Critique of Do the Right Thing

Critique of Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing is a narrative film detailing the happenings in a culturally diverse neighborhood in the course of one day. The movie opens with a girl dancing. Her outfit changes from her normal clothes to boxing clothes with boxing gloves. She dances as if she is boxing. I must admit that as I watched that I wondered what that was supposed to be about. The DJ also talks about how hot it will be that day and that the word for the day is “black.” I think these were previews as to the tensions that were to come later in the movie.
It seems to me that the movie is about conflicts amongst all the residents of the neighborhood. Mookie seems to be the main character. He is shown sitting on the side of his sister’s bed counting his money. He wakes his sister who goes off on him for waking her up on the one day she has to sleep late. She tells him to go to work to earn money so he can support his son and get out of her house. He...