The Movie
Growing up in the Tri-State area and watching the news as much as I did, I'm well aware of the racial tensions so artfully depicted in one of auteur Spike Lee's most accomplished films, Do the Right Thing. The title refers to some simple enough life advice, but knowing what to do, when to do it, and having the courage to take that step are the real tricks.
Set in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn on the hottest day of the year, tempers are running shorter than usual among residents, local businessmen and the police, on a slow build to a very sudden, very violent climax. My one issue with the story is that it appears to be making a very important statement, and yet the conclusion is fraught with ambiguity, right down to the late addition of opposing quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.
The Picture
The 1.85:1 high-definition master is a little grainy and surprisingly dirty in places, although forgivably so on both counts for a 20-year-old movie. The bold use of color meanwhile goes beyond most other movies then or now, combining with striking camera angles to make this truly a work of art. Little wafts of smoke and steam show up well in HD, although backgrounds are frequently noisy, and dark or hazy scenes can take on a particularly distracting quality. This is a beautiful-looking movie; I just think that a bit more actual restoration could have helped it realize its full potential on Blu-ray.
The Sound
This film beats with a strong musical pulse, be it the popular tunes in a variety of genres (most notably Public Enemy's undeniably stirring "Fight the Power") or Bill Lee's original score featuring Branford Marsalis, and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix/master is an ideal vessel. Sonically, man of few words Radio Raheem is one of the most compelling characters, his pride in his enormous portable stereo leading to an awesome battle of the boom boxes (with surround and plenty of bass) between him and some local wannabes. It also plays an important part in the film's explosive finale. Throughout the film, there is also a credible three-dimensional quality to incidental effects.
The Extras
This first-ever Blu-ray edition offers an outstanding array of bonuses both new and archived, some of the material culled from the 2001 Criterion Collection two-disc DVD. Up first is a newly recorded 20th-anniversary commentary by writer/director/producer/star Spike Lee, who also joins in another, earlier track with director of photography Ernest Dickerson, production designer Wynn Thomas and co-star Joie Lee. Lee's "Do the Right Thing: 20 Years Later" (36 minutes, in HD) is comprised of lots of on-camera interviews, in contrast to the rougher "Behind the Scenes" (58 minutes, SD), extensive preproduction footage, rehearsals and more shot by Lee and his brother, here with a new introduction. The eleven deleted and extended scenes total 14 minutes, presented in high-definition. St. Claire Bourne's "Making Do the Right Thing" (SD, 62 minutes including new intro) is exceptional, telling a story deeper than the usual movie "making of." "Back to Bed-Stuy" joins Spike on a return trip to the actual location (five minutes, SD), and we're given essentially a nine-and-a-half-minute autobiographical monologue by "Editor Barry Brown."
"The Riot Sequence" interactive storyboards launch with a one-and-a-half-minute Lee intro, in SD, wherein he explains how rarely he relies upon storyboards versus his peers, making these all the more interesting. During the "Cannes, 1989" international press conference (42 minutes, SD), Lee comes off as much more of an angry young man compared to the artist seen reflecting upon his work in the modern day. Seeing him now so at peace with himself and his work makes Do the Right Thing all the more accessible, frankly. The disc also offers BD-Live connectivity.
Final Thoughts
All these years down the road, the movie has taken on an almost epic quality: We live in a nation with an African-American president, and I'm tempted to say that the open inter-racial hostility and violence depicted in Do the Right Thing is certainly rarer today than it was in 1989. All the more reason to check out this film, again or for the first time, and there's never been a more satisfying way to do so than this Blu-ray.
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