Viewing Party! Let’s All Watch ‘Do the Right Thing’ Together!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/movies/do-the-right-thing.html

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Looking ahead to the long, hot, socially distanced summer and to the new Spike Lee joint (“Da 5 Bloods”) coming to Netflix, we found ourselves thinking about “Do the Right Thing.” When Lee’s once-incendiary, now-classic fourth feature was released in 1989, it caused some hand-wringing among critics and commentators, who worried that its unflinching portrayal of violent racial tension might lead to riots. Those fears looked silly then (still do), but the nerves that the movie touched are as raw as ever.

It starts with the sounds of “Fight the Power,” Public Enemy’s protest anthem and follows the goings-on in and around Sal’s Famous Pizzeria, an Italian-American-owned business serving a mostly African-American neighborhood. Lee plays Mookie, who delivers pizzas for Sal and who navigates the everyday stresses of Bedford-Stuyvesant life, always aware of the deeper conflicts. Mookie encounters a rich collection of what Jane Jacobs called public characters, those who observe and comment on the quotidian dramas unfolding around them. An old-timer known as Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) instructs him to “always do the right thing,” an admonition that haunts the movie and foreshadows many post-screening conversations.

Lee’s depiction of gentrification, police brutality, poverty and the mistrust and wary affection between black and white New Yorkers hasn’t dated, even if the city itself has changed in 30 years. But while “Do the Right Thing” remains a richly argumentative, debate-provoking, very American movie, it is more than the sum of its arguments. It is a showcase for Lee’s cinematic gifts, which don’t always receive their due, partly because critics tend to pay more attention to what he’s saying than how he’s saying it. The film is also a jewel box full of past, present and future stars: Ruby Dee, Rosie Perez, John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, Danny Aiello, Bill Nunn, Martin Lawrence. You saw some of them here first.

What does “Do the Right Thing” look like now? Does it still have the power to provoke? Does it make you angry and, if so, at what or whom? Are you struck by Lee’s fury or by his fondness for Brooklyn and its diverse inhabitants? If you haven’t seen the movie in a while, has your impression changed? And if you’re watching for the first time, does it live up to the hype?

Here’s a guide to where it’s streaming. Watch over the weekend and let us know what you think in the comments section below. The cutoff for feedback is 6 p.m. Monday. We’ll return with our reactions to your comments on Tuesday.

We’re looking forward to a spirited, opinionated, enlightened viewing party. It might even get heated, so we’ll conclude by reminding everyone of something Spike Lee likes to say: “Spreading the love is the Brooklyn way.”