But Do The Right Thing, his third movie, put him on the national radar, as he jumped head and feet first into America's racial issues that caused more than a few to call him a racial rabble-rouser: from The Atlantic Magazine (read the whole article only if you don't mind HUGE spoilers):
After the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Lee recalls, "there was this thought that when this film comes out in the summer of 1989, black people are gonna run amuck." In understanding the impact of those original reviews, it's important to remember that this was 1989: a pre-Internet, pre-Ain't It Cool News, pre-Twitter age wherein the initial reports and editorials set the tone and defined the conversation (perhaps disproportionately) that would surround the film throughout those summer months. And that's why it was so provocative for Newsweek's Jack Kroll to ask "in this long hot summer, how will young urban audiences—black and white—react to the film's climactic explosion of interracial violence? ... People are going to argue about this film for a long time. That's fine, as long as things stay on the arguing level. But this movie is dynamite under every seat."
David Denby, currently of The New Yorker, then writing for New York, also predicted a dire outcome. "Do the Right Thing is going to create an uproar," Denby wrote, "in part because [Lee]'s so thoroughly mixed up about what he's saying." He accused Lee of creating "the dramatic structure that primes black people to cheer the explosion as an act of revenge," and concluded, "If an artist has made his choices and settled on a coherent point of view, he shouldn't be held responsible, I believe, if parts of his audience misunderstand him. He should be free to be 'dangerous.' But Lee hasn't worked coherently. The end of this movie a shambles, and if some audiences go wild, he's partly responsible."
We're beginning this semester with this film because it is, one, a truly great movie, and two, because it's a good place to begin our conversation about race and how it has been dealt with in film and literature that we will consider for the next several weeks as we read To Kill a Mockingbird and A Lesson Before Dying and watch Fruitvale Station and, of course, To Kill a Mockingbird.
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| Spike Lee on location in Brooklyn NY filming Do The Right Thing |
1. What has jumped out at you so far? What scene, image, or character has stayed with you—and why?
2. Look at this scene between Sal and Buggin' Out: it's really the set up for the tragedy of the film. So what's your reaction to this scene? Do you side with and/or agree with Sal, or do you side with and/ or agree with Buggin' Out? Or maybe with neither of them? Explain your response.
3. Do you like Sal? Why or why not?
That's it. Welcome back to the 48 day semester. Whenever I watch this movie, I want to eat pizza. I got a craving right now even. Extra cheese and pepperoni. Mmmm....
