97 Do the Right Thing

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
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TheKieslowskiHaze
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:37 am

Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#176 Post by TheKieslowskiHaze » Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:39 pm

I can't imagine I'm the only one thinking about this movie a lot lately. Wrote a blog thing about it. Full text below, though I do appreciate those giving the site hits (it's fun!).

Spike Lee has said that, since Do the Right Thing’s release in 1989, countless viewers have asked him if Mookie did the titular “right thing” by throwing a garbage can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria. But, Spike notably adds, a black person has never asked him that question. White peoples’ obsession with that moment belies a disproportionate preoccupation with how black people respond to their oppression, and an avoidance of the more difficult, guilt-ridden discussions about the oppression itself. Maybe we white viewers can reframe how we interpret the meaning of the movie’s title. Maybe it’s a challenge to us, a challenge to do the right thing by not choking black boys with nightsticks, to do the right thing by not buying brownstones in black neighborhoods, to do the right thing by not insisting black kids get arrested for harmless pranks, to do the right thing by calling family members out on their blatantly racist behavior, to do the right thing by seeing black people as fully human and not merely consumers of our pizza, to do the right thing by realizing—in spite of the movie’s nuanced and morally complex characters, and in spite of its vibrancy and joy—that undergirding all of it is a systemically racist system that hurts black people. And then repeal Voter I.D. laws. And defund the police. And, maybe while we’re at it, we can do the right thing by putting “some black people on that motherf*cking Wall of Fame!”

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domino harvey
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#177 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:56 pm

TheKieslowskiHaze wrote:
Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:39 pm
Spike Lee has said that, since Do the Right Thing’s release in 1989, countless viewers have asked him if Mookie did the titular “right thing” by throwing a garbage can through the window of Sal’s Pizzeria. But, Spike notably adds, a black person has never asked him that question. White peoples’ obsession with that moment belies a disproportionate preoccupation with how black people respond to their oppression, and an avoidance of the more difficult, guilt-ridden discussions about the oppression itself. Maybe we white viewers can reframe how we interpret the meaning of the movie’s title.
This is oft repeated and quoted, but inaccurate. Here is a working version of the now dead link to the LA Times' oral history, wherein we see Bill Nunn, who portrayed Radio Raheem, express his thoughts counter to Lee's claim

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senseabove
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#178 Post by senseabove » Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:09 pm

Also useful to point out that Lee doesn't say no people of color have asked him if Mookie did the right thing. He says "no person of color has ever asked me why Mookie threw the can through the window." That's a very big difference.

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domino harvey
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#179 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:19 pm

Nunn's quote still refutes Lee's. The oral history has a few instances of Lee saying something and someone else saying the contrary

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TheKieslowskiHaze
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#180 Post by TheKieslowskiHaze » Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:23 pm

Thanks. it's in a special feature in the blu-ray; I referred to it from memory. He says something along those lines. I'll re-look and go back and fix it.

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bottled spider
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:59 am

Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#181 Post by bottled spider » Sun Jun 07, 2020 5:52 pm

That's a great link. Lots to chew on.

(Off tangent, in the article they talk about the bizarre (adorable? racist?) concerns the movie could spark riots, and on the sidebar there's a link to a news article "81 U.S. healthcare workers found to have H1N1 virus" -- those were the days!)

[cross-posted]

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TheKieslowskiHaze
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#182 Post by TheKieslowskiHaze » Sun Jun 07, 2020 7:37 pm

Here is what Spike says on the Criterion blu-ray special feature:

"People all over the world still come up to me and ask me, 'Did Mookie do the right thing?' I'm going to be honest, not one person of color has ever asked me that question."

Whether he is mistaken or lying, I do not know. But my original assessment of what he said was accurate.

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senseabove
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#183 Post by senseabove » Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:07 pm

Interesting! I mean, the first statement—"no PoC has ever asked me why"—is the kind of technically narrow statement someone makes with the clear intention that it be generalized, and it's one I could see Lee making, seeing the reaction it gets, and elaborating as he reuses it in interviews. He's one-upping his own version—the fish was this big, but the twentieth time the story's told, it's THIS big. I'd be curious to see the evolution of the claim over the years of interviews about the movie...

bluesforyou
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#184 Post by bluesforyou » Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:22 pm

https://www.renaud-bray.com/movies_prod ... 2c61214226

Canadian retailer Renaud-Bray has listed a 4K UHD of this coming from Universal in February 2021. The list of Criterions with competing UHDs keeps getting longer.

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TheKieslowskiHaze
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#185 Post by TheKieslowskiHaze » Wed Feb 10, 2021 5:42 pm

Blu-ray.com review of the 4K release.

The screenshots are from a 1080p blu-ray; I assume the same as the 2009 blu-ray. That release was far too naturalistic looking, not as warm and intense as Dickerson and Lee intended.

They have screenshots of the new 4K transfer, so I do not know if this 4K release has a color scheme similar to the warmer 2019 Criterion release. But these lines from the review give me hope that it looks like the Criterion:
The film's contrast and color temperature are deliberately pushed hard and the HDR color grading only reinforces the dominance of warm yellows, hot oranges, and intense reds. Interiors are often exceedingly warm yet far more naturally so compared to the Blu-ray, which is comparatively lifeless. Tones across the board reflect the vital structural grading and HDR surely only amplifies the effect, though without fundamentally altering the movie's feel of any given tone's essential presentation. But there are major adds to color depth and brilliance. Blue skies, red brick walks, and all variety of flesh tones enjoy critical color adjustments that bring more life, authenticity, and visual reinforcement to the story. Black levels are terrific and even whites are excellent, though often rendered less than intense by effect in order to accentuate the larger color scheme; Mookie's white Jackie Robinson jersey is a great example.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#186 Post by EddieLarkin » Wed Feb 10, 2021 5:46 pm

It's the same source as the Criterion, so the colour scheme is basically the same, but with the greater nuance the format allows. As far as I know, the grading was originally done in HDR and the Criterion was simply a down conversion of that (as basically everything is these days UHD v Blu), meaning this version will be closest to what Dickerson approved.


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EddieLarkin
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#188 Post by EddieLarkin » Wed Feb 10, 2021 5:58 pm

Just of course bear in mind those caps are SDR conversions so are not completely representative of the colours on the actual disc.

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TheKieslowskiHaze
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Re: 97 Do the Right Thing

#189 Post by TheKieslowskiHaze » Wed Feb 10, 2021 6:00 pm

Thanks! Doesn't look quite as warm as the Criterion release (look at the sky in the first cap), but, as EddieLarkin said, it might look different on a 4K TV.

Still the caps make it clear that the 2009 blu-ray color scheme is, thankfully, a thing of the past.

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