'Do the Right Thing'

I'm gonna be honest: I don't think I get this film.

This is how I see the film: It's a Brooklyn neighborhood on a hot, summer day that features a ton of listless characters (mostly black, some Puerto Rican, as assume), who seem to be able to afford a lot of things (sneakers, Jackie Robinson throwbacks, boomboxes) without, seemingly, having jobs (granted, it could be their days off, or they work nights ... but this happening on one day seems unlikely).

Tensions rise when an African-American gentleman (the guys from "Free Willy") wants to order pizza with his boombox playing loudly and another African-American gentleman wants the pizza parlour to erect photos of notable African-Americans on the establishment's walls.

The pizza parlour proprietor (an Italian) objects. As they scream at each other (about pizza, photos and the protest of both), the proprietor smashes the one man's boombox sparking a brouhaha. Cops come, attempt to arrest the guy from "Free Willy" and end up (accidentally or not) strangling him with a billy club.

Thus a riot breaks out and they loot and burn the pizza parlour.

There are tons of questions: Is Spike Lee's character good or bad? Is this a film about black tolerance or non-black tolerance? Does the radio DJ work 24 hours a day? Why is everyone wearing workout clothes and spandex?

Most prominently, what's the point? What is Lee trying to tell us? Frankly, this film I don't think communicates understanding and peace, but really the defiance and rejection of both.

It's tough making a film about race because you're taking a 2-hour snapshot of a certain group of characters and making their attitudes and actions out of thin air and that's all the audience is left with. Therefore, you are propagating certain attitudes and feelings and marginalizing a whole group or race. You're basically feeding racism and hate.

"Do the Right Thing" probably is only understood by people that are already not racist, which is like preaching to the choir.

Also, it's a bad film. It's built like a stage play and feels like one. The forced analogies. The forced lines about black musicians or folks who had been killed by police (once the guy from "Free Willy" bites it) really cheapens the entire thing.