Source: Do the Right Thing review – Spike Lee’s towering, timeless tour de force | Movies | The Guardian
The first time I saw Do the Right Thing, when it was over, I didn’t speak for a while. I was trying to take it all in. It was a knockout – almost like being in a boxing ring. Sometimes it was brutal, and occasionally beautiful; an attack, done with style, anger, and compassion. In terms of giving a snapshot of a New York community, the only thing that comes close is those films from the 30s and 40s like Angels with Dirty Faces.
–Steve McQueen, director/writer
Thirty-six years have passed since Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing first scorched cinemas in summer 1989. As of July 2025, its Brooklyn heat, urgent questions, and kinetic color remain intensely relevant. From Oscar debates to TikTok discussions and block parties packed with old-timers and Gen Z, the film endures, not just as a landmark of American cinema but as an annual rite and point of national conversation.
Do the Right Thing anniversary celebrations have become a fixture, each year layering fresh meaning and new voices onto Lee’s signature portrait of Bed-Stuy in crisis.
Where were you the first time you saw it? What stuck with you? Share your stories below.
Why 1989 Matters Today
When Do the Right Thing exploded onto screens in June 1989, Brooklyn and America at large, were charged with racial tension. Lee’s script, famously set on the hottest day of the year, reflected lived realities such as rising housing costs, declining opportunities, and volatile police-community relations. Lee’s film, for many, was less fiction than prophecy.
Source: Do the Right Thing | Rotten Tomatoes
In 2024 and now 2025, the cultural temperature feels uncannily similar, debates over gentrification, policing, and neighborhood identity remain headline issues, especially in New York. The film resonates because it doesn’t try to solve racism in America; it simply insists we stop pretending that struggle is over.
Spike Lee’s Vision and Brooklyn
Lee, at just 32, staked both his career and his credibility on telling an unapologetically localized story. He filmed on Stuyvesant Avenue, rechristened “Do the Right Thing Way”, thereby rooting the film in authentic Brooklyn soil. The cast, Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie Perez, Bill Nunn, among others, would go on to become household names, but here they felt like real neighbors.
Set details mattered: brightly colored walls and costumes (the work of Ruth E. Carter), Dickerson’s saturated cinematography, and real summer heat all helped evoke a visceral, almost claustrophobic sense of place. In interviews throughout, Lee has reflected how the chaos on set (often interrupted by curious onlookers, melting equipment, or surprise heat waves) mirrored and heightened the story’s tension.
The soundtrack, led by Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” throbbed through the air, weaving protest into the film’s very DNA.
Critical Reappraisals:
Do the Right Thing initially polarized mainstream critics. Some politicians and media figures worried the film might spark violence; Lee dismissed these fears as projections by a society unwilling to face its fractures. The Academy’s limited recognition, a Best Original Screenplay nomination, a Best Supporting Actor nod for Danny Aiello, sparked debate about Hollywood’s discomfort with Black auteurs and “dangerous” Black stories. To make up for the oversight, the Academy Film Archive premiered a new 35 mm print of the film that was screened on the 25th anniversary
Decades on, history continues to vindicate Lee’s vision. University courses, streaming retrospectives, and festival tributes frequently cite the film as a turning point for urban storytelling and racial discourse in American media. It now sits atop “best of” lists, enshrined by the Library of Congress, Criterion’s 4K restorations, and global critics.
What’s changed? Today, the movie sparks nuanced debate: not just “Who was right?” But what, exactly, does it mean to ‘do the right thing,’ and what are the costs of every choice? Its ambiguity is a superpower. As one 2024 British Film Institute note observed, “it uses open dialogue and conversation to bring these issues to the surface,” resisting easy answers.
Cultural Ripples:
In 2024, the event livened the very streets where Lee directed, featuring performances, a DJ set by DJ Spinna, pizza giveaways, and behind-the-scenes tales.
Source: Cinematography in DO THE RIGHT THING
The film’s impact amplifies far beyond screenings, echoing in protest chants (“Fight the Power!”), college syllabi, social media commentary, and direct action campaigns against police brutality and displacement. Lee has said, both last year and in 2025 press rounds, that the film’s power lies in forcing a reckoning with the unresolved: “Finding answers to that question ‘what’s the right thing?’ remains a challenge”.
What’s New in 2025:
The Do the Right Thing anniversary tradition has continued to grow in 2025. Last year’s 35th anniversary saw a show-stopping block party, with Spike Lee and DJ Spinna hosting music-filled celebrations on “Do the Right Thing Way”. The commemorations included free pizza slices in partnership with Jordan Brand, exclusive merchandise, and impromptu reunions of original cast members.
Over the years, fans streamed, screened, and discussed the film around the world, including a new wave of in-person retrospectives at major venues such as BFI Southbank. Universal announced that Do the Right Thing is getting a brand new home release on 4K, giving the iconic film the best visual and audio options possible.
Meanwhile, Spike Lee is back in the spotlight, promoting his 24th feature, an Apple TV+ collaboration with Denzel Washington. Lee’s reunion project has prompted a fresh round of media attention and interviews, with the director reflecting on the “Brooklyn fight” and why Do the Right Thing still shapes his craft.
Calls to Action
Now, we want to hear from you:
What’s your most vivid Do the Right Thing memory? Did you see it in a theater, at home, or at a block party?
Anand Subramanian is a freelance photographer and content writer based out of Tamil Nadu, India. Having a background in Engineering always made him curious about life on the other side of the spectrum. He leapt forward towards the Photography life and never looked back. Specializing in Documentary and Portrait photography gave him an up-close and personal view into the complexities of human beings and those experiences helped him branch out from visual to words. Today he is mentoring passionate photographers and writing about the different dimensions of the art world.
