Do the Right Thing

The most wonderful film in the world about racial intolerance, made by an African American as if for African Americans. But maybe not just for them. In any case, everything that happens in the film seems painfully familiar to all of us, both the indigenous people of Georgia living among emigrants, and to the emigrants living in Georgia.

The main character of the film is Mookie (played by Spike himself), who lives in his native Brooklyn and works as a pizza delivery guy. Brooklyn is not only home to African Americans. The pizzeria where Mookie works was opened by Italians. Across the street, a Japanese family runs a shop. From time to time, “white” police patrols drive through the streets with undisguised (mutual) contempt. They are all closely connected—through friendship, work, shared streets, and, ultimately, shared pizza. And they all quietly hate each other.

Meet Spike Lee, America’s leading Black director. Jim Jarmusch once said in an interview: “In twenty years, when Spike becomes the Minister of Culture, I’ll be making a movie about the oppression of white people.”

“Do the Right Thing” is Spike's most famous film, which instantly made him a star. Now this film is also called prophetic, as it practically predicted “Black Lives Matter”—a social movement against racism and violence that quickly became a source of racism and violence itself.

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.” (Martin Luther King). That’s what the whole film is about.

"Golden Globe" for Best Screenplay and Best Director, nomination for the "Palme d'Or," 2 Oscar nominations.