History Film / DoTheRightThing

** Mookie, who [[spoiler: seemingly suffers no punishment for starting the riot that led to the destruction of Sal's Famous. Considering his reason for starting the riot in the first place was the death of his close friend, though, it's still hard to call the end of his story a happy one.]]

** Radio's LOVE and HATE jewelery an his description of the meaning behind them is a reference to ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter''.

* TitleDrop: Da Mayor advises Mookie using the name of this film.

* TheAlcoholic: Da Mayor.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: '''R'''adio '''R'''aheem.

It's a small argument over a minor issue. It shouldn't be a big deal. But today is the hottest day of the summer. And sooner or later, that unbearable heat is going to bring the racial tension in this neighborhood to its quite literal boiling point...

Mookie (Spike Lee) is a delivery man for Sal (Creator/DannyAiello), the Italian-American owner of a Brooklyn pizza joint. One hot summer day, a friend of Mookie's, Buggin' Out (Creator/GiancarloEsposito) notices that Sal's "Wall of Fame" has only Italian celebrities, with no black celebrities; since Sal's income is coming from the many black people of the neighborhood, Buggin' Out feels that they deserve a place on the wall. Sal feels that it's his right as the owner of the restaurant to put up whoever he likes on the wall. This is one of many incidents of racial tension that play out in the neighborhood, but today is the hottest day of the summer, and by the end of the day the tension will build up to violence and tragedy.

* AsianStoreOwner: The Korean shop owner. He's able to fend off the angry black mob that torches the Italian pizzeria by claiming that he's "black too." This was inspired by a RealLife story mentioned in ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X''. During the Harlem riot of 1935, a convenience store was spared looting and burning when the Asian owners hung a sign in the window saying that they were colored too. The irony is that the Korean shop owner really is more racist than the Italian restaurant owner.

Mookie (Spike Lee) is a delivery man for Sal (Danny Aiello), the Italian-American owner of a Brooklyn pizza joint. One hot summer day, a friend of Mookie's, Buggin' Out (Creator/GiancarloEsposito) notices that Sal's "Wall of Fame" has only Italian celebrities, with no black celebrities; since Sal's income is coming from the many black people of the neighborhood, Buggin' Out feels that they deserve a place on the wall. Sal feels that it's his right as the owner of the restaurant to put up whoever he likes on the wall. This is one of many incidents of racial tension that play out in the neighborhood, but today is the hottest day of the summer, and by the end of the day the tension will build up to violence and tragedy.

* ClusterFBomb: The film has a total of 240 uses of "fuck", particularly used in the argument scenes. (The following year, ''{Film/Goodfellas}'' would bust its record by 60 f-bombs.)

* ClusterFBomb: The film has a total of 240 uses of "fuck", particularly used in the argument scenes. (The following year, ''Film/Goodfellas'' would bust its record by 60 f-bombs.)

* ClusterFBomb: Particularly the argument scenes.

* HoodFilm: The film is often seen as the GenrePopularizer. In an UnbuiltTrope, it's set in New York instead of the more popular California and features white protagonists as well as black ones. The film is about racial tensions in a Bedford, Brooklyn neighborhood, namely between African-American and Italian-American communities, and how far they can end up escalating.

A 1989 Creator/SpikeLee [[InsistentTerminology joint]] about bigotry and racism.

%%* TheEighties

* ChokeHolds: Radio Raheem dies from a police chokehold, sparking off a riot.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Radio Raheem's killed by the cops, a riot breaks out and Sal's Pizzeria is burned down. Though Mookie's cameo in Spike Lee's film ''Red Hook Summer'' confirms that Sal did eventually re-open his pizzeria, Mookie still works as a delivery man and the two reconciled.]]

* EverythingIsRacist: An Italian man hangs nothing but pictures of famous Italian men in his ''Italian Restaurant'', which is located in the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood? In the eyes of "Buggin' Out", [[InsaneTrollLogic that only means one thing]]: Sal is a racist!

* FloweryInsults:

* HoodFilm: The film is often seen as the GenrePopularizer. In an UnbuiltTrope, it's set in New York instead of the more popular California and features white protagonists, as well as black ones. The film is about a racial tensions in a Bedford, Brooklyn neighborhood, namely between African-American and Italian-American communities.

** Radio's description of his LOVE and HATE jewelery is a reference to ''Film/TheNightOfTheHunter''.

* TheStoic: Mookie confronts pretty much all of the moments in his life, happy or sad, good or bad, with the same sleepy expression and slightly annoyed tone of voice. During more intense scenes, however, his expression, while unchanging, comes off as being one of quiet intensity rather than tiredness.

* GreyAndGreyMorality: Many of the main characters are of questionable morals [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation and their actions can be interpreted one way or another.]] Mookie is not a hard worker but clearly cares for his son and is respected in the community, Pino is a {{jerkass}} whose own friends don't respect him, Buggin' Out is a black militant [[MalcolmXerox Malcolm X wannabe]] who could be a good character but misdirects his ideals of black justice at Sal, who never did anything wrong to anyone, and Sal himself is a decent man who can’t control his temper and has some latent racist tendencies.

* AngryBlackMan: One could say that there are a few (particularly Buggin' Out), but the trope is somewhat inverted when one black man tells another whom is spouting ABM language that he "doesn't want to hear that horseshit." In the commentary track for the DVD release, Spike Lee specifically notes that when Buggin' Out begins ranting about the pictures in the pizzeria, that he disagrees with the character, saying that it's Sal's place, so it's his right to put whatever pictures he likes on the walls.

'''Pino:''' You gold-teeth-gold-chain-wearin', fried-chicken-and-biscuit-eatin', monkey, ape, baboon, big thigh, fast-runnin', high-jumpin', spear-chuckin', three-hundred-sixty-degree-basketball-dunkin' titsun spade Moulan Yan. Take your fuckin' piece o' pizza and go the fuck back to Africa.\\

'''Officer Long:''' You Goya bean-eating, fifteen in a car, thirty in an apartment, pointed shoes, red-wearing, Menudo, mire-mire Puerto Rican cocksucker. Yeah, you!\\

* CycleOfRevenge: Buggin' Out and Radio Raheem's frustration over initially petty things lead to them mobbing gate restaurant, leading to Sal calling them a racial slur and breaking Raheem's radio, leading to [[spoiler:them beating him up brutally]], leading to [[spoiler:the police killing Raheem]], leading to [[spoiler:Sal's pizza place being burned down in a riot.]]

* EverythingIsRacist: An Italian man hanging pictures of famous Italian men in his Italian Restaurant? RACIST!

* SassyBlackWoman: Mother Sister.* ShoutOut:

* CycleOfVengeance: Buggin' Out and Radio Raheem's frustration over initially petty things lead to them mobbing gate restaurant, leading to Sal calling them a racial slur and breaking Raheem's radio, leading to [[spoiler:them beating him up brutally]], leading to [[spoiler:the police killing Raheem]], leading to [[spoiler:Sal's pizza place being burned down in a riot.]]