Confrontation and conflict is primarily brought on through the portrayal of social hierarchy and power throughout the movie. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, hierarchy is “a system in which people or things are arranged according to their importance”(Cambridge Dictionary). When people are arranged by importance it can cause conflict and confrontation amongst the groups. We see this within Sal’s pizzeria. Sal is the owner and boss of the pizzeria and he lets his employers and customers know that. In the beginning of the movie Sal tells Mookie, played by Spike Lee, there is no freedom in the pizzeria and that he is the boss (Lee, Do the right thing). We also see Sal enforcing his power when Buggin Out, asks why there are no “brothers” (Lee, …show more content…
While confrontation and conflict are major themes throughout the film, the film also makes us think about the way communities handle conflict. The community in the movie turned to violence in order to settle the confrontation with Sal. The film stresses the importance of love verses hate. We see love verses hate on Radio Raheems rings as well as the word love outside of Mister Senor Love Daddy’s radio station. In the end, the community chooses hate and burns down Sal’s pizzeria to make a point. Although the community saw the destruction of the pizzeria as a victory, it was a loss because of the violence it created. We see by the ending quote, “Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral…It (Violence) creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers” (Martin Luther King Jr.) that the choice to burn down the pizzeria doesn’t help the racial injustices but in turn creates a community of hate and brutality. The film, like it started, ends with the theme song “Fight the Power” which helps reemphasize the POINT of the movie which is the black community isn’t going to stand back and watch as they are discriminated against, they are going to cause confrontation and fight the people in power in order to achieve