Do the Right Thing

From Harpo's Juke Joint

Do the Right Thing is the third feature length film by director Spike Lee, and is arguably his best known (aside from Malcolm X).

Spike Lee timeline
Do the Right Thing
It's the hottest day of the summer. You can do nothing, you can do something, or you can...
(leave blank)
Directed by Spike Lee
Released	June 30, 1989
Distributor	Universal
Length
Starring	Spike Lee Danny Aiello Ossie Davis Ruby Dee Samuel L. Jackson Rosie Perez
Rated	R
Total gross	$37,295,445
Website	{{{Website}}}
Fanlisting	{{{Fanlisting}}}
(leave blank)
Soundtrack by various artists
Length
Label
Producer(s)
(leave blank)
School Daze (1988)	Do the Right Thing (1989)	Malcolm X (1990)

[edit]

Trivia

Lee's original pick for Sal was Robert DeNiro, who turned down the role because he felt like he'd played too many roles like Sal. He recommended Danny Aiello, who would go on to be nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards.

Two Martin cast members are DtRT veterans. Martin Lawrence, who played Martin Payne, is Cee. (Payne keeps a DtRT poster up in his apartment.) Luis Ramos, who played Luis the Super, is Stevie, the Puerto Rican kid who challenged Radio Raheem to a beat box duel.

It took Spike Lee four tries before he was able to bust the glass window at Sal's Pizzeria with the oversized trash can. No one told Spike that the glass was a quarter-inch thick.

"Fight the Power", the song that would become the anthem to DtRT & would also bring Public Enemy into the mainstream, was written after the movie was filmed. Bill Nunn had the nearly impossible challenge of walking & reacting to a song that he'd never heard, but was the soundtrack to his character's entire life.

The actors who played the constantly quarreling Da Mayor & Mother Sister were Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee, who were married for 56 years until Davis' death in 2005.

Rosie Perez would play Tina in an In Living Color parody. Steve Park, who played the Korean shopkeeper, was an ILC writer & the husband of Kelly Coffield, also an ILC veteran.

[edit]

Clips

Mother Sister Ruby Dee is up bright and early, doing her usual verbal sparring with Da Mayor, played by Ossie Davis, who was Dee's real life husband of 56 years.

watch

Before Avenue Q told the world that everyone is a little bit racist, Spike Lee (as well as John Turturro, Luis Ramos, John Nagle, Steve Park & Samuel L. Jackson) explored the idea in this montage.

watch