>watch pic related>think it's well made>think it's about the issues of segregated neighborhoods and their community's struggles, conflict escalation, and reinforced cycles of prejudice where no character is clearly bad but just acts according to whatever environment shaped them>read reviews>people rate it highly and say that it's a movie about black racism and how Sal is the antagonist of the film and how none of the black characters did anything wrongDid I miss something?>plot kicks off by some black guy demanding an Italian restaurant to put black celebrities on the wall>climax starts by the same guy and his friend barging into the restaurant, blasting music and demanding the black celebs on the wall. Restaurant owner gets angry and smashes the radio. Black guy who brought it there then tries to strangle and kill him.>black neighborhood sets restaurant on fire after police chokes out (kills?) Radio black guy who also tried to fight the police until he died (?)>after some riots, the black community starts fighting the fire fighters who are putting out the fire>black community was close to also burning down the Korean store across the pizza restaurant just because they are also not black>black restaurant employee complains about salary of 250$ per week for a pretty easy pizza delivery job (just walk around the neighborhood) pre 1990If I went into the local Korean restaurant and demand them to put Taylor Swift on the wall, people would think I'm entitled and retarded.
How is any of that "doing the right thing?" Going just off your description, the black guys sound like villains
>>220800790Ebert straight up said>There are really no heroes or villains in the film.It's a complicated movie full of flawed people.
division-bait movie meant to keep the masses arguing
>>220800790Why didn't the restaurant just put some photos of black folks up? Its not a big deal.
>>220800790spike lee is a vile racist. fuck that midget cunt
>>220803194Seriously. You sell pizza in a black neighborhood. Just put some picture of Sidney Poitier up. Maybe you'll sell more pizza.
>>220801785>>220802924Blacks are held to a lower standard by society.
>>220803204He's just a guy
>>220801785When I first watched it I thought the poimt was that no one does the right thing, but I guess I have Spike Lee a littlebtoo much credit
>>220800790true talk, the only objectively wrong thing done by the italians was turturro calling that radio whatever a nigger, but that guy was a violent schizo who was 100% looking for troubles. it's actually very disheartening ohw the community ganged up on the pizzeria when he was cop-killed when those guys did literally nothing
>>220802924Well, he's a niggerlover, so...
>>220801785A couple of them are, literally no one in the neighborhood except Buggin Out gave a shit about the pictures and Sal liked most of his customers. The pivotal confrontation only takes place because he stayed open a little late for some regular customers. Its a complex movie and there's absolutely an argument to be made that Sal's a little racist, but its critical malpractice to act like Buggin Out is blameless. Most of the black characters tell him to shut the fuck up when he's ranting
>>220800790Every step of the way, the conflict would have de-escalated if the people involved did the right things... showed love to customers, staged a civilized boycott, just let the black folk vent, accept your life as a delivery boy, etc
>>220800790This movie is just id brained, blood and soil tribalism and racism on display. The Neighborhood was once predominantly Italians and is now mostly black. Sal and his family are one of the last Italian holdovers dealing with a hostile and belligerent black community of customers who regularly antagonize them. There are peripherals too, like the korean family and theres like a upper class white yuppie whos played for laughs too, but this is the main conflict. The film ends with a pogram to remove the last traces of italians in the neighborhood and one of the most interesting parts is when the black mob turns on the korean shop owner. He immediatly starts begging for mercy by saying "IM BLACK! IM BLACK!" showing that he will kowtow to the new undisputed racial group in charge of the area. Sal is left with nothing but his former employee basically just telling him tough luck his business was burned down, the blacks own the area now, deal with it. Thats it too. The movie isnt making any sort of higher social commentary, Spike Lee is just a black nationalist who wants lebensraum for black people because they are black and thats it. Sal is a villain for being stubborn and not just accepting his fate as losing the neighborhood. Radio Raheem did nothing wrong with constantly harassing him because he should have just accepted it sooner. Its not about being fare or anything, its about taking resources and holding extreme ingroup preferences while being hostile to any out group
>Interviewer: Malcolm X said that whether you’re using ballots or bullets, your aim has to be true, and you don’t aim for the puppet, you aim for the puppeteer. Isn’t everybody on the corner there in Do the Right Thing aiming for just a puppet, and not a very powerful puppet at that?>Lee: That’s true. But Mayor Koch is not in front of them. Rarely do you get a chance where you get to actively engage the enemy, and the closest there was was Sal’s Pizzeria.>Interviewer: One of the disturbing things to me about the reaction to that film is that people focused on the burning of the pizzeria and not the death of Radio Raheem, and there might be a reason for that other than just hog-calling racism.>Lee: The thing I liked about Do the Right Thing, especially for critics, is that it was a litmus test. I think you could really tell how people thought and who they were. And if I read a review and all it talked about was the stupidity of burning the pizzeria, the stupidity of the violence, the looting, the burning, and not one mention of the murder of Radio Raheem, I knew exactly where they were coming from. Because people that write like that, who think like that, do not put any value on black life, especially the life of young black males. They put more importance on property, white-owned property.Spike Lee unironically thinks Sal was in the wrong and that the people trashing the pizzeria and demanding black historical figures on the wall were in the right.
>>220800790That movie sucks so fucking bad.
