Starring Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Giancarlo Esposito and Bill Nunn
Written and directed by Spike Lee
USA 1989
120 mins
Just as the Coronavirus pandemic subsides the shock waves of a new event are sweeping the globe - following the murder in police custody of George Floyd - an unarmed Black American. 'Black Lives Matter' protests have sprung up in countries all over the world raging at this new injustice - the latest in a series of such incidents. Will this one finally bring about change in key areas of the United States and begin to put an end to the institutional racism that continues to thrive there - even though slavery was abolished over 150 years ago?
A number of documentary films deal with the subject - Ava DuVernay's excellent '13th' is available to watch free on YouTube while 'Whose Streets?' from 2017 about the killing of Michael Brown and the subsequent Ferguson Uprising is available on Amazon.
However we have chosen to programme a drama - 'Do The Right Thing' - by the celebrated African-American filmmaker Spike Lee, whose 'BlacKkKlansman' won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 2019.
Lee's seminal 1989 movie , set on a single, blisteringly-hot day in Brooklyn, is an eloquent and vibrant drama which gets to the heart of racial tension but never feels like a lecture or a sermon. High-energy performances, a rich, raucous hip-hop/R&B soundtrack plus dynamic production design and cinematography make 'Do The Right Thing' a compelling, visceral experience. A gifted cast including Lee himself, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturro and the late great Danny Aiello bring their characters into vivid focus as intense heat and petty squabbles take them out of the frying pan and into the fire.
It's a truthful film, sometimes uncomfortably so, but also funny, brash and surprising - a modern classic.
