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Film Review Of Do The Right Thing By Spike Lee

1090 Words5 Pages

Spike Lee’s commercially and critically successful 1989 film Do the Right Thing is a notable film in our modern day society in terms of racism, ethics, and prejudice. The film was even marked as “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress in 1999. The films prominent themes are distinctly racism, morality, and “fighting the power”. Racism plays a big role as many people see the film as a white versus black type of movie, due to the owner of the movie’s main setting, Sal’s Pizzeria, owned by Sal Frangione, and accompanied by his son, Pino and Vito. Sal and Pino are persistently against the main character, Mookie (portrayed by Spike Lee himself) and the black community.
Morality is constantly being questioned …show more content…

Following Mookie leading his brother out to the door, Buggin’ Out tells Mookie to “stay black” since Mookie works with white men and does not want Mookie to follow Sal’s and Pino’s ideologies and racist mindset. Buggin’ Out being thrown out of the Pizzeria by Sal only makes everything worse as Buggin’ Out plans to boycott the restaurant, and tries to get other people to boycott the restaurant. This only ends up with Radio Raheem’s death, Mookie starting the mass vandalism of Sal’s Pizzeria, and Smiley setting Sal’s building on fire while the black folks are constantly chanting “Radio! Radio!” to honour Radio Raheem while watching the pizzeria …show more content…

Mookie even informs Sal that it does not matter his building burned down, because his insurance will make up for his loss. Mookie is right as Radio Raheem’s death and Buggin’ Out getting arrested is worse than a restaurant being burnt down as they are both human and do not deserve their doomed fate that was written by Sal. All in all, racism is still a gigantic problem today, people like Sal and Pino are definitely still around in our modern society. Mookie and his friends did indeed do the right thing by throwing the garbage can at Sal’s restaurant and majorly vandalizing it as it was a rightful attack on racism, Pino, Sal, and their own way of avenging the undeserved death of Radio

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