YMMV / Do the Right Thing

• Alternative Character Interpretation: The whole damn movie is an exercise on what each viewer interprets each character's actions and intentions as, but especially:
  • What was Mookie's motivation for throwing that trashcan. To redirect the mob's rage and save Sal's life? To vent his own rage over Radio Raheem's death? If he was trying to vent, why didn't he join in on the actual rioting and looting with the other black people? If he truly was trying to save a life, why help start a riot, which could easily lead to plenty of other people getting killed? "I wanna clear up something once and for all," Spike Lee says in a commentary track on the 20th anniversary DVD of the film. "Mookie did not throw the garbage can through the window to divert the mob from jumping on Sal." Rather, he "threw the garbage can through the window because he just saw one of his best friends get murdered in cold blood by NYPD."
    • Discussed in the film Southside With You, in which a young Barack Obama, questioned on his thoughts about the scene by a white higher-up at his law firm, suggests the former interpretation, but later privately expresses his belief in the latter interpretation to Michelle.
  • Pino. An unapologetic racist and a bully? Or a hypocritical, insecure young man whose Italian friends make fun of him for working in a black neighborhood that, in turn, barely tolerates him only because he's Sal's son?
  • Sal. Per Spike Lee, Sal is a racist. While Buggin' Out is often blamed for kicking off the series of events that lead up to the Downer Ending by boycotting Sal's pizzeria over the pictures of Italian-Americans on his wall, an often overlooked aspect is the fact that Buggin Out seems to let the issue go to eat his pizza... before Sal threatens to bust his head in with a bat while calling him a troublemaker. Granted Buggin Out lets the issue go in an obnoxious manner that makes it bubble, but the point still stands. But speaking of Sal, is his relationship with Mookie's sister paternal or romantic?
  • It should be noted that Danny Aiello, who played Sal, disagreed with Spike Lee about his character and didn't see him as a racist.
  • The script actually confirms one: Radio Raheem wasn't just roughing Sal up, he was genuinely trying to murder the old man, and came close to doing it. As also noted below, he reacted as understandably as any individual who lost their most prized possession, especially one that reflected their sense of identity, would.
    Radio Raheem picks Sal up from behind the counter and starts to choke his ass. Radio Raheem's prized possession—his box, the only thing he owned of value—his box, the one thing that gave him any sense of worth—has been smashed to bits. (Radio Raheem, like many Black youth, is the victim of materialism and a misplaced sense of values.) Now he doesn't give a fuck anymore. He's gonna make Sal pay with his life. Vito and Pino jump on Radio Raheem, who only tightens his grip around Sal's neck.
  • Harsher critics label Buggin' Out as a self-insert character for Lee. Considering Lee's outspoken contempt for mixed-race couples and his 2014 rant against gentrification, it's not too much of an impossibility.
• Anvilicious: The Movie. The film makes no attempt to hide its true message, and examines it from every angle and perspective while staying away from any sort of "feel good" factor. Simply put, the contrast between Do The Right Thing and Driving Miss Daisy's respective handlings of the subject of racism is why lots of people maintain that Do The Right Thing was snubbed that year at the Oscars. It helps that the movie lets almost no one off the hook.
• Award Snub: No Academy Award nominations for Best Picture or Best Director. Lampshaded by Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, both of whom found it to be the best film of 1989. Kim Basinger famously went off script during the Academy Awards ceremony that year, bashing the Academy for not nominating the film. Unsurprisingly, this is still a sore spot for Spike Lee. He seems unable to mention the film that won Best Picture that year without resorting to profanity.
  • It also came as somewhat of a surprise to many film critics that Denzel Washington ended up winning Best Supporting Actor over Danny Aiello.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The insult montage, shown right after Mookie questions Pino on his racism. It should be insulting, but the degree to which the two of them insult each other quickly stops being offensive and starts being funny within the first few seconds.
• Death of the Author: As shown in Alternative Character Interpretation above, many viewers and critics have a more nuanced view of the film and its themes than Spike Lee himself.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: A number of fans speculate that Radio Raheem may be autistic, in large part thanks to the attachment he has to his boombox, which is easy to read as a special interest (music) or a comfort item (the boombox itself). The fact that he gets killed by the police in the film's climax also factors into this interpretation, as Black autistic people are at a much higher risk of facing Police Brutality than neurotypical Black people and white autistic people.
• Fandom Rivalry: Big time between this and Driving Miss Daisy due to their vastly different approaches when it comes to the subject of race relations and the other movie winning big at the Oscars while this one was mostly snubbed. Spike Lee himself has only fueled this rivalry refusing to hide his anger over the loss. Then again, his disgust over Green Book winning in 2019, among other things, suggests his gripes lay with the Academy's narrow focus towards "white savior + Magical Negro" films, with African American actors getting snubbed for major acting awards for almost anything falling outside said or similar stereotypes.
  • Defied elsewhere though. Do The Right Thing has held up better all these years later. More than just broadly applicable social justice critique, it boasts an uncanny sense of moral evenhandedness, and is held up as a high watermark amongst films, balancing heightened comedy, drama, and tragedy, with the intimacy of a theatre play. It has been ranked in several critic-curated all-time great film lists. Driving Miss Daisy, meanwhile, has largely been forgotten aside from the random spoof.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Radio Raheem's death through Police Brutality is similar to what happened in an infamous case in 1991 in Los Angeles with Rodney King, a black man brutally beaten up by the cops. While Rodney King did survive the beatings, the riot that followed (which was a much larger-scale riot than the riot from the film) was considered to be one of the worst racial riots in United States history, to the point that the National Guard was called in. In 2014, meanwhile, Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold by an NYPD officer, similar to how Radio Raheem died. Worse, in 2020, the death of George Floyd resulted in protests that eventually escalated to full-scale protests nationwide, which once again resulted in the National Guard being called in, with many comparing them to the ones in L.A., eerily mirroring the climax of the film.
  • In the film, a general store owned by a Korean man, Sonny, was spared during the riot as he pulls a famous line with the black rioters stating the Koreans too suffered racial discrimination in America. Sadly, most of the businesses and stores destroyed during the riots were owned by Korean-Americans themselves, who were targeted as a result of longstanding racial tensions between black and Korean communities in California. The riots only galvanized these tensions, to the point where even today, if you meet any Korean or African-American in Los Angeles (particularly the older generation that lived through the said riots), chances are many of them hold some negative grudges and stereotypical (if not outright racist) views towards each other.
  • In-Universe example: At the end of Sal's first scene he jokingly says, "I'm gonna kill somebody today." The statement's a little harsh, but he certainly did not mean it. The words become haunting when Sal "kills" Radio Raheem's radio, which causes Radio Raheem to attack Sal, which leads to the altercation in the streets, which leads to the death of Radio Raheem at the hands of a police officer. While Sal is not the only character who can be blamed for this tragedy, it can at least be said that he (along with Buggin' Out) helped kill someone.
• Heartwarming Moments: Sal explaining to Pino that he has no issue with black people, that they've supported him for decades and he's proud that people in the neighborhood have grown up on his pizza. The mood is broken when Smiley shows up and Pino starts picking on him, but still.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Watching Giancarlo Esposito's excitable performance as Buggin' Out can be amusing to Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fans who are more used to seeing him play the stoic yet murderous drug kingpin Gustavo Fring.
• Informed Wrongness:
  • Mookie is said to be sort of lazy, tardy and selfish towards his family, even though he's one of the only sane and competent people. While said flaws may be true in a matter of speaking, he comes across more of a flake (after supposedly being too busy to make time for Tina, he momentarily plays hooky during work for "a date"). It's as if it's less about his informed flaws that really drag him down, but rather poor self-management skills.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Radio Raheem only supports Buggin' Out's protest out of petty spite over Sal telling him not to blast his boombox in the pizzeria. He didn't deserve to be killed, though, and everyone on all sides rightfully sees his murder as a tragedy.
  • Sal. Yes he's short-tempered and has a racist streak, but he didn't deserve to have his home and business destroyed either. And regardless of whether you think he's racist or not, he at least means well and cares for his surrounding black community despite any bubbling prejudice, so you can only imagine the pain he feels seeing them tear his place apart.
  • Everyone who who tears apart Sal's. Their actions are at best extreme, but given they all just saw Radio Raheem get killed, it's easy to see why they would lash out the way they did.
• Narm:
  • It can be hard to take the movie seriously after you've seen the somewhat surreal opening credits. Or it could be Narm Charm. Then again, Rosie Perez's dance is a very abstract summation of the events of the film that itself goes from heightened slice of life to tragedy.
  • Ruby Dee yelling "NO" over and over again in the exact same way doesn't sound very authentic and can take you out of the overall realistic and tear-jerking climax. Granted, everything else surrounding that can make up for it. And while the delivery may not be great, the reason why she's saying it is still tearjerking.
• One-Scene Wonder: John Savage as Clifton, the white bicyclist who is confronted by Buggin' Out after the former accidentally bumps into him by making marks on his sneakers.
  • Frank Vincent is the driver of the vehicle that gets drenched from the Fire Hydrant when he tries to drive through the crowd around it.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Buggin' Out is played by Giancarlo Esposito, who would later go on to be best remembered as Gustavo Fring, Moff Gideon, and Stan Edgar.
  • Coconut Sid is Frankie Faison.
  • A young Martin Lawrence plays one of the neighborhood teenagers.
  • Mister Senor Love Daddy, the DJ, is Samuel L. Jackson.
• Tear Jerker: Radio Raheem's death, and the aftermath as the tension that built up throughout the movie finally explodes.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Radio Raheem seems to do nothing but walk around carrying a boombox blaring Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", and there are references to several contemporary well-publicized hate crimes, making it a perfect period piece of its late '80s release date (it was released in 1989).
• Values Resonance: More than thirty years since the film first came out, its overall themes maintain their relevance, especially with murders of African Americans by police officers becoming increasingly well-documented, leading up to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, making the film feel even more on the nose after so much time.

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