DO THE RIGHT THING

I absolutely adore this movie! Spike Lee does an incredible job illustrating the affect of common stereotypes in close knit neighborhoods by allowing us to follow a day in the life of "Mookie" (Spike's own character) around his New York neighborhood. The fact that Mookie works iin an italian family owned pizza shop alone adds an incredible spin to the film. It demonstrated the fact that in order adequately remove racial barriers it will take more than simple effort. Sal and Mookie working together did not prevent the devastation from occuring at the movie's end. There was much hate among the residents be they black, white, asian, or latino; and hate only leads to demise. I believe that was Spike's intended theme throughout the film. Despite the fact that the nieghborhood was racially tense, it was still a functioning neighborhood until the riot occurred at the end. It was not just the black community that experienced loss witht he murder of Radio Rahim, but the entire community as a whole experienced a great deal of loss. Sal and his sons definitely lost their place of business which meant that the youth of the nieghborhood then lost a place to commune and enjoy good pizza. The asians across the street lost trust in its customers; the gentlemen felt the need to uphold a broom in defense of himself when the men were contemplating attacking him. Once the police officers came with the hoses to initially put out the fire at Sals and ended up resorting to using them on the neighbors, a great sense of despair came over me and I witness what could have been seen as a town headed toward equality, took great steps backward. Yes, there was a great deal of name calling and racial slurs that were made quite often, however, all it took was for one seed to be planted amongst those people for things to have possibly worked out for the better. Mookie was involved in several interracial relationships yet he maintained a significant deal of respect among his peers. If Mookie could accomplish this, so could the rest of the nieghbors.
All in all I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. Spike Lee achieved what he set out to achieve in my personal opinion. I would recommend this film to any and everyone.