(8.17) The timing of this seems shockingly, and depressingly, on point . . . should be a double feature with ‘Groundhog Day.’ When ‘Do the Right Thing’ came out in 1989 it provoked controversy and much of that “conversation” we always talk about having, and director/writer Spike Lee took his rightful place in the pantheon of American directors.
It’s hard to believe that somewhere between then and now we have had a black president, but it sure won’t be hard picturing Sal and Mookie arguing about Charlottesville, or Ferguson, or . . . (Facebook event.)
The New Yorker looked back at the film on the occasion of its 25th anniversary . . . a million years ago, back in 2014.
The movie was celebrated all over the country: in Los Angeles, with a screening at LACMA and a panel moderated by John Singleton; in the White House, where Barack and Michelle Obama recorded a video greeting to Lee, in praise of the movie they’d seen on their first date (“ ‘Do the Right Thing’ still holds up a mirror to our society, and it makes us laugh and think, and challenges all of us to see ourselves in one another,” Obama said); with a party in Bed-Stuy, on the block where the film was shot, recently renamed Do the Right Thing Way, featuring Lee, Dave Chappelle, Chuck D, and thousands of fans; and at BAM, which concluded BAMcinemaFest with a sold-out screening and a panel of cast and crew members. An all-ages Brooklyn crowd showed up to the Harvey Theatre on Sunday, wearing sundresses and suits and caps and red BOYCOTT SAL’S T-shirts.
This is an extraordinary film. Those opening credits with Rosie Perez dancing to Public Enemy? Remember to breathe.
Free, 7:42pm, Thursday, August 17, Grant’s Block, 260 Westminster Street, (directions)