In case you haven't heard, it's a Spike Lee summer. Ever since his beloved New York Knicks broke a 53-year drought to win this year's NBA Championships, the legendary filmmaker has been joyfully hitting the streets of New York in celebration with, well, everybody. The whole spectacle has looked like a scene straight out of one of Lee's NYC-set flicks, none more iconic or summery than "Do the Right Thing."
'Do the Right Thing' details
- Writer/director: Spike Lee
- Starring: Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturro, Rosie Perez, and Bill Nunn
- Runtime: 2 hours (120 minutes)
- Where to watch: Prime Video
Taking place over the course of a single day in Brooklyn — the most sweltering day of the year, to be exact — the 1989 indie comedy encompasses summer, all relentless heat, rising tensions and residential liveliness.
And if all of that post-win, Spike-approved good energy isn't enough of an impetus to rewatch the cinematic classic, then the fact that "Do the Right Thing" is set to leave Prime Video at the end of the month should be reason enough. Here's why you should hang out with Mookie, Da Mayor, Mother Sister, Radio Raheem and the rest of the Stuyvesant Avenue crew before they depart the streaming service on June 30.
What is 'Do the Right Thing' about?
Written, directed and produced by Spike Lee, the events of "Do the Right Thing" play out across a single summer day in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant area, following Lee's character Mookie as he navigates his relationships with his Black-American neighbors (played by Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Bill Nunn and Roger Guenveur Smith, among others) and the Italian-American owners of the local pizzeria at which he works. (Danny Aiello, John Turturro and Richard Edson make up the latter dough-punching contingent.)
As the temperatures continue to ratchet up, the simmering racial tensions between those two groups boil over after Mookie's buddy Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) demands that the pizzeria display prominent Black public figures on its "Wall of Fame," a denied request that leads to a neighborhood boycott.
Why I recommend you stream 'Do the Right Thing' on Prime Video
Spike Lee had made ambitious and energetic films prior to "Do the Right Thing" — including "She's Gotta Have It" and "School Daze" — but his 1989 ode to New York summer remains arguably his most seminal work all these decades later, one pulsing with infectious vibrancy, social conflict, biting humor, raw emotion and unshakeable heat.
The film earned two Academy Award nominations, one for Lee's screenplay as well as for actor Danny Aiello's supporting performance) and has since been ranked one of the greatest films of all time by Sight and Sound's 2022 survey of film critics, curators, archivists and more.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92%, with its critics' consensus praising: "Smart, vibrant and urgent without being didactic, 'Do the Right Thing' is one of Spike Lee's most fully realized efforts – and one of the most important films of the 1980s." So do the right thing and give this Spike Lee masterpiece a rewatch before it's gone.
Stream "Do the Right Thing" on Prime Video now
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