Do the Right Thing
Published April 6, 2024
Film info
- Title Do the Right Thing
- Director Spike Lee
- Year 1989
- Run time 2hrs
- Genre Drama
- Tagline You can do nothing, you can do something, or you can...
It's the hottest day of the year and when Italian-American Sal refuses to make changes to his pizza parlour in the predominantly black community, tension and tempers mount.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 2:24 | Introducing Rosie Perez, so far she’s the only thing in it. |
| 6:02 | Just had to ask Siri to convert 100 degrees for me. |
| 13:22 | Family business means family bickering. |
| 17:33 | Dude talking about climate change in 1989 and they’re just laughing at him. Rage. |
| 21:00 | “I’m not kicking you out, you’re kicking yourself out.” |
| 30:08 | It’s weird to me that there are just fire hydrants in the street for anyone to mess with. |
| 31:57 | Really loving Samuel L J’s hyper-local radio. |
| 39:37 | “Can you dig it?” “It’s dug.” |
| 49:11 | “And that’s the double truth, Ruth.” |
| 52:54 | I get his point about the ghettoblasters, but no music at all in a restaurant is an odd choice. |
| 59:29 | “If they were your friends, they wouldn’t laugh at you.” |
| 1:07:20 | TWENTY D batteries? That’s so many! |
| 1:16:54 | Just because it’s dark doesn’t mean it’s any cooler. |
| 1:27:11 | He really has been playing Public Enemy all day! |
| 1:36:30 | Fuck the po-lice. |
| 1:43:05 | Just how quickly that all happened. |
Thoughts
This is a fantastic film. It took a minute to get used to the quirky, off-balance cinematography, but once adjusted, it really added to the piece. I love it being a time capsule, a single block, people weaving in and out of each other’s lives over the course of a day - initially having a bit of fun, but gradually getting more and more tense, until inevitably there’s a blowout, with catastrophic consequences. It’s hard to say I loved the film, as I switched off at the end with rage at the injustice of everything, but it’s an incredible bit of filmmaking.
Rating: 5 / 5