Editing Do the Right Thing (section)

==Production==
===Development===
Writer, director, and actor [[Spike Lee]] conceived the idea for ''Do the Right Thing'' after discussing a [[Howard Beach racial attack|1986 incident at Howard Beach, Queens]], with actor [[Robert De Niro]]. This incident involved an attack on African-American men in a predominantly Italian-American neighborhood, resulting in one victim being struck by a car and killed.<ref name="AFI">{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/67050-DO-THE-RIGHT-THING|title=''Do the Right Thing''|website=[[American Film Institute]]|access-date=January 15, 2024}}</ref> Lee was also influenced by the ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' episode "Shopping for Death," in which the main characters discuss their theory that hot weather increases violent tendencies, and the [[killing of Eleanor Bumpurs]] by police.<ref name="ew">{{cite magazine|last1=Staskiewicz|first1=Keith|title=Do the Right Thing: 1989|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|issue=1282/1283|date=October 25, 2013|page=42}}</ref> He wrote the screenplay in two weeks.<ref>{{cite magazine |url= https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/fight-the-power-spike-lee-on-do-the-right-thing-20140620 |title= Fight the Power: Spike Lee on 'Do the Right Thing' |magazine= [[Rolling Stone]] |author= Gavin Edwards |date= 20 June 2014 |access-date= 29 April 2015 |archive-date= August 22, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170822222636/http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/fight-the-power-spike-lee-on-do-the-right-thing-20140620 |url-status= live }}</ref>

The original script of ''Do the Right Thing'' ended with a stronger reconciliation between Mookie and Sal than Lee used in the film.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/d/do-the-right-thing-script.html |title='Do the Right Thing' Script (Archived) |publisher=Script-O-Rama |date=28 April 2007 |access-date=29 April 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428033003/http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/d/do-the-right-thing-script.html |archive-date=April 28, 2007 }}</ref> In this version, Sal's comments to Mookie are similar to Da Mayor's earlier comments in the film and hint at some common ground and perhaps Sal's understanding of why Mookie tried to destroy his restaurant. Lee has not explicitly explained why he changed the ending but his contemporaneous notes compiled in the film's companion book indicate [[Lisa Jones]] expressed Sal's reaction as "too nice" as originally written.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WyMoc4YZKl8C&q=%22monty+and+lisa+jones%22&pg=PA72 |title=Lee, Spike; Jones, Lisa. ''Do The Right Thing: A Spike Lee Joint'', p. 71 |isbn=9780671682651 |access-date=August 24, 2020|last1=Lee |first1=Spike |last2=Jones |first2=Lisa |year=1989 |publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>

===Casting===
Initially considering De Niro for the role of "Sal," Lee eventually cast [[Danny Aiello]] at De Niro's suggestion.<ref name="AFI" /> Aiello's son Rick played Gary Long, the police officer who kills Radio Raheem. [[Roger Guenveur Smith]], who was pestering Lee for a role in the film, created the character of Smiley, who was not in the original script.<ref>Do The Right Thing DVD Audio Commentary</ref> Four of the cast members were stand-up comedians: [[Martin Lawrence]], [[Steve Park (comedian)|Steve Park]], [[Steve White (actor)|Steve White]] and [[Robin Harris (comedian)|Robin Harris]]. [[Samuel L. Jackson]] was chosen for the role of Mister Señor Love Daddy. Jackson later revealed that he spent much of his time on set sleeping as he has no scenes outside.<ref name="ew" /> Lee originally wanted [[Bill Nunn]] to play the role of Mister Señor Love Daddy but later recast him as Radio Raheem. The acting couple Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, who were friends of Lee's father [[Bill Lee (musician)|Bill]], were cast as Da Mayor and Mother Sister.<ref name=ew/> Perez was cast as Mookie's love interest Tina after Lee saw her dancing at a Los Angeles dance club. Perez decided to take the part because her sister lived four blocks from the set. She had never been in a film before and became upset during the filming of Radio Raheem's death scene.<ref name=ew/>

===Filming===
Principal photography commenced on July 18, 1988, on a single block in [[Brooklyn, New York]]. The film crew transformed the dilapidated Stuyvesant Avenue, between Quincy Street and Lexington Avenue in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood, creating new structures such as the Korean grocery store, a functional pizza parlor representing Sal's Famous Pizzeria, and a radio station replacing a burnt-out building. Some characters' residences were set in a former crack house shut down by the production, and the [[brownstone]] serving as the home of the only white resident, "Clifton," was a vacant building before filming. Lee organized a block party before principal photography to foster a positive relationship between the neighborhood residents and the filmmakers. Production designer Wynn Thomas altered the street's color scheme, using a great deal of red and orange paint to convey the sense of a heatwave. During filming, the neighborhood's [[crack cocaine|crack]] dealers threatened the film crew for disturbing their business, leading Lee to hire [[Fruit of Islam]] members to provide security.<ref name=ew/> Filming wrapped on September 14, 1988, with a budget of $6.2 million.<ref name="AFI" />

During the final confrontation between Aiello's "Sal" and Giancarlo Esposito's character, "Buggin Out," Lee allowed the actors to improvise racist remarks. Esposito, who was of half-Italian and half-African-American descent, found the scene cathartic.<ref name="AFI" />

===Radio Raheem===
[[File:Radio Raheem's Boombox.jpg|thumb|Radio Raheem's boombox as seen in "Do the Right Thing".  Image courtesy of Smithsonian  [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Boombox carried by Radio Raheem in the film Do the Right Thing |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2014.270.2 |access-date=2024-08-31 |website=National Museum of African American History and Culture |language=en}}</ref>]]

The character of Radio Raheem (Nunn) was the subject of much analysis.<ref name="WP">{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/09/26/what-inspired-do-the-right-thing-character-radio-raheem-and-why-hes-still-relevant-today/?noredirect=on|title=What inspired 'Do the Right Thing' character Radio Raheem, and why he's still relevant today|last=Izadi|first=Elahi|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=20 January 2019}}</ref> In the film, Raheem recites a [[soliloquy]] on love and hate, an ode to a similar monologue delivered by [[Robert Mitchum]] in ''[[The Night of the Hunter (film)|The Night of the Hunter]]'' (1955).<ref>{{cite web|last=Beggs|first=Scott|title=10 Facts About Do the Right Thing|url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/554245/facts-about-do-the-right-thing-spike-lee|website=[[Mental Floss]]|date=July 21, 2020|access-date=February 26, 2024}}</ref> In this scene, he is wearing brass knuckle rings that say "hate" on his left hand and "love" on his right. Lee shoots this scene by having the camera replace the position of Mookie, opposite Raheem. Thus, Raheem breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the camera and the audience. This deliberate cinematography frames Raheem's monologue as a moment of sincerity and importance, resulting in the effect of Raheem commenting on black history and the struggle against racism in the real world, on the other side of the camera.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Palis |first1=Eleni |title=The Economics and Politics of Auteurism: Spike Lee and Do The Right Thing |journal=Cinema Journal |date=Winter 2018 |volume=2 |issue=57 |page=18}}</ref> Raheem poetically articulates the allure of both love and hate and the constant fluctuation that occurs between these two opposing forces. His monologue can be seen to reveal that the solution to such a nuanced historical issue as racism lies in the combined effort and fluctuation of both forces. In ''The Night of the Hunter'', a serial killer masking as a preacher (Mitchum) speaks of love and hate as an internal struggle within oneself. Raheem's performance of the same topic, however, is portrayed as an external struggle against the outside world.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Palis |first1=Eleni |title=The Economics and Politics of Auteurism: Spike Lee and Do The Right Thing |journal=Cinema Journal |date=Winter 2018 |volume=2 |issue=57 |page=20}}</ref>

Critic Ted Kulczycky comments on Spike Lee's use of direct address in Radio Raheem's soliloquy on love and hate as a "break from realism", thus creating an "atypical effect". Kulczycky cites the influence of [[Jean-Luc Godard]]'s film ''[[Weekend (1967 film)|Weekend]]''. Kulczycky describes Raheem's direct address as having the dual effect of reminding viewers of the constructed nature of the film, but also "fueling their involvement".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kulczycky|first=Ted|date=May 1996|title=By Any Means Necessary: Conflict and Its Resolution in Do the Right Thing|url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-30342053/by-any-means-necessary-conflict-and-its-resolution|journal=CineAction|volume=40}}</ref> The boombox prop used in the film is on display in the ''A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond'' exhibit at the [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Boombox carried by Radio Raheem in the film Do the Right Thing |url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2014.270.2 |access-date=2024-08-31 |website=National Museum of African American History and Culture |language=en}}</ref>