Do the Right Thing
A 1989 film written and directed by Spike Lee, depicting racial tensions and conflict in a Brooklyn neighborhood during a hot summer day.
Mookie: A pizza-delivery worker played by Spike Lee in Do the Right Thing. His decision during the climax makes him the film’s central moral and political flashpoint.
Spike Lee: An American filmmaker, actor, and writer known for films addressing race and Black life in the United States. He wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Do the Right Thing.
Danny Aiello: An American actor who played Sal in Do the Right Thing. His performance makes Sal both an attachment to the neighborhood and a source of conflict.
Malcolm X: An African American Muslim minister and civil rights leader who advocated Black self-determination and human rights. His quotation in the ending stands beside Martin Luther King Jr.’s, refusing a simple verdict on violence.
Fight the Power: A 1989 Public Enemy song calling for resistance to racial oppression and dominant cultural narratives. Its repeated use in the film made it inseparable from the block’s resistance and energy.
Sal's Famous Pizzeria: The Italian American-owned pizzeria at the center of Do the Right Thing’s neighborhood conflict. Its wall of celebrity photographs becomes a dispute over whose culture the business represents.
1980s New York City: New York City during the 1980s, a period marked by fiscal strain, racial conflict, and cultural change. The film’s neighborhood tensions reflect the city’s social climate in the decade it was made.
Ossie Davis: An American actor, director, and writer who played Da Mayor in Do the Right Thing. Da Mayor’s generosity and vulnerability complicate the film’s portrait of neighborhood life.
Martin Luther King Jr.: An American Baptist minister and civil rights leader who advocated nonviolent resistance. His quotation in the ending frames nonviolence against Malcolm X’s defense of self-defense.
1990 Academy Awards: The Academy Awards ceremony held in 1990 for films released in 1989. Do the Right Thing received nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay, but no wins.