Don't Make a Scene: Do the Right Thing

The Story: In the hub-bub, swelter and melee of Do the Right Thing, random acts of kindness are jumbled up with the constant beat-down as ever-present as the 80hz thump from a boom-box. In Spike Lee's version of "Our Town: Bed-Stuy" tossed with mixed (and salted) "Peanuts,"* a kind word is the healthy spice in a stew of curses, and a kindness is looked on with suspicion and rarely reciprocated.

Except here.

In the cool, cool, cool of the evening (which will soon get much hotter) two people in their own twilights put aside their differences—he's a man, she's a woman; he's a drunk; she's a lady—and acknowledge some worth. But, it's reserved and Lee keeps the barriers between them intact by never putting them in the same frame. From our vantage point, they are talking AT each other (and to us), but never WITH each other.

And like everything Mr. Lee does, it's theatrical, buoyant, direct, to the point and often in your face. But sweet, and lovely to look at (Ernest Dickerson's manufactured roseate days and velvet nights are the stuff of M-G-M technicolor). I love the street-light that pops on and bathes Da Mayor's face with a (though a couple seconds late) orange glow when Mother Sister gives him his due. And as played by one of theater's great couples—Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, great artists and great activists—the two actors bring their own history to bear on the proceedings

Davis has moved on. Ruby Dee joined him on June 11, 2014 and she was acting and acting greatly right up to the end (she was nominated for an Academy Award for her impassioned turn in American Gangster), and her every appearance in a film is An Event.

As it always was.

"I guess I should be a hero more often." Mm-hmm, that's right. So, should we all. At least as much as these two people have been in their lives. 

The Set-Up: The hottest day of the year, and that has brought tempers to a boil in the Bed-stuy neighborhood in Brooklyn (between Flushing and Park Place and Ralph). But it's also caused things to melt, like the chill Mother Sister (Ruby Dee) put up between between Da Mayor (Ossie Davis) and herself. Mother Sister is a woman to herself and Da Mayor only holds court over a bottle. But today, he has kept a child from being run over in the street, and didn't get much gratitude for it. Except here. Except now.

Action!

EXT: MOTHER SISTER'S STOOP--NIGHT
Da Mayor is walking by Mother Sister in her window when she calls him.
CLOSE--MOTHER SISTER
MOTHER SISTER Mister Mayor, I saw what you did.
ANGLE--DA MAYOR
Da Mayor stops and looks at her. A smile comes to his face; after eighteen years has he finally broken down her defenses?
CLOSE--MOTHER SISTER
MOTHER SISTER That was a foolish act,
MOTHER SISTER ...but it was brave.
MOTHER SISTER That chile owes you his life.
CLOSE--DA MAYOR
DA MAYOR I wasn't trying to be a hero. I saw what was about to happen and I reacted, didn't even think. If I did, I might not have done it in second thought.
DA MAYOR Da Mayor is an old man, haven't run that fast in years.
DA MAYOR I went from first to home on a bunt single, scored the winning run,
DA MAYOR the bottom of the ninth, two out, August 1, 1939, Snow Hill, Alabama. (he is warming up now)
DA MAYOR Ole Mudcat Bunchabones was the pitcher now—he hated my gutsDA MAYOR ...he ran back, come down offa that mound and I took off...
DA MAYOR ..like white lightning out a black snake's ass.
DA MAYOR Maybe I should be a hero more often.
CLOSE--MOTHER SISTER
MOTHER SISTER Maybe you shouldn't. Don't get happy. This changes nothing between you and me. You did a good thing and Mother Sister wanted to thank you for it.
ANGLE--STOOP
DA MAYOR I wanna thank you.
MOTHER SISTER You're welcome.
Da Mayor tips his hat.
Do the Right Thing

Words by Spike Lee

Pictures by Ernest R. Dickerson and Spike Lee

Do the Right Thing is available on DVD through the Criterion Collection and Universal Home Entertainment.