Film Screening:

Do the Right Thing 

(Spike Lee, 1989, 120 min, USA, in English, Color, Blu-Ray) 

-- In conjunction with the exhibition, Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush, at the Nasher Museum of Art!
 

Set in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, Spike Lee's thought-provoking and powerful comedy/drama chronicles the events that lead up to a race riot between the residents.

The action takes place on the hottest day of the year and centers around a pizza parlor owned by Italian-American Sal. It's a popular hangout for the neighborhood youth. The events leading up to the confrontation are presented episodically and center around, Sal (Danny Aiello), his aimless employee Mookie (Spike Lee) and his pal, the radical Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito), who is irritated that Sal's "Wall of Fame" (containing only pictures of famous Italian-Americans) contains no African-American faces and therefore tries unsuccessfully to get the neighborhood blacks, including Mookie, to boycott the restaurant. Radio Raheem, with his blaring boom box permanently affixed to his shoulder, inadvertently becomes the catalyst for violence. As the stories unfold and many colorful satellite characters and their lives are introduced, the temperature rises. With the constant bickering between Mookie and the other employees, the harassment of Buggin Out, and other events, Sal is pushed to the breaking point and makes a fateful decision. Already stressed out and overheated, Sal snaps at closing time when Radio Raheem show up and demands service at the last minute. Violence and tragedy ensue.

-- Oscar Nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen at Academy Awards (1990)!  

"In the final analysis, the best thing one can say for Lee is that he takes risks, like all true artists. For unlike most of today's film makers, he's not afraid to really challenge a movie audience to do some serious thinking. " - Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News

"This might sound like a depressing story, but the level of performance and filmmaking is so high that Do the Right Thing becomes a most entertaining warning. "- Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune

"Do the Right Thing is Lee's most complex, heartfelt and disturbing film to date, a drama about racism that is more shockingly outspoken than any I've seen since David Mamet's great, and neglected, Edmond." -- Stuart Klawans, The Nation 

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Sponsors: Nasher Museum of Art and the Program in Arts of the Moving Image (AMI).