New York on Film: Do the Right Thing

The Museum of the City of New York is hosting the 35th anniversary screening of Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989, 120 min)!  Set on one block of Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy "Do or Die" neighborhood at the height of summer, this 1989 Spike Lee joint confirmed Lee as a writer and filmmaker of peerless vision and passionate social engagement.

Over the course of a single day, the easygoing interactions of a cast of unforgettable characters—Da Mayor, Mother Sister, Mister Señor Love Daddy, Tina, Sweet Dick Willie, Buggin Out, Radio Raheem, Sal, Pino, Vito, and Lee’s Mookie among them—give way to heated confrontations as tensions rise along racial fault lines, ultimately exploding into violence. Punctuated by the anthemic refrain of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” Do the Right Thing stars Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Rosie Perez, John Turturro, Roger Guenveur Smith, John Savage, Danny Aiello, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, Richard Edson, Spike and Joie Lee.