I recently had the pleasure of rewatching Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989). Amidst the comedy, heartbreak, and social commentary, I was left asking one question–what is going on with Vito (left)?
Vito (played by Richard Edson) acts as a foil to his brother, Pino (played by John Turturro). Pino is brash, openly racist, and cruel to Mookie. He repeatedly says the n-word, bashes Bed-Stuy as a neighborhood, and more. Relatively soft-spoken Vito is the opposite: kind to Mookie, and defiantly anti-racist (by which I mean he is the one major white character in the film who never says the n-word).
Pino bullies Vito constantly, sometimes physically harassing him. He pushes back, but never majorly, especially granted the advice he’s being given by Mookie (namely to beat up his brother).
This refusal to push back is exemplified at the end of the movie–really, in this shot:
As Mookie is about to cross into the rioting crowd, we get a glimpse of Vito, looking sullen more than angry, yes, but sandwiched comfortably between his brother and father, his allegiance to his group––his race––never in question. Despite his friendship with Mookie and more positive view of the neighborhood than his brother and father (being the only one of the family to actually leave the pizzeria during the events of the movie), Vito’s final placement falls along racial lines.
This ties into the broader theme of the movie about race as an inescapable, inexplicable feature of personality and life. Vito may have been the best white person, but he was still a white person. I am curious, though, about what everyone else thinks––is that pivotal shot mostly an accident? Do I give Vito too much credit, even?
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