BLU-REVIEW: DO THE RIGHT THING

Written and Directed by Spike Lee


If I had done the right thing, I would have seen this film back when it was released in 1989. Fortunately for me, it has now been restored and released in a 20th anniversary edition BD and it has been so with great care. I have never been a huge Spike Lee enthusiast but DO THE RIGHT THING is perhaps his most inspired work, especially when watching it now and comparing it to his more contemporary offerings, which are tame and conventional by comparison. As Mister Senor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson), the local radio host announces right at the start of the film, it is hot, damn hot on this one block in the Bed-Stuy area of Brooklyn. It is so hot on this one day that the people who call this block their home or conduct their business here can no longer contain their mounting frustrations with each other and the strained race relations in New York City. Despite the heat, Lee plays it cool and crafts what is his most balanced and honest work on the subject of racism.

There is something almost whimsical about it all. People gather on porch stoops, watch from their windowsills and dance in the street while the water from a nearby hydrant cools them down temporarily. There are even three older guys sitting at the corner and griping all day long about what they see, like a repurposed Greek chorus. Lee is both the leader and the center of the picture as he takes on the role of writer/director and star of the film. It is certainly an ensemble but Lee’s Mookie, who delivers pizza for Sal’s Famous Pizzeria, ties the film’s series of events and characters together. The rest of the cast is a delight to behold – from Danny Aiello as Sal (for which he earned an Oscar nod) to Ozzie Davis as Da Mayor and Rosie Perez, in her first film appearance as Mookie’s girlfriend, Tina. Each character is a hybrid of theatrical cliché and hard reality and, thanks to Lee’s presentation of these characters in such a classical fashion, each is sympathetic despite their imperfections.

The central racial conflict revolves around Sal’s refusal to post a picture of an African-American hero or celebrity on his wall of fame. His logic is that is his wall and he can do whatever he likes with it and the opposing view is that he may own the wall but the African-American clientele is what keeps his wall up. It is simple enough a conflict and arguably, also a simple solution but it ends in the most violent and cathartic of resolutions, all of which are explored in the extensive extras included on this disc. A new documentary, put together by Lee himself, looks back at the reaction to the film while an hour-long documentary made at the time puts you right on the block as if you were there as one of the extras. Lee also recorded a new commentary for this edition but, admittedly, it has been some time since he last saw the film so he does not have a lot new to offer. With the amount of extras on this disc though, this is hardly a problem.

The title of the film is casually dropped shortly in when Mookie stops to speak with Da Mayor on his way to work. Da Mayor offers it up as the advisory ramblings of a drunk, old man and Mookie absorbs it with the attention of a young man with better places to be. Yet it resonates throughout the film and up and down the street where most of the people are trying to do just that.

FILM & BD

Black Sheep Previews: DO THE RIGHT THING

The 20th Anniversary edition of Spike Lee's first major success, DO THE RIGHT THING, is available on DVD and BD today and the good people at Universal have asked me to tell you a little bit about it in hopes that you get out there and pick it up. The reissue contains over four hours of bonus features and they go a little something like this:

20th Anniversary Edition Feature Commentary with Director Spike Lee
Feature Commentary with Director Spike Lee, Director of Photography Ernest Dickerson, Production Designer Wynn Thomas and Actor Joie Lee
Do The Right Thing: 20 Years Later – New retrospective documentary with the cast and crew
Deleted & Extended Scenes – 11 newly discovered scenes cut from the final version of the film
Behind the Scenes – Spike Lee’s personal video footage from the set of the film
Making Do The Right Thing – In-depth documentary on the making of the film
Editor Berry Brown – Interview with the editor of Do The Right Thing
The Riot Sequence – Storyboard gallery of the climatic riot sequence
Cannes, 1989 – Press conference footage from the 1989 Cannes Film Festival


I personally have never seen this classic so I am very excited about this new edition and there may very likely be a Black Sheep review of the film next month. In the meantime, I have included the original trailer for the film's initial release to get you excited.

MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA

Written by James McBride
Directed by Spike Lee
Starring Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller and Valentina Cervi


2nd Staff Sergeant Aubrey Stamps: I know, I’m the only one left who knows.

I know this is too easy even for me but the true miracle at the center of Spike Lee’s latest joint, MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA, is that I was able to sit through it without screaming out of sheer frustration over how hollow the whole affair was. I don’t feel so bad about taking that oversimplified stance, seeing as how Lee himself didn’t seem to have any concerns about dumbing down this important history lesson. Lee is an accomplished filmmaker and MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA is an ambitious project, even for him. He prides himself, as well he should, on telling stories from an African-American perspective that is rarely taken in mainstream film. In this case, he chose to shed some much needed light on the soldiers known as the Buffalo Soldiers, all black regiments in the U.S. army. He wanted to give the world a fresh take on the World War II epic by using an unfamiliar voice but all he accomplished was minimizing their plight by weighing down his film in tired convention and never committing to any one point of view.


I don’t mind long movies when the story warrants the time spent. MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA opens in 1983. A postal worker (Derek Luke) has just shot and murdered a man who bought a stamp off of him for no apparent reason. A statue head, one with incredible value both financially and historically, has been found tucked away at the bottom of his closet. News of the statue’s recovery spreads across the globe and an investigative journalist (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is determined to understand why a seemingly law-abiding citizen would commit such a random act of brutality. This goes on for about thirty or forty minutes until the postal worker finally agrees to tell his story. It all started in Italy during the second world war. My question is, if it all started then, why did Lee waste so much time with a pointless excuse to get to the actual story when the story in question needed no excuse to be told? This all too tired Hollywood convention needs to cease. People need to start getting to the point.


The story, adapted from James McBride’s novel of the same name by McBride himself, follows a foursome of Buffalo soldiers who survive a German attack, find a young Italian boy in need of medical attention and eventually set up camp in a small village while they wait for reinforcement. During their stay, the soldiers make friends and enemies with the townspeople, which challenges the inherent racism of all involved. It isn’t a bad story; it is just written in such a false and incredible fashion that undermines the film’s credibility. There is no time for one liners when you are being attacked on all sides by the German army but yet somehow McBride felt that quips between gunfire would alleviate the intensity, as if that were necessary. There is also apparently no time for real character development. Bringing an untold story to light means putting faces to characters that had none before. Without development, these soldiers are nothing but black soldiers instead of real people. Somehow, by forcing us to face the colour of their skin, Lee made it so that is all we end up seeing.


Spike Lee makes important movies but sometimes, he makes them with the knowledge of just how important they truly are. MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA is at times horrifying and at others, beautiful. Mostly though, it is tedious and disappointing. It is not so much disappointing that Lee wasn’t able to pull off such a huge endeavor but more so that if anyone could have done it the justice it deserved, it would have been him. Now, the story has been told but the point was never made.