A day in the life of

It’s one of the hottest days of the year and in Brooklyn, New York City. We meet the characters: Sal, owner of Sal’s Famous Pizza; his tow sons; Mookie, his delivery boy; the local drunk gentleman; the elderly lady taking in all the scenes from her window; Radio Raheem with his loud music emanating from his early 1990s boombox; numerous others. We understand that their roads will intersect, as they must, by the end of the day. Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” was an Important Movie when it came out in 1990, and, having seen it now after 18 years of just not wanting to watch it, the film still works. Its closest contemporary kin is probably “Crash”, though Lee’s film has a harder yet still human edge.

“Do the Right Thing” somehow lead to Lee’s “Angry Young Man” label. But Lee isn’t angry; this film has pathos and regret and racism and futility, possible altogether mistaken for anger. If “Do the Right Thing” proves anything it’s not that Lee’s angry, but that he’s hopeful, and that he understands many of the complexities underlying racial and ethnic disharmony. The film manages to tie events together in a way that is both expected and unexpected; we know what will come, but what roles will which parties play? Can we predict social alignment so strongly just on the basis of the biology of race? With Obama in the US presidency, I’m not so sure that Lee’s film can still be described as “asking tough questions”, but it manages to present rounded characters – even if we only spend time with them for a short while, the dialogue is often rich and textured – engaging in convincing racial stereotyping and anti-stereotyping.

Stylistically, one can spot the cuts and shots that would later mark his work, specifically “The 25th Hour”. Lee’s choice of music is fitting and powerful, sometimes rising to the occasion and at other times simply underscoring the emotional tone of a scene. His recent verbal bout with Clint Eastwood left him with egg on his face, but Lee remains a director of interest. It says something that his early work in “Do the Right Thing” (it is never made clear what the right thing to do is, or who should be doing it, or how you’d know what it is to begin with) is more mature and informed than the work of many new post-2000 directors.