Do the Right Thing is a 1989 motion picture produced, written, directed and starred in by Spike Lee and released by Universal Pictures. The film tells a tale of bigotry and racial conflict in a multi-ethnic community in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on the hottest day of the year. It stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, and John Turturro. Do the Right Thing marks the feature film debuts of both Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. Samuel L. Jackson plays DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy, an alternative voice of the author to Spike Lee's character.
In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. A Criterion Collection DVD of Do the Right Thing has been released: it is no. 97 in the Criterion series. In 2007, the American Film Institute listed the film as the 96th greatest American Movie in Film History.
The song "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy is a recurring aural motif in the film, as blasted from a huge ghetto blaster toted by Radio Raheem (Nunn). It appears 15 times in the film.
Do the Right Thing remains one of the few films to retain a 100% "Fresh" rating on the critics' site Rotten Tomatoes.
It's the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, and tensions are growing there, with the only local businesses being a Korean grocery and Sal's Pizzeria. Mookie, Sal's delivery boy, manages to always be at the center of the action. Written by Jon Reeves
