Scarlet Masque Theatre Journal New Beginnings and Fond Farewells Vol. 1 | Page 66

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Strom Thurmond a “card-carrying member of the Klan [with] a hood in the closet” (Bailey) and,
perhaps most damaging to his reputation, Lee retweeted the incorrect home address of George
Zimmerman’s parents following the death of Trayvon Martin (@SpikeLee).
Even though Lee frequently walks back his more inflammatory statements (he tweeted
an apology for the inaccurate retweet regarding Zimmerman, and told ​ The Playlist ​ in an
interview that he “wasn’t condemning Hollywood” when it came to ​ 25 th
​ Hour ​ ), his remarks still
leave blemishes on his reputation. There is something about impulsive behavior that seems
more genuine. So, when someone as passionate as Lee flies off the handle and consistently
must apologize for his impulses, it is reasonable to posit that he does, in fact, mean some of the
more divisive things he has said. And when a movie critic—particularly a white male movie critic
in the 1980s—sees a Spike Lee film like ​ Do the Right Thing ​ , he might be primed already to see
the representations of his demographic as a testimony that everyone in that demographic
thinks and behaves as these characters do. The assumptions critics make about Spike Lee, then,
seep into their interpretations his films. The following analysis of such critiques and the film ​ Do
the Right Thing ​ aims to expose the oversimplification wrought by
Do the Right Thing
Do the Right Thing ​ is an incredibly nuanced story about one block in the
Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood (known commonly as “Bed-Stuy”) of Brooklyn, New York, set
during the hottest day of summer. The narrative primarily follows Mookie, a delivery boy for
“Sal’s Famous Pizzaria (​ sic ​ )” owned by the Italian-American Sal himself. Sal also has working for
him his two sons, Pino and Vito. Although Vito is sympathetic to Mookie, Pino is abrasive to