Do the Right ThingThe first word that comes to mind when thinking of Do the Right Thing is HOT. Everything about this movie was hot, from the weather to the themes and issues it raised. It's also interesting to watch this film while living with a heatwave in New York. There is a lot of room for debate as to whether or not anyone did the right thing in this storyline, in my opinion most of the characters did the wrong thing. What I'm interested in is thinking about what Spike Lee considered the right and wrong thing to do in this scenario. It's not just his words as an actor playing a role, he also wrote, directed and produced the vehicle for those words and actions to come to life. So it's hard to separate Spike from Mookie, and I don't think Spike would even want us to do that. I also wonder about certain changes to the script and film, and their effect on the overall message of the film. The only thing you're absolutely sure of about this scenario, which doesn't leave much room for interpretation, is that it's hot in Brooklyn. when this story takes place. It was clearly a heat wave, and that heat wave spoke volumes about the current racial climate in the city. A steamy town added to the tension felt by the characters, but Spike did a good job of letting the tension build throughout this piece. Even at the end of the film, when Sal's madness erupts into a riot scene, you have to be surprised to see this happen. It's like the characters are living with the oppressive heat of summer, and you just know that heat is a part of life that you have to live with. For most of the film, none of the characters shied away from the subject of race, either. This almost made the audience accept that these characters... middle of paper ... led to his involvement in the events at the end. It was tragic to see him killed, but I didn't see the loving character that the community saw. I feel like this theme of love and hate hasn't been covered enough. I think this was supposed to be a story about Love losing to Hate, but I don't think Love was fairly represented here. It was interesting to see the community at first flatly deny the boycott of Sal's by talking about how they grew up on Sal's food, and to see how, over the course of one evening, they were chanting to burn it. It was a really compelling film, and to some extent it's hard to distance yourself from it. I'm a white guy watching it, so it's harder for me to see it from Spike's point of view, but after thinking about the movie for about a week, it makes a lot of great points. I just hope violence isn't the right conclusion.