Tuesday, July 7, 2009

96. DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)

TOP 100 FILMS OF ALL TIME - DO THE RIGHT THING


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video
Do The Right Thing is number 96 of the Top 100 Films of All Time. Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece--maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings.

Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing." Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister SeƱor Love Daddy. A rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure, and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson

Product Details

  • Actors: Danny Aiello, Rick Aiello, Paul Benjamin, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee
  • Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
  • Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rating: R (Restricted)
  • Studio: Universal Studios
  • DVD Release Date: July 22, 1998
  • Run Time: 120 minutes