Do the Right Thing

I know we mentioned Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing a couple of times in class the other day and I decided to post the “race rant scene” for everyone to take a look at. As I was watching Dog Day Afternoon, I couldn’t help but associate it with Do the Right Thing because they both deal with controversial issues in an unexpected way. Do the Right Thing talks about racism “out loud” (for lack of a better term) and the entire movie feels very real. When I first watched the movie, I felt like I knew Sal, Pino, and Vito. In fact, I know many people like them who think that they aren’t “really racist”. This scene from the film is so powerful because it addresses so much of what really goes on. Dog Day Afternoon, which successfully addressed class and race issues, was definitely a precursor to Do The Right Thing. While Dog Day Afternoon essentially talks about marginalized people and their relationship to capitalist America, Do the Right Thing examines the relations between racial groups of the same class. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the main conflict is between Sal and his sons and the black youth in the neighborhood. Spike Lee ultimately has you asking yourself just who is doing the right thing? I highly encourage everyone to see it as it is a very thought provoking film.