moriarty@tc.fluke.com (Jeff Meyer) (07/24/89)
DO THE RIGHT THING
[Spoilers]
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1989 Jeff Meyer
After having watched SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT and SCHOOL DAZE, getting me to go
see a Spike Lee movie isn't particularly difficult. Any writer and/or director
who can spin characters such as his during the length of a film gets attention,
because, gang, there ain't many out there who can. What Lee has done with DO
THE RIGHT THING is to jump yet another notch up in my estimation: he's using
his abilities at characterization to examine the personalities and emotions in
a neighborhood which lead to a violent incident -- the kind of complex event
that is so often explained away with a simplistic rationalization or off-hand
prejudice. By spending a day with each person, and detailing each of their
personalities (and their relations with one another) in such detail, we come to
understand why and how they get to the state their in by the end of the film;
and, in turn, to be caught up in the intensity of the conflagration that
engulfs them.
It's not a new concept in film, to be sure, but it rarely done this well;
trying to center on these many people, and build complete characters out of
them by the end of the film, is a monumental task for a writer or a director,
because by the end of DO THE RIGHT THING, it's absolutely necessary to
understand where these people are coming from, or the whole film doesn't work.
Lee make it work. Some characters are more in focus than others, but no one is
a stereotype or a cardboard reactionary, with the exception of the local police
officers. However, the film is about the people in the neighborhood, not the
police; the police's purpose is a plot device, a catalyst to the community's
feelings -- their individual feelings, and their individual actions.
This is also one of those films where script and direction are so
on-target that it's difficult to gauge the quality of the actors; suffice it to
say that no one gives their role less than it's due. I imagine I'd give credit
to Lee and Danny Aiello as Mookie and Sal in particular, as they have two of
the most complex roles to deal with; but several of the other actors score deep
marks by the end of the film, in particular the actor who plays Radio Raheem.
As striking (if not more so) than any individual performance is the photography
and editing in DO THE RIGHT THING; often the way a person is photographed tells
us as much about their thoughts as their expression or their dialogue. It
becomes very difficult towards the end to remember that there's a screen
between the audience and the characters; that familiar, comfortable barrier is
broken down by Spike Lee by the end of this film. This is not a film where
you'll walk out and switch back to what you were doing before you entered the
theater; it required a cooling-down period and a good deal of reflection (and
conversation) in my case.
A brief side note: from some of the net traffic, it appears that a number
of people see the film as "promoting racism", or excusing racial violence, or
something of that nature. I can't see it. Lee presents a number of
points-of-view, and allows us to understand why each individual feels the way
they do during the length of the film. As for justifying any particular
viewpoint, I must have missed it (other than "racism is bad"). The only thing
that confused me were the quotes by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X at the
end. The person I went to see it with suggested something that appeals to me,
however: that these two differing views of the use of violence in regards to
racism, simple in the axiomatic nature, are contrasted with the complex
situation and feelings that confront the members of the block in
Bedford-Stuyvesant. The only person who clings to these viewpoints through the
film is Smiley, who appears to be simple; the Mayor, arguably the most
sympathetic character in the film (to me, anyway) has a hazy, less clear-cut
philosophy that provides no easy instruction: Do the Right Thing. Humans
follow ideals, but they live with what they run into in life. The Mayor, and
the title of the film, deal with this type of situation: no easy situations or
answers, but the necessity of Doing the Right Thing is underlined.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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