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[Do The Right Thing - Trailer] Watch the trailer for "Do The Right Thing" featuring Spike Lee (actor), Danny Aiello (actor) and Spike Lee (director)
Synopsis
In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, disc jockey Mr. SeƱor Love Daddy wakes his morning listeners with soulful rhythms and prepares them for the sweltering heat of the summer's day. The nearby eatery and hangout is Sal's Famous Pizzeria. Young locals Buggin' Out, Radio Raheem, and pizza delivery guy Mookie view Sal's as a symbol of the successful economic and cultural assimilation of Italian Americans and as an oppressive economic force that profits at their expense. Existing racial tensions between merchant and community are exacerbated when Sal refuses to place pictures of prominent African Americans on his shop's Wall of Fame. When Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out confront Sal on his exclusionism, tempers fly and tragedy ensues. Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING is an electrifying motion picture that remains one of the 1980s' most powerful films. In portraying a day in the life of several Brooklyn residents, Lee builds his story at a leisurely, comic pace, building to a violent climax that raises questions rather than answering them.
Chicago Sun-Times, 06/01/2001, p.33, "...Assured, confident....[Lee] takes this story, which sounds like grim social realism, and tells it with music, humor, color and exuberant invention. A lot of it is just plain fun..."
Sight and Sound, 09/01/1989, p.281, "...DO THE RIGHT THING is aesthetically very sophisticated..."
Rolling Stone, 06/29/1989, p.27, "...Lee's best and boldest film....[He] gives the audiences the most vigorous shake-up they've had in years..."
Los Angeles Times, 06/30/1989, p.C1, "...DO THE RIGHT THING announces the coming-of-age of an important filmmaker with something urgent and uncomfortable to say....A stunning entertainment..."
Film Comment, 07/01/1989, p.67-9, "...DO THE RIGHT THING has furious drive and muscle..."
Total Film, 07/01/2003, p.137, "...A subtle and ambiguous work....The still undervalued Danny Aiello is superb..."
USA Today, 06/30/1989, p.1D, "...Lee's film is stirring....It is floridly cinematic....This is a fascinating movie experience, confident in style..."
Premiere, 06/30/2009, 4 stars out of 4 -- "Spike Lee's best film....It remains a beautifully shot, funny, smart, and thought-provoking masterpiece."
Title Note
Theatrical release: June 30, 1989.
Shot on location in Brooklyn, New York.
DO THE RIGHT THING was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1999.
Originally, Spike Lee wrote the part of Sal for Robert De Niro, who was unable to shoot the picture.
After receiving a BA in Communication from Morehouse, one of the nation's few historically African American colleges, Lee attended New York University's Institute of Film and Television, where he received his MFA and distinguished himself with his work, winning a Student Academy Award for his film JOE'S BED-STUY BARBERSHOP: WE CUT HEADS.
Lee went on to win critical acclaim for his independent feature SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT--one of the first of its kind from an African American director, and the film that marked his commercial debut. Between film projects Lee has directed videos and commercials, notably, Nike Air Jordan ads. He occasionally teaches at Harvard University, and, like Woody Allen, he continues to make distinctive, provocative, and uniquely personal films. Lee formed his own production company, Forty Acres and a Mule.
Product Quotation/Excerpt
"Twenty D Energizers."--Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), to a deli clerk
Release Note
Blu-ray Disc Features:
Region [unknown] Audio: DTS 5.1 Surround - French, Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 - English Subtitles: English, SDH, French, Spanish Additional Release Material: Behind the Scenes Deleted Scenes Extended Scenes Trailers Audio Commentary: Director Spike Lee, Director of Featurette: 1. Do The Right Thing: 20 Years Later 2. Making "Do The Right Thing" 3. Editor Barry Brown 4. The Riot Sequence 5. Cannes, 1989 6. 20th Anniversary Edition Feature Commentary with Director Spike Lee 7. Photography Ernest Dickerson, Production Designer Wynn Thomas, and Actor Joie Lee Interactive Features: BD Live - Basic Download Center