Do The Right Thing Movie - Essay Example

? Do the Right Thing Grade (19th, April. Do the Right Thing The movie covers the life of a young black man, Mookie, who is living in a black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He works in a pizzeria based locally, where his duties are to deliver Pizzas to the customers. Even though he lacks the ambition and zeal to undertake his work, he does it to support his girlfriend and son. He is living with his sister, Jade, in one apartment, and his sister wants him to vacate (Lee, 1989). The owner of the Pizzeria where Mookie works is an Italian-American who has the older son called Pino, who detests the black neighborhood and does not love the blacks and thus tries to make the life of Mookie even hard, since he is a black man. However, the younger son of the Pizzeria owner, Vito, is different, because he is friend with Mookie (Lee, 1989). Everybody in the neighborhood is going about their business, on a hot and sunny day. The conflict in the movie revolves around the Sal’s Pizzeria, where he refuses to include any pictures of a black man in his list of the wall of fame. Buggin' Out is the character who sparks off the conflict about the wall of fame, by demanding that Sal should include some blacks, since he sells Pizza in a black neighborhood to the black people (Lee, 1989). However, Sal refuses and asserts that he is proud to be an Italian-American, and thus his wall of fame should only consist of the Italians. This argument degenerates into a confrontation, with Sal threatening to bash Buggin' Out, who has no support, except that of Raheem and Smiley. The whole activities of the day degenerates into chaos with the involvement of the police, with Buggin' Out starting a fight with a white man, while Mookie and Pino stages an argument regarding which race is better between the blacks and the Italians, which involves a lot of racist insults. However, the greatest of the fight occurs between Radio Raheem and Sal, who fights physically, and their fight spills into the street, which attracts all in the neighborhood, the police inclusive (Lee, 1989). The police appear and apprehend Radio Raheem, with one officer killing him, while Buggin' Out is arrested. Even after Radio Raheem is dead, the police continue to beat him up, demanding that he stop pretending. When the crowd of onlookers realizes that the police had killed Radio Raheem, they turn against them, and the police run away. Their anger is then turned against Sal’s property, which is then destroyed by the black community. The riot breaks in the whole neighborhood with the residents fighting against the police and the firefighters. Eventually, Smiley, who had set Sal’s Pizzeria on fire then creeps into the remains of the burning building and hangs a picture of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., on the remains of the wall of fame. Nevertheless, in the first scene, both Mookie and Sal, who are the major representatives of Races end-up reconciling (Lee, 1989). Discussion Racism rears its ugly head through the expression of the discontent regarding the wall of fame. Despite the fact that there were other racist sentiments amongst the characters such as Pino in the previous scenes, the actual reality of the racisms breakout with the demand by Buggin' Out, that Sal should include pictures of blacks who were considered as heroes in his wall of fame, considering that he was running a Pizzeria in a black neighborhood, and selling the Pizzas to the blacks (Lee, 1989). This demand activates the racism in Sal, who responds by saying he is an Italian and is proud of that, and thus should only include the pictures of the Italians in the wall of fame. Sal threatens to bash Buggin' Out with a baseball bat, which then attracts both Radio Raheem and Smiley to support Buggin' Out (Lee, 1989). The whole issue degenerates into a major confrontation, which spills over the streets, and becomes the subject of the property destructions in the neighborhood. Mookie is another character who is a racist, and he expresses his racism conspicuously through calling upon the residents of the black neighborhood to destroy the property of Sal during the street riot. Another character who appears to be more racist is Radio Raheem, who attacks and strangles Sal almost to death during a conflict at Sal’s Pizzeria (Lee, 1989). He is eventually killed by the traffic policeman, who places him in a chokehold. He was involved in racist talks and activities throughout the entire movie, and his death is caused by the same racism. Another character who has expressed racism so conspicuously is Smiley. He had been in support of all racist sentiments, and in fact becomes the one to set Sal’s Pizzeria on fire, during the street demonstration, after realizing that his friend, Radio Raheem, had been killed by the police (Lee, 1989). The police are also major racists, considering that they apprehended both Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out, and instead of following the due procedure of the law, they started assaulting them, until they killed Radio Raheem. It is his death that caused the street riots to become even more violent, causing the wanton destruction of property. The message offered by Mookie and Sal at their apparently final meeting is that races can unite and respect each other. The importance of the quotations by Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, and the order in which Spike Lee presents them, is to indicate the ills that racism has created in the society, and the need to completely abolish it. Conclusion In conclusion, the movie, “Do the Right Thing” helps us to understand the history of America, through presenting the actual nature of the relationships that existed between different races in the traditional American society. The movie is related to Forner’s “Give me Liberty”, through the depiction of the evil that racism causes and how it badly affects the society (Foner, 2012). This movie is related to King’s memoir and to “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, through the presentation of the controversy in interracial relationships. The three works of art presents the evils and ills that are presented by the racism and racial conflicts, with all of them ending with a positive note regarding the benefits of productive interracial relationships, which breeds harmony and enhances development and prosperity for all. References Foner, E. (2012). Give me liberty!: An American history. New York: W.W. Norton. Lee, S. (1989). Do the right thing: A Spike Lee joint. 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