Dolev Amitai’s review published on Letterboxd:
In 1989 there were three films about race.
Of those three, two focused more on relationships between whites and blacks.
Those two films were Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy.
Both films were nominated for oscars.
Do the Right Thing was nominated for only two awards, and lost them both.
Miss Daisy was nominated for nine awards, winning four including Best Picture.
This just shows the academy voters' preferance for sticky and sentimental films rather for real and hard hitting films.
For me, Driving Miss Daisy is one of the most annoying and horrible films I have ever seen.
Even Spike Lee agrees, saying "because 20 years later, who’s watching Driving Miss Daisy?"
I could not agree more.
Do the Right Think is perhaps the best movie I have ever seen that directly deals with racism.
Instead of trying to show how white americans discriminate blacks, or how blacks cause whites trouble, Lee shows how every one has a reason for their actions.
Do the Right Thing is the perfect title for this film.
Every character in this film is presented with a lot of options. They simply choose to not do the right thing.
Can you blame Sal, the white Italian pizza owner for smashing Radio Raheem's stereo? Raheem was playing his stereo way too loud, where mostly everyone else was complaining.
But then can you blame Radio Raheem for jumping on Sal for breaking his stereo?
Every character in this film has a reason to be angry. This works both ways.
Two characters are angry at each other. But they both have legitimate reasons to be.
Bad decisions and actions lead to more bad actions.
And can you blame anyone when its 40 degress outside melting everyone's head?
I also have to give credit to the production design.
The buildings are all tinted red and orange to give the vibe of the heat. And we can see the sweat on everybody.
But by far the great part of the film is its script.
It feels like we know every character, and have been living in the neighborhood for years. I felt like I knew every characters for a lot of time.
There has been only one film where I truly did not want to end so I can stay with the characters. That film was Eastern Promises, another film I love.
Now Do the Right Thing joins it, another masterpiece and amazing film.