Do The Right Thing

Spike Lee’s 1989 masterpiece. One of the best films in the history of cinema. Yeah, you heard me. I defy you to cite an example of a more powerful film. The story and the cinematography (not to mention the actors’ performances) with Lee’s vision deliver a 1-2 knockout to the gut then to the head that leaves the viewer reeling. Nobody’s right in this film. Nobody’s wrong either. Everybody’s a villian and a hero. We all have our shining moments sometimes. And it all still rings frightfully true today.

We’ve got five great films here, and they’re great for one reason: because they tell the truth. But there is one film missing from this list, that deserves to be on it, because ironically, it might tell the biggest truth of all, and that’s Do the Right Thing.

—Kim Basinger, from her presentation of Best Picture nominees at the 1990 Academy Awards

I leave you with the closing quotes…

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by destroying itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

—Martin Luther King, Jr

I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn’t mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence."

—Malcolm X

Your call. Do the right thing.