Something that stuck out to me about Do the Right Thing, was its connection and distortion of real life events. Based on the Howard Beach incident, Spike Lee’s film follows a community’s tumultuous relationship with a pizzeria. However, in reality, the real victims were attacked by 13 white teenagers outside the pizza shop with no prior provocation. Spike Lee changes this and muddies the moral waters to show the impossible choices that disadvantaged urban Americans face every day. This method of creating ideological dialog through turning existing narratives on their heads is extremely common in pop-culture today. Take for example the newly released and intentionally controversial movie, Am I Racist? by Matt Walsh. This entire movie aims to point out the lunacy in professional DEI consultants whom end up resorting to stereotype or patronage to advance their “progressive” ideology. It seems as though Ideological films could be separated into 2 different hemispheres. There are the Ideological films that push a given doctrine or government, like Top Gun or Triumph of the Will, and then there are ideological films like Am I Racist? and Do the Right Thing that ponder an existing social conflict, seeking to redefine why both sides were at odds to begin with. This article about Walsh’s film gives great insight into how viewers can approach movies in which their own ideology is under the microscope, and the breakthroughs that it can lead to.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/23/matt-walsh-film-racist-awkward-moments