Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing is one of the most thought-provoking films I have ever seen. By the end of the film, I was even more confused than after watching (I know it sounds crazy) Holy Motors. While the themes of racism and belonging are evident throughout the film, there is so much to unpack in regard to the characters’ actions and motives that it is difficult to understand its overall “message”.
When I watch films, I usually have a clear opinion formed about the characters only a few minutes after being introduced to them. In Do The Right Thing, my views regarding each character fluctuated throughout the entire film (especially with Mookie, Sal, Buggin’ Out, and Radio Raheem). I wasn’t exactly sure who was doing the “wrong” or “right” thing because they all had positive and negative character traits.
After Mookie was introduced, I believed that he would be the film’s stereotypical “protagonist” with his boss Sal as the “antagonist”. Unlike in other films, neither character completely represented one side of this spectrum. As a result, I kept finding myself conflicted on who to “root for”. While Sal wasn’t the best boss, he continued to employ Mookie despite his terrible working habits. Additionally, I saw some empathy in him when he scolded his son for being racist and allowed the African American teens to come in after closing hours.
I also found myself struggling to completely align with Buggin’ Out and Radio Raheem’s actions throughout the film. While I understand Buggin’ Out’s call for more representation, I don’t believe that Sal’s exclusion of African Americans on the wall was solely due to racism. When looking at the portraits, all of the figures in them were prominent Italian-Americans (Sophia Loren, Frank Sinatra, etc.). Due to the specific inclusion of only his ethnicity, I believe that the wall was meant to represent his own “American dream” of opening his own pizza shop.
Radio Raheem on the other hand, showed both positive and negative traits throughout the course of the film. While I initially found his boombox blasting a little obnoxious, I was moved by the scene in which he used his rings to compare love and hate. Despite my initial negative judgement about his character, my whole perspective changed after his death. In fact, my outlook regarding all the characters changed after Radio Raheem’s confrontation with Sal and subsequent death.
Radio Raheem’s death by police brutality took me back to the horrific scenes of George Floyd’s death in which he screamed “I can’t breathe!” That video haunted me then, and all the memories of his death and subsequent riots came flooding back to me after Radio Raheem was killed. Even if Radio Raheem was a little obnoxious, there was absolutely no reason for him to be killed. If he was a white man, the police would have just given him a warning or wouldn’t have shown up at all.
When Radio Raheem was killed, the whole African American community came together to avenge his death. I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about Mookie throwing the trash can into Sal’s pizza shop, but I could understand his rage at the situation. Nevertheless, I still couldn’t figure out whether or not he did the “right thing” here.
In the end, I came to the conclusion that neither Mookie or Sal were the “protagonist” or “antagonist” in the film. While Sal seemed to be less racist than his sons (key word less), he still ended up using the “N-word” slur and bashing Radio Raheem’s boombox. On the other hand, while Mookie showed some positive traits, he slacked off at work and didn’t visit Tina or his son often.
Overall, I believe that the decision to keep most of the characters ambiguous in regard to “right” and “wrong” was intentional on Spike Lee’s part. People aren’t always clear about their intentions and views, and can have both positive and negative traits. In real life, humans are so complex that it’s impossible to pigeonhole them as only “good” or “bad”.
In regard to whether or not the characters did the “right thing” at the end of the film by destroying Sal’s shop, there isn’t really a concrete answer. If the African-American community would have followed MLK’s peaceful philosophy, for example, would they have been able to accurately express their anger towards racial injustice and police brutality?
This question still rings true today, as seen with the George Floyd riots. Many people condemned the BLM movement for inciting violence. However, the African American community had been oppressed for so long that many argued that these riots were a necessary expression to create change.
This idea is further represented by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.’s contrasting quotes and picture together. I believe that the film ends with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. together to show that neither violence or non-violence is the definite “right thing”, especially in the face of racial injustice.
With both Malcolm X and MLK at the end of the film, the film leaves it up in the air for the audience by revealing that either option can seem “right” depending on the situation. While neither will ever be perfect (they both have downsides), some situations call for different responses. There isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” approach to social justice.
Hi Ben,
I definitely agree with you on how it is difficult to get a grasp on the overarching message of the film because of all that happens throughout. I like how you mention Radio Raheem’s story between love and hate because I think this scene reveals a central theme of the film– the dichotomy between these two attitudes when it comes to fighting back against racism. More specifically, I think the film is trying to tell us that “doing the right thing” involves both depending on the context. Going back to the scene with Radio Raheem’s monologue, he concludes it by shaking Mookie’s hand and telling him that he loves him, and I think the fact that they had this close, brotherly bond speaks to how Mookie’s choice to smash the window of the pizzeria wasn’t done purely out of hate (even though “hate” is the word he yells right before doing so), but that it also came from the love he had for Radio Raheem that stirred up such a reaction from within him. This idea is also reflected in the ending sequence; the film displays the picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X together to convey the message that combatting racism involves a combination of peaceful and violent approaches, and that the dynamic between these two constantly changes in response to the ongoing circumstances. However, it is indeed hard to determine whether Mookie’s actions actually reflect the film’s message of what it looks like to do “the right thing”, which makes me think that the point of the film isn’t to show what the solution is, but rather to portray a certain viewpoint to give ideas for the audience to consider.
Hi Ben,
I felt the same way as you did with Radio Raheem. I really felt he is one of the most hated characters in the movie, but even with his actions, he does not deserve death, which I believe is what Lee want’s the audience to think about after the film. A lot of people are “not doing the right things”, but because of their race or background, should they deserve the punishment or are they treated fairly.
I also did some research on those details Spike Lee designed for Radio Raheem’s action. His love-hate ring on both of his hand is constantly a representation of how he feel to those people around him. When he is battling volume with others on the street or going into Sal’s pizza store, he uses his hand of “hate” to turn up the volume. When he met Mookie on the street, he turned down the volume with his hand of “love”. This symbolization really fascinates me as his attitudes towards different people really led to the violence that broke out in the end. The tension between different groups of people were always present in the neiborhood, Raheem is just a representation of it. All it need was a catalyst to make the conflict into a society thing. I think this is a clear forecast of the BLM movement in reality, which makes this film even more worth thinking about.
Hi Ben,
I really appreciated your in-depth analysis of the film. I also felt conflicted about who to “root for” throughout the movie. Like you, my perception of Mookie and Sal shifted constantly. Your point about Sal’s wall being more about his personal “American Dream” rather than straight up racism was something I hadn’t entirely thought about, and it made me reconsider my initial reaction to that conflict. I still think, though, that Sal’s unwillingness to adapt his representation of community in a neighborhood that’s majority black reflects a deeper issue, maybe not just racism, but definitely some form of cultural insensitivity. I also appreciated your connection to George Floyd’s death and how Radio Raheem’s death demonstrates the reality of these events. That parallel was haunting for me too, and I think it’s one of the reasons the film felt so timeless. I do want to challenge one point, though; while I do agree that people are complex and can’t be labeled as entirely “good” or “bad,” I still think some of the film’s ambiguity comes from the systemic nature of the issues its portraying. The film isn’t just about each individual’s choices but also about how structural racism can create situations where those choices are so complicated. In other words, it’s not just about Mookie or Sal, but rather about the environment that turns them against each other.