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Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
So, I finally sat down and watched "Do the Right Thing".
Didn't really care for it. Of course it was provocative, but that doesn't equate to good cinema. I'd say that Spike Lee did a great job in creating an antihero in Mookie, but I'm not a true believer in authorial intent. The only thing that matters is what is conveyed through the text.
Sal, Da Mayor, and Pino where the only redeemable characters in the entire film. I'm sure that some would criticize Da Mayor for tomming for the way that he cleaned up the outside of the parlor at the beginning, or for attempting to quell the coming riot after Radio Raheem was killed. Although I can see the argument for the first, I don't at all see that for the second.
Furthermore, I find Spike Lee's assertion that the destruction of the pizzeria in order to save Sal and his kids to be preposterous. Yeah the cops crossed a line and should be prosecuted, and they weren't targeting Pino and Raheem, just Raheem, but Sal isn't the cops, and the mob equating Sal to the cops shows a reprehensible amount of bigotry.
But generally, that's what Spike Lee films intend to do--they want to show a story of bigotry, and instead the vast majority of the bigotry that is shown is that of the filmmaker.
Then again, maybe I'm guilty of some revisionist history since I viewed this after seeing the vile homophobic tripe that was She Hate Me. I guess I see Spike as the vailpass of American cinema.
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I see a lot of parallels between Spike and Michael Bay in DTRT, a visual feast that's about as deep as a rain puddle. I find the film as mesmerizing and memorable as anything on film, but yeah, the narrative is a hot tranny mess. Where is does triumph is in showing how everyone is human, and hot, and limited in their view of the whole picture. The fine line between menacing and fronting, the river of uneasy peace that can roil under even the longest of relationships.