I Need Some Feedback On 'Do The Right Thing...'

[joeybdot]

I Thought The movie was excellent until the riots started. I Felt Sal did not aid in Killing the boombox annoyance. When you eat someplace you respect them and their property (unless they disrespect you) anyway

Lee's character Mookie(sp?) was supposed to do the right thing i think the right thing was to can violence and bring peace or at least try and fail at the attempt. Instead his character starts the riot. The movie had great writing and excellent look into a Brooklyn street with racial differences. Anyway i give the movie 4 out of 5 simply becuase it's ending was not the  'right thing'

[Cecil]

the riots

not riot, uprising (as told by spike)

[©brad]

I think more papers in film school are written about Do the Right Thing than any other film in history. interesting thing i read in an interview. spike often does speeches and interviews at universities all around the country. he said he would get asked "did mookie do the right thing?" sum 20 times at each college he would visit. However, it was always white people who would ask. Black people never did, so he says. They don't have to, they know exactly why Mookie does what he does.

[SHAFTR]

Lee was supposed to come here last year (University of Wisconsin) but he cancelled.  I was really pissed, I think he cancelled b/c he was working on 25th Hour.

[Ghostboy]

it's ending was not the  'right thing'

Except that it was!

What the characters do may not be right, but it is the right ending to the movie. It is the only right ending to the movie.

[Rudie Obias]

Lee's character Mookie(sp?) was supposed to do the right thing i think the right thing was to can violence and bring peace or at least try and fail at the attempt. Instead his character starts the riot. The movie had great writing and excellent look into a Brooklyn street with racial differences. Anyway i give the movie 4 out of 5 simply becuase it's ending was not the  'right thing'

i bet you're white.  i really think a lot of poeple out there at too suburbanized to understand DO THE RIGHT THING.  the quotes at the end by mlk and malcolm x totally sum up why mookie did the right thing.

ps
sorry about the white people bashing, i just need to get my point across.

[Gold Trumpet]

Why is this a discussion between whether or not Mookie did the right thing at the end? Who knows what he did was really the right thing at all. The point of his action was to bring into question the motives and events of the block and how it erupted into violence on that faithful night. What mookie did was an action, and as the protaganist and person we identify with through out the movie, his actions was to bring up questions. I don't see how we should even be asking him in particular if he did the right thing. He wasn't even the character who mentioned the words "do the right thing" in the movie at all. Either way, weird question to ask.

~rougerum

[Ghostboy]

Exactly. As I said, the characters may not do the right thing, but that's how the movie needs to end.

[RegularKarate]

So, what GT's saying is that we shouldn't try to discuss the questions that a movie brings up.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I think, for this movie, "doing the right thing" is based on compromises. Thus the MLK/Malcom X picture, and the conflicting quotes.

[Gold Trumpet]

No, what I am saying is that we should not identify the film on the basis of whether or not we think Mookie did the right thing but the overall picture on what it can mean, which does ask whether or not Mookie did the right thing, but doesn't ask just that in means to liking or appreciating the film. I just found this argument to be completely one sided in asking whether or not we felt the hero did the right thing when it is for picture of the entire block and Mookie apart of that argument, not the sole picture.

~rougerum

[atticus jones]

if people on these boards continue to read with their eyes closed i will personally slam the doors on this mutha fucka...

ex) rudieob "sorry for the white people bashing, i just need to get my point across"

and no one comments ?!?

adolph: "sorry for the jew bashing but i had to get my point across"

klan: "sorry for the black bashing but i had to get my point across"

spike: "im not sorry for the white bashing, im an angry black man who will use it to get my point across"

dont apologize for what you say...philosophise on why you say it

[Gold Trumpet]

Nothing more politically correct and intimidating than a white person dealing with supposed racism on his own kind. Personally, I think white people are generally scared shitless to call out anyone on that charge. I'm not sure it was a direct racist comment, but it is hard to defend given the fact all different races are from the world seperated from an inner city that is modern suburbia. I would like to hear what rudie has to say about that because it doesn't feel like a good point is being obtained in saying it. I think just labeling him as coming from suburbia would have worked.

And on the note of not apologizing for what one says, giving examples of good ol' beer hall pusht dreamer Adolp Hitler and USA's modern goofy scary clowns, the Klansmen as being apologetic is insane in trying to make another point. Nothing against Spike Lee, but when it comes to pushing your point, I'll take those guys any day as being more honest with who they are. But on that point, I don't believe Lee is practicing direct hate on white people only in his movies because I believe he is equally tough on blacks as well. And thats all this "mutha fucka" has to say on that.

~rougerum

[Rudie Obias]

i'm sorry about my comments.

[Victor]

im a white male in the jersey suburbs, and i showed do the right thing at my film club in school. i invited the black student union too, hoping to get a good discussion/debate/race war going. and i was so pissed that afterwards, everyone agreed that mookie did the wrong thing. i was the only one in the whole joint to point out or even suggest the idea that there was a positive aspect to it. talk about reading with your eyes closed...

why does everything gotta be so black and white?