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Do the Right Thing

Screening on Film
Directed by Spike Lee.
With Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee.
US, 1989, 35mm, color, 120 min.
Print source: Harvard Film Archive

Spike Lee’s tale of the complexities of race exacerbated by the police, those enforcers of state-sanctioned white supremacy, may now be considered a classic, almost thirty years after its initial release, but that status has not dulled the film’s cathartic anger nor its controversial edge. The film follows the goings-on on a single block in Brooklyn over the course of a single, sweltering summer day, from a morning of simmering tensions, focusing on a white-owned pizzeria, to a night of violence. Do the Right Thing teems with life, thanks to an extraordinary ensemble cast and a soundtrack that brings together hip hop, jazz and R&B. Some have even credited the film with helping to revive interest in the political ideas of Malcolm X.

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