Maybe the pizza joint would still be standing if he was really a part of the community.įrom that perspective, there really was a Right Thing. Maybe Radio Raheem, his long time customer and friend, wouldn't be dead if he hadn't busted his radio. I think Sal has a realization during that scene: this whole catastrophe started because he put up racist pictures on his wall of fame. He's being kind of a nice guy by paying what he owes, but he's also throwing it at Mookie and even overpaying him to make a point. Sal is pissed because Mookie has the balls to demand his paycheck after breaking the window. We end the movie with them throwing money at each other. If there is an arc at the end of the movie, I think it belongs to the subtly racist "Hey everybody, I'm the good guy because I'm feeding everybody in the neighborhood" Sal. So what should Mookie do? What was "The Right Thing?" The answer is that there is no right answer. They're just worried about the status quo. In this neighborhood, the police don't give a shit about Justice. The death of Radio Raheem is unambiguously a murder. All groups secretly or overtly hate all the other groups. DTRT is about a neighborhood lived in by blacks, owned by Koreans, and policed by whites. It comes as the climax of multiple choices, ranging from the mundane to the oppressive. The riot at the end doesn't come out of nowhere. Is the message really "We're so divided by race that we can't get along"? I think that's a very simplistic understanding of DTRT. He's a big, scary guy and they were trying to keep the neighborhood safe.īut did Mookie "do the right thing" by throwing the trash can through the window? Did the police "do the right thing" when they choked out Radio Raheem? Well, they're the police. Were they doing the right thing? Well, yeah, they bought the store. The Koreans bought the store in the neighborhood, were shitty to the black people, particularly Radio Raheem. Was he doing the right thing? Well, it's his wall, let him do what he wants. We break convention and diegesis to make a poetic point.Ĭonsider the title. The moral choices go from "Should I desegregate my personal heroes" to the murder of Radio Raheem.Ĭonsider the diegetic break whereby all the characters break the fourth wall. After all, the movie is all about being poor and stuff, right? Well, I disagree and so does Spike Lee.ĭTRT is an ensemble character study on "doing the Right Thing." It works less like a Pixar structured movie (guy has a belief system, guy goes into new world, new world tests belief system, lowest point, climactic choice) and more like a poetic Kurosawa film (with interconnected mini-narratives all revolving around a thematic link).Ĭonsider the overarching color scheme of the film, getting "hotter and hotter" as the narrative progresses to a head. ![]() After the movie came out, he gave an interview with a critic who wanted to know why there is no mention of rape in the movie. Spike Lee would argue that DTRT is not about inner city life or social responsibility. I did my freshman year cinema studies thesis on this, so take this with a grain of salt.
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