Do The Right Thing Theme

The movie Do the Right Thing, written and directed by Spike Lee, has a man vs. society and man vs man theme. As a drama this movie shows the racial tensions in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in 1989. The setting is of the neighborhood street is important to this movie because the story is about the community dealing with being suppressed and racism. In Do the Right Thing, the film is shot on location with the addition of Sal’s Restaurant. The street corner is Malcom X Boulevard and Quincy Street, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The set of Sal’s Pizzeria plays a major role in the movie. Sal the owner is an Italian man running a business in an all-black neighborhood. The scene of Sal smashing Radio’s boom box shows how things can escalate on an extremely hot day. The camera angle makes Radio Raheem appear bigger than he is. Along with the
Being shot on location was important since the story is about Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. There is a culture there that cannot be recreated, it helped give tension in the film. Being in an area where life is rough, having to be aware of what was going on and dealing with the people who live there every day, helps the actors understand their roles. Spike Lee says in his Documentary of Do the Right Thing, “It would be wrong to make a movie about Bedford-Stuyvesant and not film it there.” Throughout the movie, Smiley, who has a speech impediment talks about Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr... The use of the picture of the two together along with the love hate rings shows a division of the people who live in Bedford-Stuyvesant’s neighborhood. Malcom X is a man who believes the only way to fix the problems with violence. The use of Malcom X in the movie along with being on the street corner of Malcom X Boulevard ties together the use of violence in this