. This is a very important moment as the Koreans said, “We are the same”. This means that even though they are both racially different they are equal and their store was left alone. Mookie still annoyed, as he still hasn’t been paid goes to Sal who is outside of his tore to collect his money. What Mookie does with the money is a mystery. Will he move out of his sister’s home and find his own place? Or try to start supporting his family is unknown.

This is the first time that Buggin’ out notices that there are “no brothers on the wall”.

The main theme and the reason on the making of this film would be racism and for the fact that American people in some areas didn’t know that this sort of thing was happening in their own country. The movie is titled Do The Right Thing but later in the movie we find out that some of the characters did not “Do the Right Thing”.

The theme racism is the dominant theme in the movie but also the reason why Spike Lee made the movie in the first place. Spike lee put in subtle hints throughout the movie about the need for African Americans to be treated equally within society. For example Da Mayor said to Mother-Sister “One day your gonna be nice to me we both may be dead and buried but you gonna be nice, at least civil”. This is saying that one day things are going to change and African Americans will be treated fairly. They are both standing far away from each other, which represents the distance between the two races in real life.

Pino hates the neighborhood and the African Americans in it, he wants to leave and does not plan to stay and run the business when his father is gone. “I detest this place like a sickness” is what he refers the business as. Even though most of the people that admires are African American he says that him hating the African Americans is “different”. Again the technique used here is him always wearing a white singlet which represents which race he belongs to. The technique used her is mise-en-scene. As he represents the white people and his brother Vito represents the African Americans as he wears a black singlet, he bullies Vito and that’s how it was in real life as the white people had more power over the African Americans. Vito stands up for himself at some point and this moment is very important as he stood up for himself and is representative of the African Americans.

Sal along with Buggin’ out was the catalysts behind the murder of Radio Raheem. By Sal refusing to put up a picture of a “brother” on the “Wall of Fame” as only famous Italian American pictures could be put up. Sal shows a real lack of integration into the community even though he has been running his business in it for 25 years by not allowing any pictures of famous African American heroes on the “Wall of Fame”. This is a clear form of discrimination against the African Americans even though they are the ones who keep Sal in business. Sal referred to Mookie as a “son” to him and wears a green shirt which means that he is mutual, he isn’t on any one side but in the middle even though he does seem to care about his customers the pictures of the famous American Italians on the wall is the only thing that is linking him to his culture. Mise-en-scene is used to show that Sal is mutual.

Spike Lee has also made it clear that it’s not everyone else in the world that have to change the way they treat the African Americans but first the African Americans themselves must also change and treat others the way they want to be treated. This can be seen when the three men who sit across the road from the Korean couple’s store. A close up of ML’s face when he speaks of them and the close up is used to show his disgust about them being in the neighborhood. The African Americans are treated with disrespect like when the police drive past and look at the three and shake their heads saying “what a waste”. The three men also treat the Koreans with disrespect. For example Sweet Dick Willie pushes them around taking beer from them without paying for it.

This is a screen shot of Sal smashing Radio Raheem’s stereo which lead to radio Raheem fighting with Sal, the police being called up and then Radio Raheem’s death.

This is just before the police murder Radio Raheem. You can see that he is clearly struggling.

The theme of hypocrisy relates not just to the African Americans but also to everyone. The main theme is that African Americans are being treated unfairly because of their race but in the movie but they treat other races like the Koreans who own a store in the neighborhood unfairly because of their race.

In the movie there is a strong sense of hypocrisy from the black community when it comes to other races such as the Koreans and Clifton (the man with the bike who stepped on Buggin’ out’s shoe). They all want to be treated as equals but they treat others who are not of the same cultural background as them with disrespect. This plays a very important role to get across the message that Spike Lee is trying to get across which is that African Americans are equal and this is clear when the Koreans’’ shop was going to be trashed after Sal’s business was trashed and burned down they said “we are the same”. This is not just referring to African Americans compared to everyone else of African Americans and Koreans but everyone not matter their background is equal compared to everyone else.

Another theme that is very important in this movie is violence. Violence in the movie seems to be the answer for everything instead of talking to each other violence is the answer. When Clifton (the man with the bike) “ruined” Buggin’ out’s shoes by stepping on one of them others were encouraging him to hit Clifton. A close up of Buggin’ out’s face is used to show is anger and a mid shot is used to show the disappointment of the people encouraging Buggin’ out to hit Clifton.

Smiley sells pictures of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. to make a living. What is special about this is that Martin Luther King Jr. encourages a non-violent approach to the struggle for civil rights while Malcolm X condones violence in self-defense. At the end the movie shows that it is in favor of Malcolm X’s approach. A POV shot is used as Smiley puts a picture of Malcolm on what was previously the “wall of Fame”. By the reaction to Radio Raheem’s death for example the movie’s characters seem to weigh the movie’s position in favor of Malcolm X. but the juxtaposition of the two is evident as Da Major wins Mother Sister’s friendship gently and patiently. DA Major could have given up as Mother-Sister seems to stand her ground and refuse him every time but a kind and gentle approach was the answer. When we first see DA Major and Mother-Sister the gap between them was noticeable but as they started to get along the distance wasn’t that far away as they were now close to each other.

This is the picture of Malcolm X, which Smiley put up on what was previously the “Wall of Fame”, and this represents that Malcolm X’s theory, which the characters chose his theory where he condones violence.

In conclusion Spike Lee achieved to get the message across that African Americans not in all of America but in some areas on how they were treated and the struggles that they face in their day-to-day lives and their desire to be treated as equals. He has achieved this through using the themes of racism, hypocrisy and violence. Through the use of the main theme of racism, which is the main reason on why this movie was made, it provided the awareness that this issue desperately needed. The theme racism showed the audience how life was for African Americans and if Spike Lee did not dare to make this movie then this would not have been possible. African Americans were also racist towards the Koreans and this means that it is not only the world that must change but they also have to change. Hypocrisy the theme was aimed towards the African Americans, as they want to be treated as equals but they themselves treat others the way they do not want to be treated. The final theme, which is violence, is extremely important as the only way they are used to deal with issues it seems it is through violence. When DA Major saves a young boy from getting hit by a car the boy’s mum smacked him. If Sal didn’t smash Radio Raheem’s stereo and if Buggin’ out and Radio Raheem didn’t retaliate at Sal smashing the Stereo the neighborhood would not have been torn apart. Again Spike Lee used these themes very well in projecting his message across very well and in the process making a very entertaining Oscar nominated movie.

[i] IMDb (Internet Movie Database)

[ii] Film Art an Introduction page 425