Rating: 
Summary: A Great Film.....Spike Lee's Best!!
Review: This is one fantastic film. Spike Lee's best film. I am an Italian American and I agree with Spikes version of the relationship between blacks and italians. This film should viewed by all and should be used in schools as a learning tool. I highly recommened this film...buy the DVD as the VHS copy was grainy and weak...even on VHS this film was a treat!
Rating:
Summary: His Finest Joint!!
Review: Spike Lee brought race relations front and center with his first commercial success. The soundtrack from Public Enemy gives the movie its fire. The performances of Danny Aiello, John Turturo, Rosie Perez and many others gives the movie its power. This movie should have been given more praise by the Oscar community. It's a shame that Aiello was the only nominee. It was clearly the best movie of the 1989. Unfortunately, Hollywood has a beef with movies that are made in New York.
Rating:
Summary: Not About Answers, but Questions
Review: A lot of people criticize this movie because of its ending. To do so misses the point of the film. Do the Right Thing is one of the few films that deals with race honestly - it doesn't end with everyone hugging and happy singing Kumbaya. Instead it takes a realistic look at race relations in an inner city neighborhood that has faced white flight, and is now facing gentrification. It's a scenario playing out all over the country, and the tensions that arise in the film can probably be found in any American city today. The difference is, Lee is willing to face those challenges in the eye, instead of dancing around them like most of us do. A bit about the characters. Some have argued that they are caricatures, or simple, or racist, or unlikable. That is the point. Should somebody die because they are obnoxious? Should someone's life work be destroyed because of what they represent, instead of who they are? Yes, the characters may seem at first one dimensional, but look a bit closer. The issue isn't whether Mookie is lazy, or Sal's son is racist. The issue is how do people relate to each other, and when the lines are drawn, where do their loyalties ultimately lie. The fact that the ending is inconclusive, and forces people to think (a rare thing in films nowadays) shouldn't detract from the movie's rating. Even if you don't agree with the ending, or dislike the characters, this is a must see film.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated Film
Review: I watched Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing" last night and was terribly disappointed. Nobody changes throughout this movie. In fact, Lee's one-dimensional characters live up to the stereotypes that Lee is desparately trying to give them. You have Pino, the racist Italian; Lee, who himself is the protypical lazy black man and racist himself; Aiello, was is the fiery owner of the pizza place, etc. Lee starts the riot that leads to the pizza joint's demise, and we don't know why he does this. Pino was right all along, according to Lee: people in this neighborhood CAN'T be trusted, can they? Question: who WOULDN'T have smashed Radio Rahemm's radio after he walks back into the pizza place blasting his boom box? It seems like a perfectly logical solution. It's not Aiello's fault that Raheem is killed by the police. Kind of a witless ending to a somewhat promising premise.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Movie From A Brilliant Director
Review: The fact that Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing wasn't given Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director is still considered by movie buffs to be one of the biggest Oscar snubs of all time. This was the best movie of 1989, and ranks among the best that Spike Lee has ever directed. The story unfolds on one scorching summer day in Brooklyn, New York. It centers around Mookie (Spike Lee), a down-and-out pizza deliverer who works for Sal's Famous Pizzeria, owned by Sal (Danny Aiello) and his two sons. The neighborhood where the story unfolds is low-rent and crime-ridden, and the residents are mainly black. While his sons beg him to relocate the pizzeria to a nicer neighborhood, Sal doesn't mind the surroundings. In fact, he takes great pride in having run this restaurant for so many years, and that the people of this neighborhood were raised on his food. Tensions flair when a militant called Buggin Out notices that there isn't a single picture of a black celebrity on the "Wall of Fame" that Sal has put up in his restaurant. Buggin Out insists that Sal put up pictures of black people, considering that most of his customers are black. Sal maintains that the Wall is for Italian celebrities only, so Buggin Out decides to organize a boycott of the pizzeria. This idea of a boycott eventually escalates into a riot at the end of the day, burning down the restaurant. Though Sal is emotionally crushed by the destruction of his life's work, he is more hurt by the fact that Mookie helped in destroying the restaurant. Earlier on that same day, Sal had lovingly told Mookie that he thought of him as a son. This movie was extremely provocative when it first came out, and it still remains compelling today. It's about race wars and loyalty, and those who struggle to choose sides. I think this is the kind of movie that should be shown in classrooms and then discussed at length. It's extremely entertaining and also very educational. I have only the highest of recommendations for Do The Right Thing.
Rating: 
Summary: i liked this film alot
Review: I have to say it, i really liked this film. I am not african american, i am not any minority, but the message that i derived from the film, it is impossible to do the right thing regarding violence. I came to this decision after reading the quotes from MLK and Malcom X at the end of the film. Both were completely opposite of each other, yet both figures are symbols the african american's struggle in the 1960's. MLK wanted peace, X accepted violence if it was neccesary. Yet, what was mookie supposed to do? sit back and accept the death of someone he knew? was he supposed to act the way he did? there is no right thing to do.
this was teh message that i got from this film. I feel that spike lee made a very well put to gether film about racism, infact, almost reverse racism, in a black community. I get eh reverse form the pizzeria scene. Sal said nothing durogatory to buggin out and he said the pictures meant nothing other than celebrating his culture's successes. If it were in an all white community and sal was black and had pictures of african american's on his wall, he'd face the same treatment. Who knows, i could be completely wrong. It's my opinion on the film.
Rating:
Summary: Spike Lee nails it
Review: This movie takes place on one hot summer day in an ethincially diverse community in the Bedford-Stuyvestant neighborhood of Brooklyn. By the end of the day, allt he little incidents that add up to race relations (or lack thereof) explode into a volatile riot of misunderstanding and tragedy. The most chilling thing about this movie is how it was filmed in 1989 yet eerily foretells the Rodney King beating and LA Riots of 1992. Rent it just to see Rosie Perez dance in the opening sequence. Her hair, clothes and dance moves make her 1989 incarnate!
Rating:
Summary: Sheer Brilliance.
Review: A powerful ironic film that explains why racism is so difficult and so intractable a problem. This brilliantly written and directed film has received far less attention than it deserves.
Of special note is Danny Aiello's performance as Sal, who translates his pride almost unknowingly into an insensitivity that becomes tragic. Although he ends up totally incapable of understanding any of what befalls him, Aiello's Sal shows himself worthy of the compassion you cannot help feeling for him. The extremely funny scene in which each ethic group spews epithets about another is a classic. It alone is worth the price of the movie.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best films of the eighties
Review: Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing' is an excellent, hard hitting film about race relations in a predominantly black section of Brooklyn on a hot summer day. Lee himself plays Mookie, an underachieving pizza delivery boy who works at Sal's pizzeria. Tensions begin to flare when one customer notices that there are no African-Americans on the wall. A series of incidents and misunderstandings will lead to tragic consequences by the end of the day. Lee certainly seems to know this neighborhood. He establishes an interesting set of characters and the tensions that exist between them. There is the alcoholic bum, the appropriately named Radio Raheem, the Korean family who own a convenience store, the decent but hot tempered pizzeria owner Sal, and his two sons; one prejudiced, one not. There is a long tracking shot of the police cruising the neighborhood where we see the mutual distrust existing between them and the black residents. We also see the tension between the residents and the Korean couple. The whole community seems to be on edge just waiting to explode. The climax of the film is quite shocking as well as thought provoking. It's as if Spike Lee anticipated the Rodney King beating three years before it happened. It leaves one wondering, did Mookie and the crowd do the right thing? Radio shouldn't have attacked Sal, but Sal shouldn't have smashed Radio's radio, even if it was disruptive. The police should not have killed Radio, but were Mookie and the crowd right to torch Sal's pizzeria? In the end, Lee is fair and evenhanded towards everyone and leaves it up to the viewer to decide. On a side note, watching this film I couldn't help but think that half of America's race relations problems could be solved simply by learning some basic manners. If the words 'please' and 'thank you' had been used more often, and the characters stopped shouting at one another, and the F-word not used to punctuate every sentence, then this story might have had a different ending. Americans could learn a few things from their neighbors up North.
Rating:
Summary: PRETTY DARN GOOD
Review: THIS MOVIE TAKES PLACE IN BEDFORD STUYVESANT IN BROOKLYN(WHICH IS A PLACE NO ONE WANTS TO BE)AND ACTUALLY BEDFORD STUYVESANT IS LIKE 40 MIN AWAY FROM MY HOUSE(I DONT LIVE ANYWHERE AROUND THERE THANK GOD)BUT ANYWAY BACK TO THE MOVIE. THE MOVIE WAS DIRECTED BY SPIKE LEE AND HE DID A REAL GOOD JOB AT IT. THE STORY IS ABOUT THE PREJUDICE AROUND BACK THEN.ALSO MARTIN LAWRENCE AND SAMUEL L JACKSON ARE IN THE MOVIE.IT SHOWS THE PREJUDICE IN THIS PLACE CALLED SALS FAMOUS PIZZA WHERE THE OWNER HAS PICTURES OF ALL WHITE FAMOUS PEOPLE AND HE HATES RAP MUSIC.AND ALSO HE HAS SPIKE LEE WORKING FOR HIM BUT THEN AT THE END SPIKE LEE TURNS HIS BACK ON HIM ANDWELL IM NOT GOING TO SAY CUS YOU GOTTA SEE THE MOVIE YOURSELF. BUT TO ME ITS A REALLY GOOD MOVIE
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