Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’

July 21, 1989.

That is, according to Wikipedia, the date in which Spike Lee’s most famous film, Do the Right Thing, was released in U.S. theaters.

I was 17, one month short of turning 18, when the film was released.

It was a great film about racial tensions in a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.

Along with Spike Lee, the film also stars Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nunn, Rosie Perez, John Savage, and John Turturro.

It was one of the most well-respected films of 1989, a terrific year which also included the following titles: Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone); Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore); Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen); Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir); Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant); Enemies, A Love Story (Paul Mazursky); The Fabulous Baker Boys (Steve Kloves); Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson); Glory (Edward Zwick); Henry V (Kenneth Branagh); The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements and John Musker); My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan); Parenthood (Ron Howard); Roger & Me (Michael Moore); Say Anything... (Cameron Crowe); sex, lies, and videotape (Steven Soderbergh); The War of the Roses (Danny DeVito); When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner); and, the winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, Driving Miss Daisy (Bruce Beresford).

Do the Right Thing was named No. 1 on the year-end Best of 1989 lists by film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. It garnered Oscar nominations for Lee in Best Original Screenplay and Aiello in Best Supporting Actor. (Lee was one of the co-writers who, in February 2019, won the 2018 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his most recent film BlacKkKlansman.)

Criterion Collection is re-releasing Do the Right Thing on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday, July 23. The cover art is what appears above. Below are two clips from the film. The first has striking opening credits. The second is a powerful statement on stereotypes.